Patrick Stefaniak

cloth^3

CLOTH^3 consists of a cloth simulated cube rendered in 3 different ways: crocheted, 3D printed, and rendered on the screen. Each method involves a different configuration of labor between the computer and the artist and affords different modes of interaction, both in touch and sight. The history of computing is deeply intertwined with textiles like the Jaquard loom or early circuits that had to be connected by hand. Baroque art was an intensification of Classical rules- artists and musicians seemed to create freely by performing in these boundaries fluently and with abundance. Today that virtuosic performance is done by the computer running code to fabricate images at many cycles per second, or to carefully extrude a single line of plastic in hundreds of layers to create a small print. A cloth simulation deforms an otherwise rigid 3D geometry into a shape that is reactive to its environment. All of these forms are still cubes, in the sense of topological geometry, and yet, if folded infinitely, they could produce any other shape. The grid is still present, often its inescapable, but it could be folded too.

 

Unity Primitive: Cube
Hand Crocheted Acrylic Yarn – 1x1x1 meter

A few ways of being a cube
PLA and Acrylic – 4ft x 4ft x 4in

CUBEISM 2: Baroque Edition
Videogame – for Touchscreen and Projection or Desktop

Play it here

 

 

 

Patrick Stefaniak was born in Texas in 1993 and grew up in Indiana. He is currently an MFA student in Digital Art + New Media at UC Santa Cruz, earned a BFA in Digital Art from Indiana University in 2015, and has worked in NYC as a Creative Technologist. He works with 3D games, virtual reality, video performance, installation, writing, hole punching, crocheting, and 3D printing to think about rendering, perception, labor, queerness, and fun.

 

Patrick’s Portfolio Website

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