Over the past year through Arts Council Wales funding was able to work in collaboration with waterjet companies in America. Working in Seattle WA and Cincinnati OH, this work was the precusor to the developement other larger works produced later in the year. Investigating the parameters of how machines might replicate the originality of our own handwriting. In this research looking at programming and cutting we used the diary notes of what was being learnt by operator for the machine to cut. In effect the machine was cutting itself in the guise of my handwriting.
The result was also a reflection to my past career in arts education and how creative practice is evaluated in parallel to other academic methodologies and undergoing constant scrutiny. It questions creativity and whether it is becoming constrained and diminished by constant academic evaluation.
