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China's artisans promised to be a great alternative production method for the sculptors, because the CAM technology Smith was using in New Jersey, he explains, “was costing about as much as if I had gone to Italy and paid some carvers to do it. One day these technologies will become cheaper – that's how technology works, but right now they are prohibitive for many sculptors.” Most of us are familiar with CAD (computer-assisted design) but CAM refers to computer-assisted manufacturing where computers running tools actually carve the stone. Dingli Stone Carving Co., Ltd. offered the perfect solution as far as Smith and Beasley were concerned, “they offer a robust pallet of stone, the quality of their work was very high, and the intricacy of what they were achieving in granite was very impressive. I realized I could design sculptures that were more and more complex, pushing granite to the point where most people wouldn't expect it to be able to go.” Smith knew that when he used a machine to carve, that like any machine it has a slight vibration and he would risk breaking some of the finer design details he planned for a piece – a hazard far less likely with hand carving. Of their collaboration with Dingli, Smith notes that he and Bruce Beasley were the first western artists to work with the company.
Then their activities scaled up in a big way, becoming the Digital Stone Project. The sculptors met Carl Bass, the CEO of the world's largest computer-assisted design company Autodesk Inc., and he was just as fired up as they were about the possibilities lurking in the merger of thousands of years of interaction with stone that China's culture offered, with the advanced design and manufacturing technologies of the West. Two more pioneers in digital sculpture, Jon Isherwood and Kenneth Snelson, rounded out the quartet of granite pushers, and Autodesk funded a documentary of the production work in Chongwu and exhibits in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Wenzhou. Digital Stone Exhibition: The Intersection of Art and Technology is a book commemorating their four-city tour and works.
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Now in the permanent collection of China's National Museum of Fine Art: Paradise Bird Burlesque by Robert Michael Smith shown in Chongqing. Following: Moon Shot by Kenneth Snelson shown in Beijing; Fish Out of Water by Jon Isherwood shown in Wenzhou, and Challenge by Bruce Beasley shown in Shanghai. |
Another triumph - they each sold a piece to China National Museum of Fine Art, of which Smith says “that's a first really, for Western sculptors to each sell a piece into the museum's permanent collection from a single exhibition”. The show was intended to go around the world, then the financial crisis hit, and Smith speculates“If we had started the Digital Stone Project even two months later than we did, it would never had happened. Autodesk suffered like everyone else, and even though they are surviving this thing, they are doing it with their shares at half the value, so corporate sponsorship isn't there for now.”
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