technology & art
analog • digital •
analog • digital •
Analog / Digital is an important duality infusing all areas of my life with a certain hybrid way of being — personal, creative, professional — it all runs together. I have a very early memory of drawing a cat in MacPaint on my dad’s Macintosh 512k in 1984. I’m pretty sure my mom still has a printout of it. Art and technology just go together.
Being raised by two programmers, technology is kinda in my DNA. I grew up in the dawn of the personal computer revolution and saw the internet emerge. So I use digital technology with a sense of respect and purpose because it wasn’t always there. I’ve always used a blend of analog and digital tools and workflows in everything that I do - each has its use in supporting the creative process. For example, I’ve always kept an analog sketchbook since I was little (never adopted the iPad as a replacement for hand-drawing) … but I use AI image generation (Midjourney) for visual brainstorming and expressing things that are hard to convey otherwise.
I like how Ken Wilber defines technology simply as a “productive force” .
These are the primary design & organizational tools in my digital ecosystem right now.
Prusa i3 MK3S+ & PrusaSlicer
Rhino 8 + Grasshopper
Soulver
Freeform
Keynote
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop
Why Rhino? Have you tried other 3d modeling programs?
Rhino has a ton of capability for nurbs and mesh modeling, plus parametric design via Grasshopper. I use Archicad primarily in architecture, but that’s BIM and not ideal for these sculptures. Since we use Rhino in architecture too, it makes sense for me to keep using it in my own work and apply the skillset in two places. I’m looking for precision, ease of 3D printing, robust editing tools, workflow. I used Shapr3D on iPad until I got a Rhino license. I’ve tinkered with Blender and Plasticity3D only a little. There are lots of others of course.
Do you model everything from scratch?
I take advantage of free and low-cost assets sometimes when it makes sense - icons, stock images, models. I usually end up modifying them though because it’s important that they work 100% with my concept. Here are some sources although there are many out there:
I’ve also started experimenting with AI-generated assets. For 3d models check out Luma Genie, Meshy, Rodin, KREA (text to 3d, image to 3d). For icons and symbols, try Adobe Illustrator’s vector generation.