Judging by the tools he uses - 3-D scanners, computer-controlled milling machines, Silicon Graphics hardware, and 3-D CAD software - Dan Collins could pass for an industrial designer. On the other hand, the types of data he works with - anthropometric, topographical, meteorological, and CAT scan - could lead you to believe he is a sort of high-tech conspiracy theorist tracing elusive symmetries among sets of data.
In fact, Collins is a sculptor and professor of art at Arizona State University. He has sought out increasingly sophisticated technology to facilitate his exploration of new forms. "We are stuck in a silver-gelatin, two-dimensional world of representation," Collins says. His latest work involves scanning himself, then manipulating the resulting 3-D model, distorting it or merging it with other data, and producing a hard copy by machining a block of material with a computer numerical control mill.
ELECTRIC WORD
A Day Without Boiled Angel Is Like a Day Without Sunshine
Plastic Man
The Sound of Concrete Screaming
The Maryland Net: Almost Free, Almost Good
