Janely Making: exploring co-creation and the agency of things

BACKGROUND: Digital artists such as David O'Reilley, Rosa Menkman, Nikita Diakur, and Alan Warburton have noted that in "good" 3D Animation the digital medium is transparent. Accompanying the quest for media transparency in computer graphics is an assumption that 3D software empowers human agents and is somewhat neutral. But no tool is neutral and humans are never the sole agents in creative practice. Like the artists mentioned above, my research explores how the generative potential of 3D animation processes can help us avoid the reductive potential inherent in digital tools. CONTRIBUTION: As part of this ongoing investigation, I recently took part in WORKAROUND, a collaborative performance where I designed an improvised 3D model using Autodesk Maya and other custom tools I developed. These are scripts that change the way the software feels and behaves. Significantly, they automatically record iterations of the emerging model and combine them to make an animation. Engaging in drawing, sculpting and 3D modelling activities in a co-located and collaborative fashion, enabled us to influence the content of each other's work and to reflect on creative opportunities and limitations specific to each medium. Our findings include the observation that, through charcoal drawing, an artist is able to respond to affect (i.e. the mood in the room) in a way that a 3D modeller cannot. Collocated collaborative performance enables identification of differences between analogue and digital media thus enabling the pursuit of creative opportunities emerging from each medium's distinct qualities. SIGNIFICANCE: This work was part of WORKAROUND at RMIT Design Hub, an event curated by Naomi Stead, Kate Rhodes and Fleur Watson. I was invited by acclaimed academic practitioner Pia Ednie-Brown to be part of an emerging movement of women working within an expanded field of architecture and education.