Transposing a Form, 2019-2023
ceramic 3D print of MMS-2 Enhanced Mars Simulant, bentonite clay, aluminum-based glaze
28 x 8 x 9 3/4 inches, 2019
37 x 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, 2020
13 1/4 x 10 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches, 2o20
5 x 7 x 7 inches, 2020
9 1/2 x 13 1/4 x 10 inches, 2020
10 x 11.5 x 29.5 inches, 2023
Transposing a Form explores interactions through material research in 3D printing with Martian clay made with MMS-2 Mars Soil Simulant created by engineers at NASA, representing materials that are generated through space colonialization. Digital simulation and autonomous technology have a tremendous impact on how future objects are made, including the way we engage with the environment. The forms are exit points for time, land, and technologies that signal future settler colonialism, where the “new materiality” of Mars becomes its own exit strategy. In addition, the emergence of innovations in the field of 3D ceramic printing enables creative work that integrates the traditional languages of ceramics with additive digital processes and technologies with computerized coiling. Coiling is an ancient technique used in Indigenous pottery across Turtle Island to build forms by laying clay coils one upon another taken from the soil. Each piece places a dialog between Earth and Mars, producing a new language of forms. The forms function as anti-vessels or non-containers in that they can not hold anything. They have an open top and bottom—entrance and exit.
Photos: Jenalee Harmon