Interrupted Profiles Revisited Through Robotics

My contribution:
My objects’ meandering surfaces and decorations merge into a unified, interdependent and dynamic whole. It's reminiscent of the fractures at the Church of Our Saviour and the ceiling in The Hermitage Hunting Lodge’s dining room. Surfaces and lines continuously move around, yet you find yourself stopping to immerse in a detail, which then leads the attention to yet another detail. In this way, the gaze oscillates between the whole and the part.
My objects are inspired by the concept of interrupted profiles, so-called ‘forkrøpninger’ in Danish. Yet, they are not merely interrupted profiles; they appear alive independently, twisting and moving detached from their architectural origins. Adorned with intersecting lines or stars, the shapes and decorations harmonize like the sound of distinct musical instruments complementing one another.
Materiality varies across these objects. Some are raw and unglazed, shaped in red-fired clay that evokes medieval Danish monk bricks, grounding the forms in tradition while channeling Baroque elegance. Others are glazed in decadent, pearlescent hues that echo the Baroque’s opulent, mirrored surfaces, evoking ethereal and dreamlike associations.
My objects merge traditional craftsmanship with digital technology. Using robotic wire-cutting, hand movements are transformed into physical forms. Kinect technology captures the 3D movements of my hands, recording their speed and direction. Slower gestures result in dense patterns, while faster ones create more open designs. A robotic arm, equipped with a cutting wire and a stamp, carves and stamps the clay, adding geometric precision. This process blends human touch with digital accuracy, harmonizing motion, form, and ornamentation like tuning and playing an instrument.
In the project, I explore the interplay between embodied artistic expression and the transformative potential of digital technology. By utilizing robotics, I reimagine the interplay between hand, material, and ornamentation in traditional ceramics. This approach merges traditional expertise with technological innovation, achieving complexity and precision beyond manual methods.
The resulting objects highlight how digital technology enhances traditional skills, preserving the craft’s tactile quality while expanding its possibilities. Inspired by Baroque aesthetics and its concept of infinite space, the work demonstrates how digital tools enable craftspeople to push the boundaries of complexity and expression, maintaining the relevance of traditional ceramics while building upon cultural heritage in contemporary practice.

About the overall exhibition:
A number of designers and architects from the Royal Danish Academy open new doors to the baroque in a contemporary perspective.
During the Baroque era several artists, including the architect behind Officinet, Lauritz de Thurah (1706-1759), developed new design principles. These were linked to a new cognitive space that arose when Renaissance cosmology and a hierarchical world order began to disintegrate.
Interrupted profiles, so called ‘forkrøpninger’ in Danish, that made offsets in plan or section, created the same effect as double-exposed photographs. Together with glossy surfaces and mirrors, they destabilized spatial boundaries so that the separation between exterior and interior, nature and culture was brought into question.
Photographer Anders Sune Berg's images of Lauritz de Thurah’s architecture have revealed a vanished world of forms. These forms have been investigated by designers and architects at the Royal Danish Academy: Maria Sparre-Petersen (lecturer and glass artist), Flemming Tvede Hansen (lecturer and ceramicist) and the architects Suzi Pain (assistant professor), Natalie Koerner (assistant professor), Jacob Bang (lecturer ) and Anne Romme (lecturer). Through design experiments the exhibitors explore how this forgotten treasure of spatial and material effects can inspire contemporary design practice.

The exhibition is curated by Professor Peter Thule Kristensen, who in 2023 has published the book "Lauritz de Thurah – Baroque architecture and worldview" together with graphic designer Rasmus Koch, who has organized the exhibition.