2026-10-08T04:40:18Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33973162 2026-09-29T11:27:20Z category_32465 portal_2 item_type_8 month_year_09_2026

Dematerialising sculpture Yeshan Yang (11350683) Other creative arts and writing not elsewhere classified Dematerialisation Moiré patterns Sculpture Visual ambiguity Spatial depth <p dir="ltr">This practice-based research investigates ways of inducing sculptural 'dematerialisation' by seeking to determine to what extent the moire effect may facilitate the perceived dematerialisation of sculpture through visual ambiguity. The theoretical investigation and studio practice have therefore explored how perceptual illusions caused by the moire effect can interfere with the perceptions of material certainty, spatial depth, and the geometric form of sculpture. Throughout the practice-based research process, Minimalist sculptural principles and Robert Morris's application of Gestalt theory to sculpture serve as theoretical guidance. In Notes on Sculpture (1966, Parts I and II), Morris discusses using Gestalt theory to structure his works, emphasising not the intrinsic quality of each attribute, but the overall perceptual experience of a sculpture. This aligns with my approach of attempting to challenge the material certainty of sculpture through the moire patterns generated by the meshes I use to create sculptural models with simple geometric shapes. To interrogate these possibilities the research asked the following questions: 1. How might visual ambiguity affect material certainty in sculpture? 2. To what extent can moire patterns induce the dematerialisation of material sculpture? In seeking to answer the questions, my research draws upon Donald Schön's (1983) concept of reflection-in-action. By combining theory and practice, it produces a cyclical process of continual reflection on the sculptural models during making and during the progression of theoretical research. This approach treats theoretical research and practice research as mutually reinforcing, and thereby iteratively enables the sequential production of models. Each individual sculptural model derives from a specific change introduced within this cycle, and each change directly influenced the development of the research. By maintaining continuous documentation of the making process and critical reflection, I have been able to examine, test, nuance and maximise the relationships between the visual mechanisms of moire and its possibilities to induce dematerialisation of sculpture. The principal contribution of this research to knowledge lies in developing and systematically testing gradient meshes for use in material sculpture, with mesh parameters designed to regulate the emergence and variation of moire patterns. This provides a practice-based pathway for examining how such regulation affects perceived spatial depth and the extent of dematerialisation, thereby extending existing discussions of visual illusion, material sculpture and sculptural dematerialisation.</p> 2026-09-29T11:27:20Z Text Thesis 10.26174/thesis.lboro.33973162.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Dematerialising_sculpture/33973162 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0