shine, 2010 image © designboom

geoffrey mann is a scottish artist whose fascination with transposing the ephemeral nature of time and motion has created a studio practice that challenges the existing divides between art, craft and design. his recent project ‘shine’ uses digital techniques to investigate reflective properties of a metallic object; in this case the subject was a victorian candelabra. a planar 3D scanner was used to document the reflective information, which was in turn used to create a rapid prototyped form, which has been cast. when scanning a metallic object, the laser beam is unable to distinguish between the surface and the reflection; the spikes representing the intensity of the reflection. ‘shine’ renders the impossible, encapsulating the beauty that exists above and apart from the material world.

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 2 shine, 2010 image © designboom

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 3 shine, 2010 (detail) image © designboom

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 4 shine, 2010 natural occurence series mfr. bronze cast, silver plating35 x 27 x 30 cm powderhall bronze, hamilton & inches edition of 3 plus 1APphoto by nick moss

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 5 ‘shine’, 2005 natural occurence series mfr. bronze cast, silver plating 35 x 27 x 30 cm edition of 5 plus 1AP photo by sylvain deleu

Shine 2010 – Powderhall Bronze Fine Art Founders – WIP from Studio Mrmann on Vimeo.

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 6 cross-fire teapot, 2010image © designboom

mann’s ‘cross-fire’ series utilizes the possibilities digital technology offers to examine the intangible characteristic of the spoken word. the work investigates the unseen effect of the sound of speech, focusing on an audio excerpt of a domestic argument, sampled from the film ‘american beauty’ (1999).

the inensity of the argument’s sound waves are digitally mapped and materialized using rapid prototyping and then the forms are cast in a range of materials. each object encapsulates a momentary emotion of the argument. the once-static tabletop forms are deformed into objects of unseen familiarity.

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 7 cross-fire teapot, 2010image © designboom

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 8 cross-fire teapot, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 9 cross-fire teapot, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 10 cross-fire jug, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 11 cross-fire jug, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 12 cross-fire bowl, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 13 cross-fire bowl, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 14 cross-fire plate, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 15 cross-fire teapot, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype z-corp, car paint photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 16 cross-fire wine glass, teapot and knife image © designboom

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 17 cross-fire cutlery, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype resin, nickel plated photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 18 cross-fire fork, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype resin, nickel plated photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 19 cross-fire knife, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype resin, nickel plated photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 20 cross-fire spoon, 2010 natural occurrence series rapid prototype resin, nickel plated photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 21 cross-fire wine glass, 2010 natural occurrence series glassimage © designboom

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 22 cross-fire wine glass, 2010 natural occurrence series glass photography © stuart johnstone

geoffrey mann: shine and cross fire wine glass, teapot and knife - 23 cross-fire wine glass, 2010 natural occurrence series glass photography © stuart johnstone

Cross-fire from Studio Mrmann on Vimeo.

cross-fire,2010 natural occurrence series directed: geoffrey mann produced: chris labrooy commissioned by past, present & future craft practice

‘shine’ and ‘cross-fire series’ were exhibited as part of lab craft at during london design festival 2010.