Coded Chimera

Inspired by the work of biologist Professor Sir D’Arcy Thompson’s transformational grids – which explored the degree to which differences in the forms of related animals could be described by mathematical transformations - and through using scans of animal specimens and new software tools developed by the Cambridge Computer Lab, Gernard has morphed and blended digital meshes of different species to develop new sculptural forms.

The convergence of zoological form and computational strategies is guided by a rather unscientific and poetic concept: the chimera, a composite of different animal features which make a link with a long tradition in art where paradoxical conjunctions represent psychological integrations.

Works on display include a feline and reptilian morph and a sculpture depicting Aesop’s Fable of the tortoise and the hare.

A revealing display of the processes Gernand has used through digital images, text and small rapid prototype objects as well as the final, more abstract sculptures will also be on display.

Bruce Gernand will give a special talk about the exhibition on 21 March 2011.

Collaborators for the interdisciplinary project include Professor Norman MacLeod, Keeper of Paleontology at the Natural History Museum, Alan Blackwell, Reader in Interdisciplinary Design at the Cambridge Computer Lab and Bruce Gernard, Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.