Hopp, JohnathanKelleher, MattMcConnell, WalterSikora, LindaWillard, AderoNgo, Jolie2022-10-252022-10-252022-05http://hdl.handle.net/10829/24893Thesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.I am revitalizing the metaphoric potential of the vessel form by utilizing technologies of clay 3D printing and rapid prototyping, to create bright cyborgian pottery objects that acknowledge early ceramic traditions while smiling towards the future. Working with tools that are digitally forward, I am deeply engaged in exploring the tension between past and future, probing the synergy between handmade arts and technology. Maintaining a sense of tactility, intimacy and sensitivity often achieved in traditional handworks is paramount to my practice. I lovingly dress these familiar forms with hand painted geometric patterns or hazy gradients and affix embellishments all over their surface to bring my hand back into the process. This interplay of the machine and my hands results in creation of objects that resist definition. My vessels are future-forms that are designed to hold ideas or memories of the past. Influenced by the aesthetics of the earliest digital spaces I inhabited and the nostalgia I feel for those virtual worlds conditioned me to become a “world builder”. This concept is reflected in the microcosms constructed within the vessels as they stand in for the scale models of imaginary architecture, maquettes for future furniture, rolling strata of rice terraces and landscape paintings.31 pagesen-USThe author has granted Alfred University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other rights.MFA thesisCeramic sculptureThree-dimensional printingGlazesThesis