Views
6 years ago

THE JAGUAR #01

  • Text
  • Jaguar
  • Formula
  • Racing
  • Digital
  • Championship
  • Vehicles
  • Drivers
  • Specifications
  • Hong
  • Features
In this issue we return to top level motorsport but not in a conventional way, and by doing so accelerate the development of our electric powertrains. In tandem, we introduce our Jaguar I-PACE Concept vehicle - a revolutionary new model available to reserve now for delivery in 2018.

DESIGN “Digital

DESIGN “Digital technologies have fundamentally transformed designers’ creative toolboxes.” SILVIA WEIDENBACH, winner of the 2015 Goldsmiths’ Fair Best New Design Award I was studying in London for my MA when I was first introduced to a concept called additive manufacturing, a concept you may know better as 3D printing. I can’t say I was immediately impressed. I’d learned the craft of making jewelry the classical way through a long apprenticeship in a silversmith’s workshop, learning how to create with my hands not remotely, via a third party and a computer screen. I was skeptical but in retrospect I had misunderstood the role of digital technology in the creative process. The correction came with the introduction to yet another new technology, one you may be less familiar with. Called a ‘haptic arm,’ it was a digital sculpting tool that linked the traditional process of drawing designs to the digital virtual environment. It allowed you to work on digital models with an amazing and tactile precision. It felt like you were dragging your hand through soft clay, meaning you could generate detailed 3D models, but as if by hand. Using the arm, you could zoom in and out of tiny components, redesigning them without destroying the record of what they had been before. I realized then that not only was digital technology here to stay but it would fundamentally change both what is now possible in jewelry design – and ultimately the role of jewelry itself. In 2015 I embarked on a tongue-in-cheek project I called Granny’s Chips, Queen Elizabeth’s nickname for her grandmother’s brooch, which features two vast stones cut from the Cullinan Diamond – at 3106 carats the largest ever discovered. The basic structures of my Granny’s Chips brooches were designed using the haptic arm and manufactured from nylon using a 3D printer. Ultimately traditional ‘analog craftsmanship’ was employed to complete the pieces, color was applied and other materials such as silver and diamonds added by hand. The digital element of the process however was the key to me realizing the artistic expression for which I had been searching. And I am far from alone in taking advantage of these new techniques. Digital technologies have fundamentally transformed jewelry designers’ creative toolboxes, directly influencing the way we conceive and manufacture jewelry today. And it has profoundly widened the scope of what jewelry can do or be. We are crossing the border now between analog and digital design and at the same time exploring how processes in both can be combined. Producing complex and detailed pieces of jewelry remains one of the most demanding forms of traditional craftsmanship so the technologies we are now able to exploit represent a huge leap forward. Moreover, so called digital wearables like optical, head-mounted displays and smartwatches have their own aesthetic, communicating an ever-more effective extension of our natural abilities. Digital wearables not only enhance what makes us unique as a species but also serve us in a socially communicative sense. In other words: jewelry today is becoming a form of communication, driven by the opportunities we have to create new interactions between design, material and purpose. Internationally a number of curious and visionary designers are today heading this movement. The artist Daniel Kruger utilizes a range of interesting materials 42 THE JAGUAR

MIXED MATERIAL ARTS: 3D modeling gives artists absolute freedom to experiment with materials. Left: Weidenbach’s Made to Treasure and Pleasure pendant in nylon. Above: Dorry Hsu’s Touch the Invisible ring in silver PHOTOGRAPHY: UDO W. BEIER, PR (3) LIMITLESS: Daniel Kruger’s pendants (above) and Norman Weber’s brooches (right) are examples of how today’s designers experiment with forms, structures and materials THE JAGUAR 43

 

JAGUAR

THE JAGUAR MAGAZINE

 

JAGUAR MAGAZINE celebrates creativity in all its forms, with exclusive features that inspire sensory excitement, from seductive design to cutting-edge technology.

The latest issue features a range of inspiring people: from Luke Jennings, creator of Villanelle, one of the most interesting television characters in recent times, to Marcus Du Sautoy, who ponders whether artificial intelligence is on the brink of becoming creative. Out on the road, we visit the US to explore the foodie heaven of Portland in a Jaguar I-PACE, take a Jaguar XE to the south of France to get a photographer’s viewpoint of the charming town of Arles, and much more.

© 2020 Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC