Sphaera - a work in process

At the core of this work is the creation of two identical solid spheres. Each sphere consists of a dense structure of interconnected solid three-dimensional forms, each of different shape and dimensions, that snap together without auxiliary support.

Each nexus of the two interrelated arbitrary forms is designed and constructed by diametrically opposed strategies: one with manual calculations and handmade actions and with the use of traditional techniques, tools and materials, and the other entirely with the use of digital technology and 3D printing.

The work actively acknowledges and participates in the questions raised by it, questions such as why not simply give digital technology the instructions to capture the structure speedily and with precision and let it construct a technically perfect object. The choice to work simultaneously through the intricate and time-consuming process of mentally conceiving, designing and handcrafting the object is an attempt to explore its materiality, its enigmatic character and its ambiguity, while sheltering the space of inspiration and intuition that emerges through these processes. The question arises as to how to slow down the digitally generated working process to reserve the necessary time for reflection, doubt, and ambivalence, while having the freedom to declare the work finished at any moment during that process.

In addition, I aim to highlight the indistinct and interdependent mechanism that is revealed during the process of creation between the artist and what is created and represented. I believe that there is no error, there is no failure in art. Works of art embody the full range of actions performed on them and set the conditions of this process. At the same time, the artist’s psyche is realised in them, constituted as such in them.

Objects are caretakers of memory and meaning. They fuel our imaginative power for life and our bond with society, they become our realisation in and through matter. I find it difficult to have objects in my possession, but they trigger my imagination and provoke my curiosity. Ι would not desire a life without objects. Could such a world exist and how would it possibly look like?

We live in the era of rapidly accelerating digitalisation, datafication, internet, social media, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). This rapid de-materialisation of the object in general and the artistic object in particular, makes it urgent to relaunch the debate on a number of questions.

How do we understand human agency and authorship? How do we acknowledge the artist as creator and the nature, the symbolic capital and the social role of art?

There is the concern of what art might have to fear from digital technology, and what is at stake in the relationship between man and machine. It raises the issue of whether digital technology can simulate humans and replace their technique and art. While it can certainly expand the means of human creativity by providing new tools and media, it cannot replace the artistic act, as creativity is only one moment among many in the art making. Here we return once more to the fundamental questions of what is to be human and what is a work of art.

Art is not only about its creations and certainly not about self-expression. It emerges through the complex process of the artist’s actions into the material world, it connects us to each other and enables us to reflect on the incomprehensible real of our existence.

Given the complexity of conceiving and creating the sphere that is, from the very beginning, far too demanding to be constructed by manual techniques and media, the attempt almost becomes a quest for the “impossible“.

How can this bewildering structure of the analogue sphere be conceived and produced without the need for digital technology? And how can imagination, intuition and reflection, which are fundamental conditions for the creation of works of art, emerge in the labyrinth of the digital sphere?

And yet, I seek for it, but I cannot predetermine the results of this endeavour. The two objects are in the process of springing up from the realm of ideas into the visible and tangible world.

Published in DISTIGMO Magazine, Issue 1 'Trial and Error', 2025