The word “digiplasty” originated from a 2001 collaboration between James Stewart and myself, in which we attempted to establish shared-control digital sculpture creation through a structured online practice between us and other participants.
Arising as a collaborative activity called “digiplasty”, these events embodied direct communication through strictly digital-geometric means, in which invited participants co-created by using latent communication in the mesh model’s structure and form.
A collaboration with invited sculptors including Elona Van Gent, Carolyn Ottmers, Michael Rees, and others. Everyone participating used only the modeler Nendo, a fluid and poetically simple poly modeler that inspired Wings3D
We conducted a few of these events live online and in person, visiting the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Grand Valley State University to conduct student workshops. Digiplasty was also the title of James Stewart’s MFA thesis.
At the time, there were few options for 3D on the web, so I used Flash output from Macromedia Director plus extensions to serve models that could be manipulated in the browser.