{"id":262,"date":"2015-07-29T10:02:20","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sethbruggeman\/?p=262"},"modified":"2015-07-29T10:02:20","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:02:20","slug":"adrien-segal-on-skill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sethbruggeman\/2015\/07\/29\/adrien-segal-on-skill\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrien Segal: On Skill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdrienWeb1\"<\/a>Adrien Segal<\/a> is a data sculptor, which means precisely what it suggests. In her hands, commonplace climate measurements yield sumptuous forms, often in carved plywood, which conveys in its figurative stratigraphy the ebb and flow of nature. The digital sophistication of her process, wherein Segal translates large data sets into contour lines that are then mapped onto and cut from plywood, can nettle traditional wood artists. As Segal explains it, they think that \u201cyou just push a button and it cuts it out for you.\u201d And yet, as she points out, one need look no further than Auguste Rodin to discover that the mathematical extrapolation of data points onto sculptural molds is a time-honored tradition. It\u2019s just one in an arsenal of skills that Segal deploys toward making art that matters. \u201cData [is] just a resource,\u201d Segal explains, \u201cfor \u2026 creating narratives about the time and place in which we live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Segal\u2019s path to data sculpture began in the furniture program at the California College of the Arts<\/a>. While there, she was captivated by the ruins of Sutra Baths, built over a century before along the beach beneath San Francisco\u2019s famous Cliff House resort. She was also inspired by data visualization pioneer, Edward Tufte, whose work encouraged her to imagine how the tidal action at Sutra Baths might be rendered in wood. Segal pored over Bay Area tide charts and replicated their data patterns in ribbons of bent steel arrayed across a walnut table. The result was Segal\u2019s thesis project which, as she recalls, was \u201creally well received,\u201d and sold soon thereafter to a collector.<\/p>\n

\"AdrienWeb2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click here<\/a> to hear Segal discuss nature and process.]<\/p>\n

The economic calamities of 2008, however, conspired against aspiring wood artists. Segal scraped together a living variously making cabinets and waiting tables. Internships, artist residencies, and work trades sustained her along the way, and introduced her to Oakland\u2019s Crucible<\/a> industrial arts school where she\u2019s currently headquartered. Her fascination with data sculpture flourished all the while. In 2012, Segal exhibited in Marfa, Texas along with other prominent data artists. The show earned her national attention and brought Segal into a small circle of fellow travelers, including Loren Madsen, who pioneered data sculpture during the 1970s. Madsen identifies Segal as one of a very few young data artists<\/a> working today in three dimensions.<\/p>\n

\"AdrienWeb3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click here<\/a> to hear Segal discuss skill.]<\/p>\n

And yet, Segal is quick to assert that she\u2019s not interested in art for art\u2019s sake. \u201cWhat is the point,\u201d she asks, \u201cof making art that doesn\u2019t question bigger ideas about our time?\u201d The idea that Segal is most concerned to question is\u00a0the tendency in science to conceive of humans and nature as distinct. According to her, \u201cwe are a part of the environment and intrinsically tied to it.\u201d Segal\u2019s distinctive digital technique therefore aims to blur the line between our experience of nature and nature itself. But digitization is \u201cjust another tool,\u201d according to Segal. \u201cYou have to \u2026 keep learning new skills.\u201d Segal\u2019s quest for skill speaks to the difficulty of her work, and the rigor of her vision. It also betrays a furniture maker\u2019s pragmatism: \u201cyou can always rely on those skills,\u201d she reminds us, \u201dto make functional things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adrien Segal is a data sculptor, which means precisely what it suggests. In her hands, commonplace climate measurements yield sumptuous forms, often in carved plywood, which conveys in its figurative stratigraphy the ebb and flow of nature. The digital sophistication of her process, wherein Segal translates large data sets into contour lines that are then … <\/p>\n

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