Abstract

The creative use of laser processing on titanium and its application to contemporary jewellery as a mechanism for bridging two cultures

While the ‘practice as research’ debate continues in UK universities, this study constitutes an additional, radical change presented by an art practitioner working in an engineering research environment.

Art research is at present ‘fitting’ into existing methodological frameworks. My own project was faced with a number of problems related to concepts of academic research that highlight the differences between, what C. P. Snow famously called, ‘the two cultures’.

The success of this multidisciplinary project is illustrated via a presentation that will explain how CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers can be used for accurate surface marking of titanium Ti 6al 4v and how applicable they are to the creation of contemporary jewellery whilst challenging the notions of traditional research methodologies. Work shown from the ‘Ocular’ and ‘Fortuny’ series supports the thesis that modes of enquiry used by art and design differ from orthodox research with regard to personal performance, replicability, authorship, and rigour in practice.