Greetings from the Desert!
I am an Associate Professor of Intermedia within the School of Art at Arizona State University and Co-Director of the PRISM lab--an interdisciplinary 3D modeling and rapid prototyping facility. Within the School of Art, I coordinate the foundation program in basic art instruction (Studio Core) and Co-Direct an alternative summer art program called the Deep Creek School. I am the liaison from the School of Art to the Institute for Studies in the Arts, an art and technology laboratory within the College of Fine Arts at ASU.

Dan Collins

Digital Sculpture
My current series of work utilizes computer modeling to control the kind and degree of distortion imposed on a given object or data set. Scaling operations, proportional shifts, eccentric vantage points, morphing processes, and 3-D montage are some of the techniques explored by this body of work. Part of the challenge has been how to get forms "out of the box" (the computer) and fully realized in an actual, tangible form. I am interested in the gap between the virtual space of the computer and the tangibility of sculptural objects.

Studio Research Goals
My research of the past few years has been focused upon recent technical advances in 3D digital imaging technologies. My research has included to date: a) working with "input" devices such as 3D laser scanners (at Cyberware in Monterey, CA) and various medical diagnostic tools (CT, MRI), b) becoming more adept at various 3D software modeling programs such as Form Z, Wavefront, Strata vision, etc, c) learning more about methods of "output" such as CNC milling, stereolithography, and laser sintering. The thread that connects much of this research is my attempt to better understand problems of represention with respect to the human form. For example, how does our ability to "read" an x-ray of a breast or an MRI image of a heart reveal changing notions of what it means to be human?

I am currently in the midst of working with researchers from across the university on an interdisciplinary 3D visualization project called PRISM (Partnership for Research in Stereo Modeling) . PRISM links research in disciplines as diverse as Industrial Technology, Archaeology, Anthropology, Biomechanical Engineering, Bioscience, Computer Science, Architecture, Industrial Design, and Sculpture. It is a strategic research focus project funded in part by the Office of the Vice President for Research and affiliated with the Institute for Studies in the Arts.

Teaching
I am involved in two areas of teaching in the School of Art at Arizona State University: Studio Core Foundation and our Intermedia program.

In terms of my work with beginning art and design students, I am interested in the role the computer can play with respect to beginning design instruction. Though many of the problems I have used in beginning studio art courses have utilized the computer, by in large we have resisted any moves towards a total "digitization" of our art courses and instead favor a kind of hybrid stance between traditional hand skills and the use of new technologies. With the considerable help of research assistants, Susanna Yazzie and Taylor Harnisch, we are compiling a desk-top document entitled "ARTCore Workbook." This is a collection of the Unit organization and assignments we use in our 2-D, 3-D, and Color courses at ASU. We hope to issue a supplement in the near future called "The Digital ARTCore Workbook" which will utilize the same Unit organization but provide computer-based problems for basic design students.

I teach both studio and theory courses within the Intermedia area. I also advise a number of the graduate students in our MFA program in Intermedia as well as sit on graduate thesis committees.

Theory
I continue to involve myself in the research and publication of theoretical texts that reflect the larger concerns of my studio practice and my teaching. For example, my studio work involving anamorphosis was subsequently followed by writing on the theory and history of anamorphosis within art and science (see "Anamorphosis and the Eccentric Observer," Leonardo, 1992). My move into digital technologies has prompted a similar dialectic between theory and practice. See in particular my essays "Searching for Virtue in a Virtual Landscape,"New Art Examiner, 1994; "Digital Somatics," New Art Examiner, 1996; and "The Challenge of Digital Sculpture," paper given at the 6th Biennial Symposium on Art and Technology, Connecticut College, February 27 - March 2, 1997.

Dan Collins
School of Art
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-1505, USA
e-mail: dan.collins@asu.edu
Telephone: 602.965.8311
FAX: 602.965.8338
http://www.asu.edu/cfa/art/people/faculty/Collins.shtml