The big CNC in iMAL's fablab is generally used to machine sheets of various materials, which are laid flat on the machine bed. However, it also features a fourth rotary axis for machining cylindrical parts (wooden poles, aluminum bars) which, until now, has never been used. For several years now, it has simply been placed next to the machine.

The aim of the residency is to try and understand how the rotary axis can be installed and used, what G-code motion instructions are needed to make it move, and what software can generate such G-codes. By extension, the residency aims to understand the capabilities of the axis, whether in terms of machining precision or the maximum size of parts that can be designed on it.

Beyond these practical aspects, this residency is also an opportunity for me to develop my sculptural projects through the creation of wooden barbells. I use digital production processes in my work to give my pieces an industrial aesthetic. I see them as fictional consumer products, potentially usable in imaginary rituals.

Read more about the whole process here.

My artistic practice lies at the intersection of digital art and sculpture, and questions our relationship to consumer objects. On one hand, it aims to reappropriate, on an individual scale, the industrial production methods of these objects. On the other, it explores the semantic and poetic potential of these objects by including them in the creation of assemblage sculptures that blend distinct universes. These hybridizations give rise to new fictional consumer objects, whose function and handling are left to the free interpretation of the viewer.

During this residency, I focused mainly on a common object found in gyms : the dumbbell. Between pleasure and pain, leisure and disciplinary practice, activities occurring in the gym interest me for their ambiguity. Regularly training myself, I am intrigued by the intricate set of values underlying this peculiar universe. The need to perform in all areas, imposed by contemporary society, and the mechanistic view of human life as an economical workforce is well encapsulated in small objects such as a dumbbell. Through several new designs of imaginary dumbbells, I am aiming to emphasize the aspects of suffering, combining it with religious aesthetics by the use of hard woods such as oak. At the conclusion of the residency, I created a handle embedded with spikes and I am now in the process of selecting additional objects to incorporate to complete my final and reimagined dumbbell sculpture. Those objects will most likely be of electromechanical origin, since I spend a great deal of my time dismantling motors and machines.