Noodle Soup
Examination Exhibition for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
AD Space, UNSW Art & Design, Paddington
May 20-29 2026
The exhibition Noodle Soup presents the outcomes of my PhD research, exploring a dialogue between virtual and physical tactile experience in sculpture and 3D visualisation. With a unifying motif of worm-like extruded material, the works traverse silicone and ceramic sculptures, projected animation and virtual reality. The exhibition invites reflection on how the wobbly inconsistency of the body collides with rigid structures and automated art-making techniques such as 3D printing and 3D simulation. See below for the thesis Abstract and a link to my full PhD thesis.
Noodle Soup: Exposing a Dialogue Between Virtual and Physical Tactile Experience in 3D Visualisation and Sculpture
Abstract
Touch is the interface between an artist’s body and raw material, enabling constant sensory feedback and adjustment during making. This feedback occurs in both virtual and physical spaces. In contemporary 3D computer visualisation techniques such as 3D modelling, 3D printing and dynamic simulation, the human element of the artist’s touch is often imagined, displaced or translated by automated processes. Interaction with physical substances offers points of contrast and comparison through a more direct material index of touch. Academic literature has not to date described the process or perspective of artists working across such tools in terms of their tactile experience. This thesis aims to address this paucity through an examination of my own artistic practice which traverses virtual and physical techniques, and how it both reveals and actively crafts dialogues across seemingly disparate media. The research asks: How can an art practice which employs 3D visualisation and sculpture expose a dialogue between virtual and physical tactile experience?
The project addresses its question through the framework of practice-based research and reflective practice as established by Donald Schön, Linda Candy and Barbara Bolt. The project is particularly informed by Paul Carter’s concept of ‘material thinking’ which recognises interaction with physical material as a site of intellectual enquiry. My project extends Carter’s conception of ‘material’ to virtual representations in 3D modelling and animated simulation. Through my art practice and the creation of artworks, I explore expressions of tactile experience and how these form connections across virtual and physical media.
During the research, the artworks were displayed in three exhibitions which distilled five main areas of interest. These areas comprise the project’s key contribution to academic knowledge. These concepts describe different aspects of how art practice can not only expose but actively create connections between virtual and physical tactile experience. I have termed these concepts ‘resonance’, ‘rupture’, ‘cross-wiring’, ‘touch and vision’ and ‘material as analogy. These concepts map aspects of the creative process and of sensory experience in the intermediary space between virtual and physical tactile experience in art-making.
While the outcomes shared in this research are specific to my personal art practice, they contribute to an increased familiarity with, and more precise articulation of physical and virtual tactile experience in contemporary art.