RudeFish
鲁 德 菲 西
Experiments & Methods
View of installation test
MA Fine Art Summer Show, Camberwell College of Arts, UAL, 2025.
Section Overview
This section is not about showing results
but about tracing how my thoughts unfolded through trials and small shifts during Unit 3.
Each experiment became a way of thinking,
an attempt to understand material, perception and the fragile act of seeing.
These works do not explain how things were made
but what I began to notice while making them.
1. 3D-Printed Sculpture Tests
Testing the boundary between physical form and emotional ambiguity.
Initially, I experimented with 3D-printed sculptures shaped like ears and spirals, exploring how hybrid organic forms could express “human alienation.”
However, my tutor pointed out that the works’ surfaces were too smooth and their structures too resolved — they were quickly read as “products” rather than “emotional carriers.”
This feedback made me reconsider the language of materials: I began to reduce industrial precision and pursue a sense of psychological blur.
In later works, I softened boundaries by wrapping and suspending the forms, allowing both touch and sight to slip into a state of confusion.
Prototype sculpture,2025,
Camberwell College of Arts
Test piece exploring hybrid organic forms and emotional ambiguity.
Exhibition image
Did You See Me? at A Theatre of Cruelty,
Safehouse 1 (2025)
2. Object Composition Experiments
Exploring how ordinary objects shift between image and presence.
In this experiment, I transformed domestic objects such as chairs and picture frames into semi-relief structures through wrapping and concealment.
These “half-image, half-object” forms forced the viewer to adjust their distance — when the surface begins to rise, the gaze enters space.
This act of “being drawn closer” mirrors the spatial logic of my dreams:
familiar rooms turning strange through slight misalignment and soft obstruction.
Object Composition (chair study), 2025
Test piece exploring domestic memory and the distance between seeing and touching.
3. Laser Cut Tests
Testing precision versus tactility.
Using laser cutting, I translated AI-generated images onto wood, converting them into pixelated burn marks.
This process originated from my fascination with AI misrecognition — when mechanical generation is re-materialised, it loses precision and gains an uncanny tactility.
My tutor encouraged me to retain this blur rather than perfect the replication.
I realised that the burn mark itself carries more emotional weight than the image — it feels like a residual trace from a dream, something remembered but no longer present.
Laser-cut wooden panels, 2025
Testing how digital misrecognition re-materialises as tactile memory.
4. Printmaking Tests
Transferring the image through decay.
In this series, I combined laser-cut plates with hand-printing techniques on textured art paper, allowing cracks and stains to appear naturally during transfer.
The resulting distortions and fading conveyed a more organic sense of forgotten visual memory.
These experiments later informed the visual rhythm of my video works — especially the use of flicker and layered image transitions.
Printmaking test, 2025
Hand-printed transfer from laser-cut plate on textured paper, exploring decay and the memory of the image.
5. Process Reflection
Reconsidering my process after tutorial feedback.
Through my tutorials, I learned that experimentation is not about achieving results but generating questions.
In my notes, I summarised a new way of thinking:
“Do not justify outcomes. Use experiments to expose blind spots.”
After each test, I wrote down brief self-questions:
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Why did I choose this material?
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Would another medium express it better?
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Could misunderstanding by the viewer be part of the work?
Through these reflections, I realised that making is not about finding answers,but learning to stay with ambiguity.
Sketchbook notes, 2025
Written reflections from tutorial feedback, tracing how questions replaced conclusions.
Studio corner, 2025, Camberwell College of Arts
A quiet rehearsal space — where experiments and thoughts shared the same table.
6. Early Spatial Composition
Testing how physical space can host fragmented video projections.
During the early stages of installation, my focus shifted from producing a final work to exploring how moving images could genuinely converse with physical space.
This phase became an experiment in viewing structure — I constructed a temporary setup using curtains, resin sculptures, and an old toy horse to observe how posture and emotion shifted as viewers entered.
Because the exhibition space faced large windows, I had to adapt continuously to natural light, floor conditions, and circulation.
At first, I was fixated on creating a closed labyrinth. But gradually, I realised that this obsession with control was suppressing the very uncertainty I wanted.
I began letting the fabric fall freely, allowing folds to emerge naturally through air and light. This uncontrollable formation became integral to the work — a reminder that dream architecture is never designed but self-generating.
Inside the space, visitors had to bend slightly as they passed through the drapes. Resin sculptures and fabrics intertwined ambiguously — a baby-faced ornament hanging from above, a rocking horse shrouded in lace, a hidden form beneath a sheet. Together, they created an in-between territory: part domestic, part dreamlike.
Through this process, I learned that viewing should not be a one-directional act. The viewer is not simply facing the image, but rather enveloped by an environment of light, fabric, and shadow.
Spatial composition test, 2025
Camberwell College of Arts
Spatial composition test, 2025
Camberwell College of Arts
Spatial composition test, 2025
Camberwell College of Arts
Process
