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University of Wolverhampton   2007/2008

Keith Ashford

The ceramic hand launched glider project uses a traditional material in an unusual way. My previous sculpture 'The Impossibility of Flight' used cast iron, an entirely unsuitable material for a glider. Ceramic is also an unsuitable material for gliders. The glider will be destroyed on landing, therefore development of of the glider will continue in discrete elements. Each glider will be a record of those changes. Some will be complete, some will be fragments. The ceramic will be bone like.

In a previous project I set a research goal of making an automatous walking vehicle using shape memory alloys. The modified vehicles I made I then exhibited in the context natural history taxonomy and evolution.

The recording of the process and display of the gliders will be the art work. The outcome of a ceramic glider capable of a glide flight path will be astonishing and not repeatable for the glider.

The image shows an interim piece of work. It consists of six wing tests for the hand launched glider. Each wing has random variations distortion occurring during a high temperature firing.