{"id":666606,"date":"2026-01-01T10:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666606\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:13:15","slug":"ni-sculptor-to-mix-classical-techniques-with-robotic-technology-in-italy-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666606\/","title":{"rendered":"NI sculptor to mix classical techniques with robotic technology in Italy \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Northern Ireland sculptor is to travel to Italy to take part in a specialist residency that will combine classical stone carving techniques with new robotic technology.<\/p>\n

John Rainey, originally from Omagh but now working in Belfast, said he wanted to push the boundaries of traditional forms in his artistic creations.<\/p>\n

Mr Rainey said he first became interested in sculpture as a child because his parents were involved in making objects and traditional crafts.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of John Rainey\u2019s pieces of art at the Ulster Museum in Belfast (Arts Council of Northern Ireland\/PA) <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat process of ideas turning into physical things is something that I was very familiar with from an early age.<\/p>\n

\"Travel<\/a>\"Violent<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI always just thought there was a kind of magic to it, being able to make things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided that there was something about the three dimensions that I loved. I loved the way that sculptures can be storytelling objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

After studying in England, the artist pursued his career as a sculptor, specialising initially in working with ceramics before incorporating digital technologies into his art.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThings like 3D printing and scanning, it has led to these new possibilities for creating forms. It\u2019s a new tool that we can use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t ever really want to see digital making be the only type of making, but when it\u2019s embedded into a wider process, I think that\u2019s when it\u2019s a really useful tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Rainey said many of his sculptures begin conceptually with a familiar image before he moves it in an unexpected direction.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt is about transforming those familiar things in ways that are maybe unexpected or feel slightly strange.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sometimes looks like something\u2019s gone wrong, and I like that, those moments where a piece starts to break away from what it\u2019s supposed to be, or what maybe it\u2019s supposed to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sculptor has recently been awarded funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to undertake a residency in Italy as he expands into working with marble.<\/p>\n

\"sss\"sss <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt will be a combination of robotic carving and traditional hand carving techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cI design the object in a virtual environment, with 3D software, then I engage with the technicians who program the machine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with a solid block of marble in Tuscany, and then the machine starts to subtract material from it. The robot might get the work 80% of the way there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the artist will come and spend a month doing that final refinement process by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sculptor said the use of digital technology could be viewed as the modern equivalent of ancient artists who employed teams of assistants.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey would have been getting the work to that stage for the sculptor to come in and finish it off and sign off on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so in some ways, in a world where very few of us are operating with lots of assistants, it does have that same function.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think it\u2019s one of the nice things about this career, is that it does provide you with these opportunities at times, to relocate, work in different locations, engage with different networks of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing based here in Belfast is really it\u2019s a great place for production, the art community here is really strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is still really important to have these connections with outside, to be connected to other kind of conversations happening elsewhere, and to just the experience working in different contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern Ireland sculptor is to travel to Italy to take part in a specialist residency that will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[4021,203284,2378,203285,1144,16,7913,203286,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-666606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-council-of-northern-ireland","10":"tag-belfast","11":"tag-john-rainey","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-ulster","15":"tag-ulster-museum","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115819315738609352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}