Ann Marie Shillito presented a paper about the TACITUS project at the PixelRaiders 2 [6] conference in April 2004 at the Sheffield Hallam University. A practising applied artist herself, she shared her findings in regards to this project: 'Our research has identified that a niche exists, in the germinal phase of designing, for exploiting the potential of a digital medium with haptic feedback. Such an interface would enable idea formulation and creative activities to be performed with the same intuitive & fluid transmodal interaction as sketching on paper and with as great a sense and degree of engagement as in modelmaking.' [7] The stated aims of this three-year collaborative research project include the exploitation of the advantages of being able to work, think and respond in a virtual environment [to stay] more 'in touch' with creative working practices and to discover the degrees of multi-sensory feedback required for artists and designers to work intuitively using their tacit knowledge and skills. TACITUS was based on the Reachin Technologies using the Phantom Haptic Device that enables users to touch, feel and manipulate virtual environments. The user's dominant hand holds the finely engineered force feedback pen-like mechanism which has had its stylus tip accurately calibrated to the x,y,z co-ordinates of the virtual space.

When I had 'first-hand' experience with such a device at the Haptic Workbench at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, I was intrigued how convincingly once mind can be fooled by a simulated hand-eye interaction. After distorting virtual material for a while I noticed, that the hardest surface sensation the Phantom device was able to simulate was that of a cricket ball. When the simulated tool silently clicked against the virtual surface, it produced the feel of hitting leather. Being a silversmith I found this feedback irritating and distracting. This kind of research is an example of looking at the 'front-end', the input-side, trying to overcome the limitations of mouse and keyboard while interacting/modelling on CAD system. Over the last four years I was able to use a Rapid Prototyping facility at the Australian National University, Canberra, giving me direct access to the 'back-end', the output side of making based on new technology. I was able to explore the potential this technology holds for my own art practice in and for craft in general.

2 Processes and Outcomes

2.1 About rapid prototyping processes

The following is a brief description of Rapid Prototyping technologies in general and Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) in particular.

Rapid Prototyping is the name given to a host of related technologies also known as layered manufacturing where a physical object gets directly built from 3D computer drawings (CAD). One can think of this as a printing out of real parts instead of paper documents. All Rapid Prototyping technologies have in common the adding and bonding of materials in layers. In order to build, lets say a cylinder, circular cross-sections are placed on top of each other like a stack of coins. Some use lasers to fuse powder or cure resin while FDM extrudes a plastic filament. There are more than sixty different Rapid Prototyping technologies known most of them under research, some are commercially available and established.