‘Pillow II’, is a sculptural work created by digital designer Lucy Hardcastle. It is one object of three in a triptych exploring a key aspect of designer Lucy Hardcastle’s multidisciplinary practice exploring our relationship between the digital and the senses. It accompanies a set of 3D data and rendered CAD (computer aided design) process images created in computer graphics software Cinema4D and a set of photographs of ‘Pillow II’ produced with long-term collaborator, photographer Gareth Williams. This triptych of works details Lucy’s interest in materiality and tactility, and the boundaries between the digital and the physical.

‘Pillow II’, and the other works in this series, is an early example of Lucy’s more experimental work that complements and informs her commercial practice. These works encapsulate Lucy’s creative philosophy and typify an approach to design which can be described as ‘postdigital’, in which technology seeks to become more human, emotional and tactile. The work enables an engagement with the senses, such as touch and taste, with digital phenomena, moving beyond a purely technical relationship with technology towards one which is more complex and embodied.

‘Pillow II’ was first created following experiments in 3D computer graphics software Cinema 4D in order to choose the final shapes and textures. Hardcastle then chose two physical shapes which seek to emulate these digital effects ‘in real life’; a pillow shape that creates the base of the sculpture, and the ball that would be created in polystyrene and flock. Lucy worked with glassblower Ben Cobb at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington to create the pillow, a continuation of her practise using glass which she first initiated during her master's at the RCA.



The designer

Lucy Hardcastle (b.1992) is an interdisciplinary digital designer and artist based in London. Her work focuses on tactility, visual illusion and sensual aesthetics through digitally rendered pieces, sculpture, set design and moving image. Using software such as Cinema4D and Blender to create her sensory pieces, Lucy also deploys physical objects and photomanipulation to create series of works that play with material, light and texture.

Lucy graduated with an MA in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art, London, before founding her own studio in 2017. She first began to experiment with computer-modelling technologies to produce rendered images showing tactile textures and hyper-realistic 3D shapes while studying for her BA in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art & Design.