I have always been fascinated by hand crafted, physical art, in particular sculpture and its presence in the world around it. I am also drawn to the coming together of mathematics and computation, and the new world of possibilities that the processing power of the modern computer has brought to the ancient field of maths. In raythreading these seemingly parallel lines intersect. Starting from a photograph, a mathematical algorithm drives a computer program to generate a prediction of how the physical artwork will look. Then the artist, working in tandem with the program, carefully tunes and optimises the photograph to produce the best result possible. Finally a pattern is created which guides a human hand to create a three-dimensional artwork. 
 

The result is not a two-dimensional image, but a three-dimensional creation with a depth and a structure which changes with both the lighting of its environment and the perspective of the viewer. 
 

The name raythreading is inspired by raytracing, a form of computer art where an image is rendered by tracing how rays of light bounce around an environment. In raythreading, rays of thread appear to bounce from pin to pin in a dance which, in the microscopic appears to be pure chaos, but in the macroscopic is highly choreographed to create a work of art capturing humanity, nature, and the abstract.