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Sam Mattacott uses 3D tools as a vehicle for primary formalist abstraction. Their work is currently focused on the reconfiguration of object histories and their ideal depiction with simulated light rendering (raytracing). When constructing a virtual object every action applied to it is recorded as a series of mathematical operations (as this is integral to the functioning of the software).

 

This allows the parameters of any particular operation to be changed at any stage after it was first applied. In theory this sounds very useful, but in practice it often isn’t. Each step in the formation of an object is based on the precise state at that time, a state that is described using precise mathematical constructs. If one changes an earlier state while maintaining the operations that are applied later it will often result in the object becoming something unrecognisable. This peculiarity has become the focus and of his practice as he aims to find ways that express its results directly as possible.