Algorithms have been extremely useful to us for a long time, the earliest examples occurring on cuneiform tablets from ancient Babylon. Their ubiquitous use in social media has arguably taken us into unchartered territory and there is concern that this may be leading to a ‘flattening’ of culture where ‘likeability’ is prized above all else.

Diagrams of algorithms use lines, squares, rectangles, triangles and circles to exemplify decision points and outcomes. I have collapsed and reconstructed these elements into sculptures and functional ware using black clay and bone china – deliberately allowing the clays to warp and move in the firings to disrupt the order and expected outcomes of my designs, seeking to remind my audience, that just like the clay, we should never lose our capacity as humans to act in surprising and unexpected ways.

Bone china is intrinsic to this work, its discovery was quirky and inventive, an ingenious way to mimic porcelain. It is also half bone, and so for me carries totemistic significance of our animal natures.

I have been guided by traditional bone china techniques – firing my pieces to high stoneware temperature first to encourage movement and unpredictability, followed by a lower temperature firing to fix the sculptural components together using transparent earthenware glaze.