The Digital Stone Project allows a unique opportunity for those interested in sculpting stone — both with state-of-the-art machinery and by hand — to experience a month-long workshop in the Tuscany region of Italy
High in the Natural Park of the Apuan Alps, near Lago Di Gramolazzo and the historical center of the Italian village of Gramolazzo, a group of artists, architects and designers gather to spend a month sculpting marble with robots. The annual symposium was conceived by Jon Isherwood, sculptor and president of The Digital Stone Project, and in partnership with Garfagnana Innovazione, an initiative born in 2011 by the municipality of Minucciano with the objective of developing a new fabrication facility to process local stone materials. The Digital Stone Project is described as “bridging art and technology by creating new opportunities for artists to engage in state-of-the-art digital tools for the realization of innovative works of art in stone.”
A long-time sculptor, with work widely exhibited in public museums and private galleries around the U.S., Canada and Europe, Isherwood is a professor at Bennington College in Bennington, VT, and has a studio in Hudson, NY. It was when he first started working with stone over a decade ago that he became interested in the role technology plays in creating sculptural forms. Before working with stone, he had worked in clay, wood, steel and concrete, initially beginning his career as a textile designer.