CREATIVE WORKS
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
WRITING & CURATION
Computational Graphics, Physical Computing, TouchDesigner, 3D Scan
Summer 2024
Summer 2024
You may break me apart, but you can never penetrate all my secrets.
An interactive installation about the control and healing of a splintered self.
The installation is composed of an animated visual and a soft sculpture that the audience is invited to touch, press, stretch, or caress. Projected onto the wall is a realistic 3D model of my head in point cloud. By interacting with the soft sculpture, the participants can manipulate my head, slicing it into different faces, breaking it into a swirl of fragments, or suturing it back together.
concept
Who has control over our body?
How can we reclaim and reconstruct our body?
What does it mean to give your body to someone else? Can we be vulnerable and empowered at the same time?
The gift I brought is Silvia Federici’s book Caliban and the Witch.
In this book, Silvia Fderici investigates the history of witches and the witchhunt from a feminist Marxist perspective. It draws connection between the witchhunt and the primitive acculation at the birth of capitalism. Bodies ( women’s bodies in particular) were degraded to resources, reproduction machines, and public territory controlled by men and the state.
In 1974, performance artist Marina Abramović presented Rythmn 0, during which she stood still for 6 hours while audience members were invited to do whatever they wanted to her, using any of the 72 objects she offered on a table. These objects range from a pen, a rose to chains, scissors, and even a loaded pistol gun… Till this day, I am still struck by the boldness and impact of the work despite the simple setup. I am intrigued by the tension between control and loosing control, especially when it concerns a femme body.
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
When I showed my concept video in class, I received a lot of encouragement and feedback involving questions around interaction. Which I focused on next.
the birth of a soft sensor
Who says physical computing has to be hard and square?
Initial design
Experiments with biomaterial.
Experiments with e-textile.
suturing everything together
Integrating the tangible sculpture and the digital visual, I aimed to create a thoughtful interactive experience for the audience to manipulate and play with a realistic 3D model of the artist’s head – it is their call to action, highlighting the tension between control and loosing control.
I also designed a user flow to frame the experience with a loose narrative that would walk the audience through a short but evocative journey that:
- starts with dismantaling a head into broken faces
- unfolds into a chaos of body fragments swirling in darkness
- eventually comes back to reconstructing the head.
Fabrication design
exhibition
The piece debuted on Aug 14, 2024, as part of IMA LowRes Summer Show&Tell at 370 Jay Street, New York
It was also interesting to see people’s different approaches and reactions to the flesh-like soft sculpture. Some participants were more careful and tender with manipulating it and even needed a bit of encouragement from me; others were more comfortable applying pressure stretching, sequeezing, or poking it.