Objects in Spaces

Dear blog - 

I can't escape the 3D scans! They seem to follow me around in space, but they are just floating around and no one besides me and my phone can see them. They are my own personal ghosts that I created, and some of them are me! For this exercise I was really playing with the idea of physical presence and objecthood.

I took these pictures like this: the app on my phone that I use to take the scans has a feature where I can put the scans "back in the real world" through AR view. I have to pan my phone around so the technology can get a sense of my surroundings, and then the object appears in the space 3 dimensionally in my phone. From the outside, this process just looks like me waving my phone around (maybe looking like I am trying very hard to receive cell service somewhere). Presence and objecthood stood out the most to me when I was trying to place my 3D scans by the library and my friends came up and asked me what I was doing. To me, what I was seeing through my phone felt so apparent and so real. But to any concerned onlookers, I "looked like I was 65" trying to take a picture of something (according to a friend).

A collection of Blue Charlottes in front of the Mudd Library (smallest to biggest from left to right)

Blue Charlotte in giant form standing on Boldt way 

and 

Blue Charlotte in miniature form standing on Evan's hand

 

Ice cream in Library Plaza, on couch, on counter and in washing machine

Mailbox from home in fridge, stairway, by sink, on smoke shack, and on library

Stairs in places, including in stairs

Scan of right-hand holding computer mouse in library plaza and attached to arm of couch

Situations involving Bubbles...

Situations involving sinks...

Reflection on Andy Gambrell

 

I’ll start by saying that I was excited to experience something similar to what we are talking about in class in the actual gallery space. The gallery space kind of puts it in context (even though I know that the relationship between installation art and museum/gallery spaces is complicated). 

Admittedly, I was a little suspicious of how bringing a painting to life in dance was going to work, but I was pleasantly surprised. The performance of the short dance pieces next to the paintings in a full gallery totally made sense. During this piece, I was really thinking a lot about how we as the audience were interacting with the situation. 

I was annoyed about all of the people creaking around and moving around to take photos. I know that documentation is part of the problem with performance like this, but in my mind the efforts to document the experience took away from the experience. That aside, I think making the very 2dimensional paintings (especially since Gambrell seemed to really engage with some more formalist ideas about painting) super 3dimensional and bodily was very interesting. I think this performance felt more similar to Yvonne Rainer’s minimalism. I think there wasn’t so much going on during the performance that we got to see. I don’t mean to say that it isn’t very nuanced and complex –and I think that by getting to talk with Gambrell so extensively before this piece changed how I would have perceived it otherwise –but I felt like the thing this collaboration was trying to achieve was relatively straightforward. 

The goal was to bring the paintings into the 3 dimensional (or 4 dimensional) space, and this happened. The experience felt relatively unified. My experience as a spectator was a little bit uncomfortable, but only so in moments when I felt like my singular participation was going to be required.

10 Staircases

 10 Staircases

Staircase between Warch 3rd floor and Warch 4th floor

This is a selection of 10 staircases on campus that evoke particular feelings for me when I use them. I am interested in these transitional spaces on their own, but I really tried to follow the feelings that came up as I was deciding which spaces to select. I was hunting for nostalgic feelings (or something), and I noticed that those especially came up when the staircase had a very particular scent (or temporal quality, like fleeting light). 

I do not believe that there is a way to capture the specific feeling that I am experiencing; no one else has the same memories, associations, and emotional reactions to the spaces that I do. But I thought it would be interesting to capture these spaces using video. I was initially pretty interested in using 3D scanning technology -and I tried one staircase capture using the 3D app that I have- but I was pressed for time and was having trouble with other people in the staircases while I was trying to 3D scan. The interesting thing about the 3d scans for me is that they make spaces and objects exist independent of the world around them. There is a clear end and beginning of the object that separates it from time and space. I do not think the videos I have do that as interestingly, since to me they seem to simply capture part of the world, the space outside the videos is implied. I am very interested in the representation/documentation of the space.

3D scan of front staircase in sage... exists as its own space.

Staircases are inherently the means to an end - they are for gravitational transportation. But I am interested in their quality as spaces that exist independently. These videos are (mostly) ordered by the strength of the feeling associated with them. The staircases that I feel the most strongly about are near the top of the page.

Staircase between sage 1st floor and Sage 2nd floor 

Staircase between Sage basement and 4th floor

Staircase between Trever basement and Trever 4th floor

Staircase between Drew Street/river area and campus; next to Hiett

As this project progressed and as I took more videos of staircases I was really thinking about the differences between the outdoor and indoor staircases I chose. It struck me that the outdoor staircases that I chose were typically more "binding." Once you chose to take the stairs, there weren't any floors to get off at in the middle, or places to get off in the middle - you are essentially committed to either making it to the top or going all the way back down.

Stairs between Hiett 3rd floor and Hiett 1st floor

Stairs to and from river path behind Warch and Sage

Memorial Hall Staircase

Staircase inside Wriston

Wriston Outdoor Amphitheater staircase on the side with small steps

My Backpack, My Fridge, Myself (in 3 dimensions)

I chose to represent my three objects using an app on my phone to render the objects in 3D using Lidar and spatial imaging. We can get some sense of these objects from the 3D scans of them, sort of... The uncanny representation and the removal of the objects from their temporal homes makes us reexamine our relationships with the things around us. The 3D imaging forced me to really be present with the objects that I was scanning for a couple minutes at a time

My backpack

My backpack (VIDEO LINK) 

Lately, my backpack has been feeling like a real physical extension of myself; if I do not bring my backpack with me, I am not really certain of who I am. But decidedly, I am a whole person even when I do not have my backpack. In thinking about this, it is curious to me whether the importance lies on the vessel of the backpack itself or what is carried inside. There is a comfort in knowing that with my backpack I am prepared for whatever could come up, only so long as whatever comes up can be resolved using my laptop, a folder, and a half-eaten granola bar. So maybe it really isn't about what's in the backpack? Does my green backpack really have a little life of its own? Using a 3D scan as the medium is able to capture that the backpack is full and used, but there is no possible way to see what is inside. This way of documenting makes it possible for me to think of this mundane object as a full concept, as well as to separate it from myself.

The Fridge

The Fridge (VIDEO LINK)

I picked the fridge because I spend a lot of time looking at it. The kitchen is one of the most alive rooms in the house, with all of the cooking activities and the various appliances that sit waiting to be used. The fridge is special, though. In the past 2 years, I've decided to become a magnet collector; I love looking for pretty and/or weird things to stick on the fridge. The fridge in my room is one of my favorite places to decorate. In the group house that I cook and eat in on campus, the fridge is a constant hub of activities. In addition to doing its typical temperature control duties, it is a spot to write and deliver messages to my housemates, to share our group calendar, and for funny magnets. The fridge in my dorm room feels different from all the other major fridges in my life, it feels separated from its natural environment (the kitchen). Using the same 3D rendering isolates my dorm fridge even more than how it feels in real life.

Myself 

Myself (VIDEO LINK)

I chose to 3D scan myself when I was playing with how the technology works, but I now am really interested in having this digital copy of myself. My friend and I scanned each other for fun and then realized we could use my phone to manipulate the 3D version to virtually move around in the space. I felt a little silly posing for the pictures, because I wasn't actually seeing that giant version of myself, only my friend behind the camera could. I am really interested in the idea of presence. While taking the photos, computer me didn't exist in the real world, but in computer world, this (strangely resolved) version of me (frozen in time) will last forever. My computer feels a less lonely place with me in it, but 3D me isn't really me... Is she?

A less successful 3D scan - for enjoyment