Katharina's W?W?H?

-title-

WHAT

Thermal video to augment the documentation of a sculpture process involving plaster and bodies. Video is shown on a flatscreen placed upon a black metal stand at eye level, some chairs are placed in a semicircle in front of the screen. At some point in the video the virtual counterparts of these chairs appear as a backdrop to form a full yet shifting circle with the ones placed in the physical space.

HOW

Nylon stockings as envelopes into which liquid plaster is poured. Pressed against a body, the physical properties of the stocking allow for the plaster to flow relatively free - it becomes both a mould for the body part it is in contact with and a form of its own accord.

The chemical reaction, set in motion once the plaster powder is mixed with water, causes the new formed body to produce heat.
 A thermal camera detects radiation in the long-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and produces images of that radiation, possibly neglecting skins or surfaces, and by that merging previously unconnected human and non-human entities into new forms.

The original sound recording of the video is replaced by the perpetual crushing of ocean waves and cartoon sounds placed at specific moments of human and non-human body interaction. The sounds serve as a way to imagine the form of voice an object could develop in such an interaction.

WHY

to find a way to engage with a specific technology in a curious and amateurish way, to expand the approach to a material plaster beyond tactile experience, to think about thresholds, to think about air, to think about bodies and skins and the eye and other forms of eyes, and other forms of voices

Version 2

WHAT

Thermal video to augment the documentation of a sculpture process involving plaster and bodies. Video is shown on a flatscreen placed upon a black metal stand at eye level, some chairs are placed in a semicircle in front of the screen. At some point in the video the virtual counterparts of these chairs appear as a backdrop to form a full yet shifting circle with the ones placed in the physical space.

HOW

Nylon stockings as envelopes into which liquid plaster is poured. Pressed against a body, the physical properties of the stocking allow for the plaster to flow relatively free - it becomes both a mould for the body part it is in contact with and a form of it’s own accord.

The chemical reaction, set in motion once the plaster powder is mixed with water, causes the new formed body to produce heat.
 A thermal camera detects radiation in the long-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and produces images of that radiation, possibly neglecting skins or surfaces, and by that merging previously unconnected human and non-human entities into new forms. The original sound recording of the video is replaced by the perpetual crushing of ocean waves and cartoon sounds placed at specific moments of human and non-human body interaction. The sounds serve as a way to imagine the form of voice an object could develop in such an interaction.

WHY

to find a way to engage with a specific technology in a curious and amateurish way, to expand the approach to a material plaster beyond tactile experience, to think about thresholds, to think about air, to think about bodies and skins and the eye and other forms of eyes, and other forms of voices