User:Francg/expub/media-writing/work-description

Untreated Bodies

The tendency of the Internet to objectify our bodies by mainly using the female's form as a tool of powerful influence for propaganda has made an important effect in society. This work creates an analogy between the role of specific technology (3D scanning, prototyping and 3D printing) and how we humans are moulded by perception, showing how the organic physical qualities of a nude body can be teleported to hyperspace, turning it into a malleable unprocessed entity hanging inside a dark void, which eventually can be spat out back again into a physical state, becoming an unrefined object that has changed its values.

The work consists of two high gloss prints mounted on c-bond (880 x 880 mm) and two 3D printed prototypes (250 x 300 mm) of women legs and lower torso, appearing like cut, clinical, cold and faceless chunks of digitalized shapes. By connecting Kinect sensor (old device for playing games with the X Box) to a laptop, a nude body can be scanned in depth and transmutated into a digital file, which can be edited, unlimitlessly stretched and finally 3D printed. The 3D prototypes were printed with Ultimaker and later spray-painted in red colour in order to enhance their untreated qualities.

The dangers of online objectification are then interpreted and displayed in a horrifyingly accurate way, sensibly but aggressively expressing how technology can morph us all into mere objects, removing any sense of human connection. This work does not only explores and seeks female empowerment but also critiques gender inequality in the digital realm. In such a way, the new digital technologies are slowly but continuously merging us all together into a very significant time in which we will all eventually rely from computerized devices. Being that the case, having no control in a democratized new coming media, independent thinking will become the most valuable virtue.

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Re-edited text

This work is an installation that consists of two high gloss digital prints mounted on c-bond (880 x 880 mm) and two 3D printed prototypes (250 x 300 mm) spray-painted in dark red colour of women legs and lower torso, appearing like cut, clinical, cold and faceless chunks of digitalized shapes. It demonstrates the tendency of the digital medias to objectify our bodies for commercial purposes, but above all the female’s form, which is used by technology as a tool of powerful influence for propaganda and the Internet.

To do this, I connected the Kinect sensor (old device for playing games with the X Box) to a laptop and 3D scanned in depth a nude female body, creating a digital file that can be edited and unlimitlessly strechted in Blender or Photoshop. This file can be either converted for digital print in any desired dimension, or 3D printed by using Cura software and Ultimaker 3D printer. That is to say, the physical qualities of an organic form can be teleported to hyperspace, turning it into a malleable unprocessed entity hanging inside a dark void, which eventually can be spat out back again to reality in a physical state, becoming an unrefined object that has changed its values.

By doing this, I create an analogy between three specific technologies: 3D scanning, prototyping and 3D printing and the idea of media manipulation, showing how we humans are moulded by perception. The dangers of online objectification are then interpreted and displayed in a horrifyingly accurate way, sensibly but aggressively expressing gender inequality, exploring female empowerment and how in our digital age technology can morph us all into mere objects, removing any sense of human connection, merging us all together into a very significant time in which we will all eventually rely from computerized devices.