seductive Grotesque Augmented Reality Virtual Sculptures
seductive GROTESQUE Virtual Sculptures presents digital sculptures that can be viewed as 3D objects using augmented reality (the overlay of digital imagery over views of the world in real time). The statues are digitally generated objects. Pointing a smartphone camera to one of the sculpture bases triggers the appearance of the figure as a 3D virtual object - it can then be viewed from all angles and experienced in the real space of the gallery like a physical sculpture. These figures re-imagine the sculptural tradition of the allegorical figure characterized by the personification of abstract ideals in the human form. In the allegorical work, events stand out from every-day human drama through their commemoration in the body itself - high human achievement and ideals are personified and immortalized in the idealized body. The Grotesque, carnivalesque in nature, roots the body back to earth and gives expression to the corporeal and the emotional. Like the carnival the grotesque gives life to the most visceral of expression and upends the official hierarchies - ugly becomes beauty, the most common can be crowned king for a day.
In this project I continue the line of inquiry started in my 2009 exhibition "The Valley" in which I used videos of photo-realistic avatars mimicking the basic human function of breathing to give viewers a sense of the "uncanny valley" (the experience of unease when confronted with almost perfectly believable human depictions). In Seductive GROTESQUE, I use 3D renderings and Augmented Reality to create a space where the virtual and the real coexist. Paulo Majano Project Presented at: Inside AR - Augmented Reality Conference. Munich, Germany. October 2013. 2nd Place in "Work of ARt", International Augmented Reality Art Competition. A preview of the project was presented at Arbutus Gallery, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia Jul 25-Aug 9 2013. |
seductive GROTESQUE
Virtual Sculptures Augmented Reality Project |