2. Digital bodies¶
This week I was taken back to my first year of college, to my introductory course of 3D modeling and to my first laser cutting assignment haha. Obviously that’s a good thing for me since i didn’t open a 3D program since 2018.
Research¶
Renaissance Bodies¶
Let’s talk about the artistic era that made me fall in love with the arts.
The Reinassance culture meant a return to rationalism, the study of nature, empirical research, with special influence from classical Greco-Roman philosophy.
Their aesthetics were based on beauty oscillated between a realistic conception of imitation of nature and an ideal vision of supernatural perfection, with the visible world being the path to a supersensible dimension. All of this is achieved through perspective and the studies of proportions, like the Golden Number.
For me, it’s all about divine bodies.
Voguing¶
And now, let’s talk about THE BALL. The Ball Culture persists and has left its legacy in the world of fashion, entertainment, art, music and activism. Born in 1920’s NYC, the dance halls were the representation of a subversive and revolutionary environment that celebrates and exalts the diversity of races, genders and especially sexual diversity.
In this context, voguing arises, a dance style that seeks to imitate the poses of models in Vogue magazine; in addition to retaking poses of Egyptian hieroglyphics, martial arts and gymnastics figures. This dance consists of a form of expression through which the dancers create a character that reinterprets elements related to femininity; at the same time that it redefines ideals of beauty, sexuality and social class.
The culture of dances flies the flag of pride and diversity and to this day it continues to be a referent that invites you to challenge the barriers of fashion, beauty and gender.
Let’s get our hands dirty¶
Thanks to the class, I've been introduced to a new way to do a human body 3D model, SCANNING! but unfortunately, as i’m not at the FabLab in Barcelona yet, i could not scan myself ☹, but i’m going to do it, no worries.
Luckily for me, in my university I have the FabLab UAI where I could talk with the fab manager and he let me do this week’s assignment ☺.
First of all, with my research in my hands, I started to create my 3D human body model in MakeHuman, then I made a little mix with a renaissance body and my own body measurements. Then I look for several poses in the community library and download 3 final files.
Once I chose 1 of the 3 bodies, I decided to make a bust, “but let’s make it voguing” I said, like she’s dancing with her hands striking the pose. For the trimming of the body I use Rhinoceros as my main program.
Then, I exported to Slicer for Fusion 360, and decided to make it with the stacked slides technique because it’s not a big model and it needs a good resolution for the hands and face details.
Once I exported the cutting plans, I exported them again into Rhino, to make a file with better nesting, so finally I passed through a file with 5 cutting plans to one with 4 cutting plans (From 1 to 2).
Finally, I went to the FabLab in the UAI and started laser cutting.
FabLab UAI computer
Laser cutting machines
Rhino Print Command
Laser cutting settings, it always change depending on the material, in my case it's 770x550x5 mm corrugated cardboard, the settings were:
For Cut: 95% SPEED, 95% POWER For Engraving: 100% SPEED, 50% POWER
Cutting process
The final cardboard with the "layout" presentation
Trying not to lose the pieces
Bust assemble process¶
The final results¶
And since I can't take this mannequin to Barcelona for obvious reasons of volume haha, my sister decided to keep it to have it in her room and to be able to put her accessories on it.
If you want to download the 3D model and the 2D cutting plans, you can do it here
P.S: About one topic that's on the check list of "Digital Bodies Documentation" that is 3D scanning, i wasn't able to to it cause i was not in Barcelona yet, so sorry :(, but still you can check on my Fabricademy's friends documentation :D
Thanks for reading! See you next week!