2. Digital bodies¶

RESEARCH & IDEATION¶

Images credits (edited by me): - Vitruvian Man - Marie-Antoinette on a visit to Medellin - Modulor

FERNANDO BOTERO¶

A Colombian painter and sculptor, who is internationally renowned for his unique figurative style, known as “Boterismo.” He exaggerates the human form, portraying people in fat, disproportionate ways as a critical commentary on society. As a Colombian I grew up watching his work, and what gets my attention is that he never searched for the perfect body but instead the opposite and that’s what makes his work unique. Through his pieces, Botero reflects our history and culture, blending it with his experiences studying and living in Europe.

VITRUVIAN MAN - DA VINCI¶

Also, coming from an architectural background we looked at Vitruvius work, and how Da Vinci based the man proportions on his work. It represents proportion, balance and harmony, but is well known that this is based on a man’s body, and it doesn´t apply to all body types, is more an idealized and generalized version of the human body which searches for perfection.

from left to right: Fernando Botero, Leonardo Da Vinci, Le Corbusier

Images credits: - Botero - Da Vinci - Corbusier

MODULOR - LE CORBUSIER¶

Le Corbusier always looked to systematize his work as an architect, even so he wrote the 5 points of architecture as key principles that we should follow, and made a system of proportions based on a combination of the human body and the golden ratio and he used a man’s body with an average height of 1.83 meters to standardized the heights used in architectural design, but this cannot be used for everybody, as everybody is completely different and architecture should adapt to each client and embrace diversity.

So here we have two completely opposites perspectives about the human body, one which is looking for perfection and standardization and on the other hand, it even deforms the body to make it even more imperfect and lost of proportion

INSPIRATION & REFERENCES¶

My inspiration is all body shapes and my own body, I didn’t want to show the perfect body through this week’s project, but instead show the reality behind it. As someone who grew within social media era, I’ve always been concerned about how other people perceive my body and always trying to fit into society standards, even considering surgery to get bigger breasts, smaller waist and things like that, luckily through this journey I’ve learnt lo love my body as it is, and to be thankful because it lets me do all things I love as running, hugging my loved ones, swimming, so now I’m still fighting those toxic thoughts but care more about being healthy and the ability to move as much as possible.

For this project, I aimed to create a 1:1 scale model of my torso to better understand my body and use it as a mannequin.

The references that caught my attention from previous students are:

MINA SMITH

IMGs credits

CAMILLE BAROT

IMGs credits

I chose them because they use their insecurities in their favor and work with them instead of hiding them, which I find deeply inspiring.

TOOLS¶

PROCESS¶

SCANNING¶

This model ¹ was obtained by using kinect's scanner

We learnt how to scan our body with the Kinect from the Xbox and with a fancier scanner. Luckily that day I was wearing tight jeans and took my t-shirt off so I could get the closest result as possible of my body shape. I tried both scanners and loved the result I got with the Kinect one as I didn’t want it to have that much detail, I just cared about the shape, and it was just what I envisioned. It was so much fun, we scanned each other in the classroom and learnt how to use the software. I would love to use something like this for my final project or even 3d print a small version of my body.

We could also use another software that was thaught to us ´MakeHuman´

MESHMIXER¶

Initially, I wanted to shape my body as how I’ve always dreamt about, but during the process I found out that I didn’t like that because it wasn’t my body anymore, so I decided to play around with the software and have some fun but to not use this modified body but instead, the real one from the scanner.

RHINOCEROS 3D¶

Here in the next video you can see the step by step process I used for cutting my mesh in Rhinoceros with some tips

This was the model obtained ²

When you import the mesh you can explode it and delete easily 
the pieces that are part of the environment and aren'r touching 
the body when scanning.

3D BUILDER¶

I used this software which is my new hero to fix a mesh even more easily that in Rhinoceros. I highly recommend that if you haven´t used Rhino before, this software is the fastest and easiest way to repair your meshes.

SLICER FOR FUSION 360¶

Now through this software we're getting the pieces that we're going to laser cut!!!

LASER CUT !!!¶

After we send the file to the trotec software, we have to adjust the engraving and cutting power and speed, in the lab we have all the information we need to have a starting point about the settings

IT CUTS!

Important Things to Be Aware of When Using the Laser Machine¶

Never allow a flame to occur during cutting!
A flame means something is wrong and could lead to a fire. This is dangerous and must be avoided!
Ensure the cardboard is as flat as possible.
Adjust power and speed settings correctly:
More power = Less speed.
Always verify slot measurements in Rhinoceros before cutting.
Use the lab’s default laser cutting values as a starting point:
Always do a trial cut first before cutting all the pieces, and adjust the values accordingly based on your material.