2. Digital bodies¶

Research & Ideation¶

For this new week “Digital Bodies”, I first explored the work of former Fabricacademy students. Two projects caught my attention in particular: those of Diane Wakim and Jeanne Neboit.

Both focus on the hand, a part of the body that deeply interests me, since it is not only my main tool of work but also the site of a personal physical transformation. About a year ago, a bump appeared on my hand, between the wrist and the thumb, caused by the repetitive movements of my artistic practice. This growth, called a “carpe bossu”, has become a permanent feature. I chose to 3D scan it in order to freeze it in time: my hands are changing, they will never be the same as before, and this bump will most likely continue to evolve.

Beyond its intriguing form, this anomaly also comes with chronic pain, for which the only partial relief I’ve found so far is wearing a night splint. It is from this handicap that I want to begin my explorations this week, with the goal of finding ways to ease the pain.

In Diane’s work, I was fascinated by her method of patterning the different facets of her hand in 2D to recreate its 3D shape through folding. Jeanne, on the other hand, managed to apply this approach to textiles, a technique I’ve never tried before, but which intrigues me a lot.

References & Inspiration¶

Logiciels & Tools¶

Process and workflow¶

Firstly, I looked through the fabric of the Green Fabric and selected some samples of materials that interested me. I focused on more natural fabrics, closer to cotton or wool, because highly synthetic textiles are not suitable for laser cutting. Then, Inès gave us a training session on the laser cutter in the workshop. She explained how Inkscape works, as well as Beam, the software we use to send our STL files to the laser cutter. She also went over some safety guidelines and showed us how to adjust the machine’s bed depending on the material we choose to work with.

Scanner and Sense¶

We went to City Fab1 in Brussels to use their scanner. We tried three different postures for my hand: first lying flat on the floor, then placed on a chair, and finally in a handstand position. The last one turned out to be the easiest for Carmen to scan.

Then we used Sense to process the result of the scan. With Sense, we could clean up and improve the 3D model. Since fingers are such small parts of the body, it was difficult to get a very clean and detailed result. But since what really interests me is the wrist and the palm of the hand, the scan was good enough for my work.

Claire/finalhand by clairejouanchicot on Sketchfab

Slicer and Beam¶

Finally, I chose three different textiles: synthetic wadding, wool wadding, and semi-synthetic wool felt. First, I burned a small sample of each to make sure they worked with the laser cutter.

Then, I did a simple sample test on all three materials to observe the different effects. After testing, I chose the felt for my hand because it was more resistant than the others. Next, I tried three different settings to achieve three effects on the textile: engraving, cutting, and scoring.

In Slicer, I opened my hand model in .OBJ format. I chose Folded Panels, exported it as DXF, opened it in Inkscape to get my .SVG, and finally sent it to Beam to the laser cutter.

I did the first test, and it didn’t go perfectly: there were too many facets on the hand, so it broke. I went back to Slicer, reduced the number of panels, and repeated the export process like I did the first time.

The result was better, but it was hard to connect all the parts of the hand. So I decided to add small holes around the different faces to thread them together with wool, allowing the hand to remain flexible and move when I pass my hand through it.

The solution worked well, but it wasn’t the final result. I had to add an elastic thread to give more flexibility, or maybe try another material, like a thinner felt. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to develop this last part yet.