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2. Digital bodies

Research & Ideation

The most studied concepts due to its proportions, measurements, identity, and composition, and has been a source of inspiration for all kinds of works in the context of art and design. In the modern context, the body is no longer just an anatomical form but has become a system and an archive that provides information that can be used to generate forms. It can also be digitized, fragmented, modified, repeated, interpreted, and reinterpreted using different tools. In this assignment, that is precisely what we are looking for: to use computational tools to explore the body and generate different forms.

Through digital design and manufacturing, the digitized body becomes a hybrid object: simultaneously biological and technological. The translation of the body into a 3D model allows us to explore new forms of materialization, where the skin can be understood as a structural surface, volume as a constructive system, and the body as a mold adaptable to different manufacturing processes.

weekly assignment

Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.

about your images..delete the tip!!

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :)

This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation. Remove tips when you don't need them anymore!

get inspired!

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

References & Inspiration

Antony Gormley explores the body as an anonymous and universal entity, using body casts to examine the interaction between humans and their environment. In his work, the human representation is not presented as a portrait, but as a physical reference to presence, in which the repetition of objects and forms, as well as simplification, eliminate individual identity and accentuate the experience of space and the human body.

Body work


Jonathan Borofsky's work serves as a reference for understanding the human body as an abstract, digitizable, and repeatable form. His human figures, reduced to simple silhouettes, eliminate individual identity and transform the body into a modular unit that can be easily translated into geometry. The body acts as a structural element that activates space and can be captured, edited, scaled, and replicated.

Archetypal silhouette


about your images..

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :) This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation.

Tools

Process and workflow

Digitalization- Scanner

For the first part of the assignment, I decided to experiment with the Poly Cam mobile scanning app. I realized that it is a great option because it is fast, accessible, and accurate enough to work with the human body. One recommendation to keep in mind is that you need very good lighting, and the more photos you take of the object, the more realistic and detailed it will be. I took around 80-90 images to capture a full body.

And this was the final 3D model 1

Human Body Scan by monseislas on Sketchfab

Make human

After this, I wanted to try out another tool for working with the human body and making different adaptations, so the Make Human app was ideal, as it is open-source software designed for creating digital models of the human body in a parametric way.

And the final bodi was this

Then, I used Rhino to remove the parts I didn't want, which were mainly the extremities such as the head, arms, and legs. I did this with the BooleanSplit command and planes and I obtained this model 2

TORSO by monseislas on Sketchfab

Slicer for fusion

Once I have my STL file, I go to Slicer for Fusion, which is a digital manufacturing tool that allows you to transform three-dimensional models into 2D sectioning systems ready to be manufactured using laser cutting, CNC, or manual assembly. From a 3D model, the software automatically generates flat pieces that, once cut and assembled, reconstruct the original volume.

Import your file and start to change the material configuration

These are three options that I liked to cut but I chose the second one.

Laser Cutting

Laser cutting is a digital production method that uses a concentrated beam of light to engrave or cut materials with high precision. Using 2D digital files, it enables the rapid and controlled reproduction of complex geometries; it is often used to create flat elements that can then be integrated into three-dimensional structures.

To start cutting follow this steps

### KERF###

The term “kerf” in laser cutting refers to the width of material removed as a result of the thickness of the laser beam throughout the cutting process. Since the laser is not an infinitely thin line, it burns and removes a small amount of material, which has a direct impact on the dimensional accuracy of the parts. It is crucial to take kerf into account to achieve proper assemblies, especially in press-fit cutting and assembly systems, because omitting it could result in joints that are too tight or too loose. You can read more about the importance Here

Now, let´s cut. I used 3 mm cardboard to cut my pieces. This is the DXF file to cut. 3

ASSEMBLY

footnote fabrication files

Fabrication files are a necessary element for evaluation. You can add the fabrication files at the bottom of the page and simply link them as a footnote. This was your work stays organised and files will be all together at the bottom of the page. Footnotes are created using [ ^ 1 ] (without spaces, and referenced as you see at the last chapter of this page) You can reference the fabrication files to multiple places on your page as you see for footnote nr. 2 also present in the Gallery.

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Fabrication files

  1. File: SCAN MODEL ↩

  2. File: TORSO ↩

  3. File: CUTTING SHEETS ↩