Ghosts of Venus

This project was part of a larger research exploration looking at how to deploy emergent technology and hybrid fabrication to nurture subjective individualised responses to archetypical objects. There was a continual focus on method and process with an emphasis placed on an iterative workflow were the narrative entanglement between contents and agency was slowly broken down.

The Venus de Milo was chosen as a subject for its notoriety as a cultural sculpture form that has concepts of authority, style and uniqueness embedded in its identity.

Initially a dataset was created through web scraping were thousands of images depicting the sculpture were gathered. These formed a base which critically questioned the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity. Though a mixed digital modelling processes the 2d visuals were combined to form 3d models. It was then possible to print these in physical form to allow for a manifestation of these hybrid instance state representations.

Following on from this the results were reworked iteratively in lopes that shortened the gap between physical and digital forms of representation. The culmination of the work was projecting AI generated videos over 3d printed sculptures, filming this and feeding the results into a general adversarial network which edited and created new content inspired by the filmed work. The project could then spiral interracially to allow for the fostering of grater subjective engagement with the work.