Second Skin
Group:Boxun, Yixi, Jacob, and Ranga (me)
24th January — 28th January
Brief: Design a way for people to embody and enact the outer appearance of a digital avatar.
Our group started off being confused about what a digital avatar was — and how to manifest the physical and digital in one project. We brainstormed about the subject matter, but I felt like we had the chance to do something out of the ordinary with this project. Championing survivors of sexual violence does not have to be cheerful and bright — I felt like the road could be dark and gritty as well. In lieu of that, I thought Kali could be the muse we needed — the Hindu goddess of feminine wrath could be an apt representation of that painful journey.
We decided to create a physical aspect of Kali — a plaster mask that showed her as depicted, and a holographic presentation that became the digital aspect of the project.
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No one volunteered to be the face of righteous feminine wrath, so my face became the mould for the mask.
After the mask dried and hardened, we also attached a “tongue” made out of plaster to the mask to add more similarity to the goddess. And after that, the mask was painted to complete the facsimile. We also added virtual backgrounds, courtesy of Jacob, but we decided to go with a stationary moon to highlight the religious aspect as well to not detract anything from the live performance.
The digital aspect was actually an issue because the hologram needed 4 screens — each projecting the same image — to work. However, the transition from projecting an image to projecting a live video proved arduous. We decided to use 4 iPads — all of the same make and model — connected via a Zoom meeting to a laptop in a different location that would be projecting the live video.
As an alternative solution, we also experimented with 3D scans.
We did run into some technical issues during the final presentation — the music we meant to play on the speaker was played on a phone and the resultant sound was “tinny”, but otherwise the live performance played out smoothly. We improvised in the nick of time, and that proved key to giving a good performance.
Takeaway: Our group was unable to communicate effectively over the earlier Zoom meetings, but once we started brainstorming in class, our progress sped up considerably. We also split up the tasks — digitally and physically, and found that we found solutions when we helped each other out as a group instead. The presentation had some communication gaps, but I liked our collaborative style a lot in this project.
