Category: Unit 2

Positions Through Contextualising 1.2

Can digital spaces, through transcending time and distance, provide fertile spaces for communal grief? My primary explorations focused both on the material implications of life and death online, as well as the change from institutional grieving to “vernacular” (Arnold et. al, 2017 pp. 24) modes of mourning as engendered by the rise of social media.

A shared template that encourages those mourning from afar to load items of resonance (this could be facilitated online). . .
…once completed, becomes a shared artefact of mourning / A pyre that can be burned simultaneously at location across the world.

Arnold, M, Gibbs, M, Kohn, T, Meese, J, & Nansen, B. (2017) Death and Digital Media. London: Taylor & Francis Group. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [17 May 2022].

Positions Through Contextualising 1.1

Elaborating upon my Positions Through Iterating Project I chose to focus on the following article from my bibliography…

Tait, A. (2019) ‘What happens to our online identities when we die?’, The Guardian, 2  June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/02/digital-legacy-control-online-identities-when-we-die (Accessed: 05/05/22)

Thinking of the mundane objects that define our lives, I sought ways to use my 3D-scanned objects from the previous unit in ways that underscore the material / immaterial implications of life and death online.

A Digital Funeral Pyre.

Positions Through Iterating 2.1

Following feedback from my tutorial group I decided to pursue a line of enquiry that examines notions of situatedness and personhood as they arise in an ‘objective’ tech-orientated world.

A Collection of Mundane Objects [3D scans].
Using the body as a direct tool for sculpting [3D scan].

Positions Through Iterating 1.2

My choice of snippet from Unit 1 was a 3D pot that I had rendered in Cinema 4D as part of U1: Methods of Contextualising. I went on to experiment further with texture maps in C4D, using this feature in combination with my illustrative practice to explore questions of materiality in digital 3D spaces.

My chosen snippet from U1.
Playing with fashion brand motifs.
Vases featuring data from my Libre Link glucose sensor.
Illustrative Approaches.
Exploring Materials.

Positions Through Iterating 1.1

Early Experiments (Searching for Content). Using Cinema 4D I created objects with a mirrored texture. I placed these objects in an environment that featured a HDRI map creating using on a photograph of a location in Hackney. It was interesting to see how each shape distorted the image. Ultimately I found this route of enquiry to be lacking in sufficient depth for 100 iterations and abandoned it.