by Volkan Eke
The following documents my attempts at recreating a collectible figure. I have opted for a digital reconstruction: the DIY videos online detailing similar processes outline a 3 step process: 3D Scan the figure, rearrange it using a modeling sofware and 3D print it. As such, these descriptions in part also prescribes a vision of history where anything is doable, but specifically, anything can be translated from beyond the screen to into it and vice versa. My fieldnotes record quite a few gaps in practice where a smoother process of translation would normally be expected to occur. Whereas the podcast series reenact some of the feel of working with this vision, intentionally instrumentalising my earlier failures with working with technology, by turning it into a script for what to do in a future history of technology.
SI (object, standing, history)
In this world, there are persons that are not born human.
I created a pretty avatar the other day, hair and costume the whole of it. For now, it’s standing there when I log in. As the face of my photo when you drop in.
Last I saw her, she was in her room, prepping for bed. I’m scrolling through our photos now, there she is that day we went to hiking. And that day we went to the beach. She is there too. She’s always there.
I close the lid wondering.. where do they go when we turn it off?
[silence]
We can create pretty much anything now. Characters, imagine that! Whole persons unto them- selves. Moments: stuff we lived together. Memories: photos of this stuff. Our devices abound with proofs of this sort. In every and each one of them, our characters are there, standing with us.
There, a person stands. In our augmented reality photobooks, on the face of our many profiles. Right there in the display in our rooms.
Take a deep breath. You just made a person out of an object. Now, make it again.
[silence]
When I was confronted with the daunting task to recreate a historical object, I was held momentarily on the line. Like anything was possible. DIY, cranked up to eleven.
Yet if it is you standing there, then I figured I’m gonna take that as you. I don’t know where you go when I turn it off, but when I come back, I come back to you still standing.
That this new thing I will have created can stand, will be proof then, that this object, is you–really you. Standing there. Still standing.
We live in a present where it is ok, to ask that the machine be there for the nonmachine. You live in a present where it is ok to ask that you exist on, and beyond the screen equally. So I will ask the machine to take you off of the screen, or maybe even in the screen first. This will be our present. The history of our present.
SII (3D Scanning)
In this world, there are persons that are not born human. There, a person stands.
I know because I put the figure, your figure, Touka, right there at the center of the space
Standing still in the absolute clarity of, figure-ness
1
2
I can do this
3
4
5
Hold it steady
6
7
8
Hold it ok
9
10
My arms are burning
11
12
13
my legs.. they’re going wrong 14
15
the floorboards, stay still
16
17
i can sense a disturbance
18
19.
[silence]
19 shots, taken. I’m amazed I made it so far. [shuffling pants]
There, the person stands.
And here, I move.
Slowly. Carefully.
[READ THE ERROR MESSAGE OUT LOUD “Keep your distance to a Xfeet min.”]
Oops. Too close.
There, the person stands.
And here, I move. Slowly.
Carefully.
Circling.
I see ephemeral outline on the screen.
I see the object behind..
[READ THE ERROR MESSAGE OUT LOUD “Realign the object and the camera”]
sigh. what’s all this ghost effects. and red, all the warnings are red.
There, the person stands.
And here, I move. Slowly.
Carefully.
Circling.
I see the ephemeral outline on the screen. right
I see the object behind. sure.
I see a white smudge,
taking over..
covering the object..
like a plaster with..
with..an agenda..!
I see on the screen something
like a plaster
possessing the object,
wait no, possessing Touka..
I see Touka behind the screen
faithful to what it was a moment ago
still standing..
[READ THE ERROR MESSAGE: “You haven’t shut the whole 360 degree, are you sure you want to finish?”]
SIII (Unity)
PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR FILE TYPE.
Take a deep breath. Hope that Touka will still stand when I choose.
I choose a file type. The Touka I know implodes into 3 pieces. Sent to me as attachments. I’m looking at the files I download on my computer, and to the figure standing on my desk.. and trying to reconstruct first in my mind’s eye.
How does an object, a someone, turn into something else like this. Like these?
What am I going to say to the object now?
How can I unify?
Unity. That’s it.
Digital worlds, and the figures that inhabit them, are known to form a unity.
[silence]
open unity
[double-click] touakafhturt
PLEASE NAME YOUR PROJECT
Project? i’m not good at projecting
just gonna name it.. uh Touka_Reconstruction.. this is embarassing..
[keyboard strokes]
i am now swallowed by an interface.
there is the scene view.. infinitely expanding into the horizon deep into my screen and the notorious hierarchy view
i’ve been taught, strictly, that if an object is not listed under hierarchy
it stops to exist
i’m putting Touka under the hierarchy
I don’t know how i feel about this.
but it’s for her own good
everything that exists
and their components that you didn’t know existed
are here.
mine to move around
[mouse scratching]
the shape somehow looks weird though.
like like what happened to her hair..
like part of that whatever it is that makes you look like yourself?
like that part is missing..
let’s see under inspector view maybe i can grasp at a sense here
transform..
scale..
wait, scale?
i can change touka’s scale?
when did that become my decision! no not that…
coordinates..
this – goes into this [mouse ball roll]
oh! where did it go?!
where do they go?
nowhere, i just moved the camera, if only i can move back to where it was..
when you turn it off?
turn it? wait what no stop!
don’t turn it off i’m not finished i don’t wanna turn it off
you don’t know where they go..
no i told you. it’s I who moved..
how do they stand?
stand? see here you add a component.. a.. what’s called a rigidbody,
trust me.
you see the scale here?
just have to slide it..
but, but light passes through her, this doesn’t look right..
how do they stand still?
i.. i don’t know.. this doesn’t look solid enough..
i don’t know how to …
but you know..
no there must be something i’m missing!
..that when you come back
let me see
hierarchy…
you come back to them still,
gameObject..
standing..
gameObject
.. not found?