Seminar: Nature/Data (2016)
Bodies
Rahel Sarasin
Our relationship to nature first starts with ourselves, with our bodies. We live in them or more bluntly, we are them. Although we have learnt to alter and form our bodies drastically, we still feel our bodies as a product of nature that follows its own specific rules. I was very much interested in the digital reproduction or translation of the living body as a manifestation of physical matter into a digital matter. While 3D scanning a body glitches may appear on the reproduced body surface or geometrical shell. What I found interesting is that these glitches help us to anticipate a “natural” or “real” body rather than a perfect sleek image. This digital randomness created by the technique of 3D scanning is exactly what serves as an imitation of the randomness of nature. In my video I want to discuss and expand these topics in an abstracted, visual way.