Collaboration
Volumetric Dysmorphia. Digital Bodie/s
This transdisciplinary collaboration with the Grips TheatAR project (2023) explored volumetric video for its affordances in experiential storytelling and the performing arts. Volumetric video is a three-dimensional capture of the transitory image and movement of a body or object in motion. Therefore, it allows artists and creative practitioners without programming skills to create immersive narratives in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). To develop an accessible technical workflow of volumetric video for AR, several software and hardware combinations were tested, while examining materiality, aesthetics, and agentiality.
Collaborators: Marco Aulback, Jonny-Bix Bongers, Mariam Rafehi, Casper Schirdewahn, Varia, Miriam Walter
The glitchy aesthetic of the volumetric video offered an opportunity to experiment with concepts of body imperfection and body dysmorphia, which are amplified by our virtual presence through social media. By merging several bodies into one virtual body it becomes an almost grotesque virtual presence that raises into question our need for social media perfection.
Technical setup: 4 Azure Kinect depth sensors and Depthkit software
The theme of body dysmorphia carried over into the experimentation with the AI-based app Vologram, which presents itself as a new tool for social media content creation and volumetric video. Based on a 5-second and 2D video recording, its algorithm creates a probabilistic output of what the recorded person might look like from the back. Another feature of the algorithm is that it removes non-human elements in which objects create a negative space in the volumetric video. Through several experiments, the limitations and generative qualities of the algorithm were explored and negotiated.
Technical setup: iPad Pro and Vologram app