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BIL BOK, Special edition for the EXPO-2000 Hannover |
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LAB[au] laboratory for architecture and urbanisme Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock
+ Naziha Mestaoui http://www.electronicshadow.com + Crstof
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i-skin, virtual corporality
The i-skin project, " virtual corporality ", conceived and realized by the fashion designer CRSTOF and the Laboratory for Architecture and Urbanism LAB[au] in the scope of Avignon 2000 exhibition, investigates the themes of Beauty and Body Transformation by confronting them with the emergence and the social implications of modern communication and information technologies. By proposing an experience binding reality to virtuality through the vector of an "avatar", the installation underlines the questions relating to the perception, the representation and the extension of the individual in electronic space. Today's avatars are mainly figurative representations, as simple bodily transpositions possessing limited functionalities, limited coding, they are poor information transmitters. Yet, an avatar has the potential to become an incorporating vector of communication of the complex cultural identification and personal expression codes. Consequently the avatar is the interface that will in the future enable people to experiment virtual environments by new senses and by extending the communication modes. Like the face of a human, the avatar is a screen of faciality, an interface which veils and reveals the identity, the character and the expression; it is similar to a skin, being at the same time a mean of protection and a mean of communication. The installation introduces the visitor to the process of generating such avatar, weaving a link of identification between the person and its double. The visitor participates in real-time to the creation of his/her avatar, enriches it by selecting images, not characterizing the avatar as a blunt figurative representation of the body but rather as a representation of its psyche and behavior, like a mental card (Thinkmap). Indeed, the image, vector of complex codification, translates the mental, cognitive and emotional processes leading, through interactivity and identification, to define the emotionality, the personality and the spirit of an individual. In this manner, the process of creating an avatar, to build a being out of images, illustrates the link between information and appearance. i-skin, an information skin. The images to be selected are presented in three categories (body, clothing and architecture), each one influencing one of the parameters and one of the skins, defining the form and the appearance of the avatar. Each image is treated as a piece of information transforming the avatar and, according to the moment it is selected, builds successively a space integrated into the avatar, where it is recorded. By touching a i-skin, one crosses this space and see the information it absorbed, its code or its constitutive images. Therefore the i-skin, vehicle and personal representation, integrates an architecture of interpersonal communication, thus bridging appearance and communication. The fusion of the 'three skins' in only one representation of the individual thus questions the migration of the body, the spirit and the human directions in electronic space and defines the avatar as a hybrid extension combining within the digital medium, the codes and the functionalities of the body, clothing and architecture. Placed in a three-dimensional environment by the indexing of the various images that constitute them, the i-skins are the vectors of qualification and quantification of the choices of the users. The various stages of the navigation system, the "zooms" inside this space, make it possible to have not only a global picture, a statistical vision but ultimately also to discover a person through his/her space of information/code, vision of the individual. The collective space reveals, through the external and internal visions, the processes of personal affection and social sense of belonging. It also depicts the conception of ' beauty' no more as an ideal and absolute value supported by a social consensus but rather like a multiple value in constant transfer proceeding by affiliation. Accessible on the Internet, the community of i-skins form an electronic collection, allowing not only each visitor to download his/her representative, but also to carry this electronic skin while discovering a new space, a platform of digital/informative exchange. Extending the experimentation of a real world enhanced by the digital one, the scenography of the installation proposes the visitor to penetrate in a space where the image turns into architecture. Through the themes of the body, clothing and architecture, the entirety of the i-skin project plays with the possibilities that new communication and information technologies offer in the mutation of these concepts and their respective value. CRSTOF+LAB[au]
Authors LAB[au], Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock, Naziha Mestaoui CRSTOF, Christophe Beaufays Programming: Geert Bevin, Leila Ait Kaci With the support of Nemo 1 Mission pour la célébration de l'an 2000 en France (http://www.2000enFrance.com) exposition ((La Beauté, Avignon may 27th , oct 1st 2000. |
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© LAB[au] 2000 |
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