EVASYS Experience

The artificial body, or: How close is the recording of personal body data to the building and construction of identity?

Eva Wohlgemuth always wanted to do something that nobody else did before. With her Bodyscan, she really is the first artist who made a full body scan of herself. This she did at Cyberware, in Monterey, California on Friday, February 7, 1997.

MOTIVATION

The motivation for the Bodyscan developed out of Eva's long term System Work, based on the definition of geographic locations. In her pre-tech work, before Net.art, Eva created these conceptual location sculptures, together with Andreas Baumann (and others), and distributed objects on the surface of the earth following a certain logic (system). The System Work from 1989 to 1995, as shown on the WWW, was part of this year's documenta X web art selection.

Going from the surface of the earth, to the surface of one's skin seemed to be natural to Eva. With this step in her work, she tries to clear-up what the definition of location really means. It seemed to be most interesting to start with manipulations of her own skin surface, which she did with tattoos, marking seven locations on her body.

I carried these tattoos around for some time, asking myself what they could mean. A good friend of mine who saw these body points that I also had on my website The Evasys Experience, Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert. told me about 3D scanners, which was newly able to scan even a complete body.

Eva Wohlgemuth

THE SCAN

Cyberware, a successful 3D digital modeling company housed in a former truckers garage is located in Monterey's industrial strip on the California coast, at the very edge of the conceptual Silicon Valley. The only company that offers this service, Cyberware normally caters to clients like the U.S. Military or to Hollywood film productions. For example, all of the U.S. Astronauts, the crew of the Enterprise (Star Trek), the dino models for Jurassic Park, Arnold Schwarzeneger (Terminater II), Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her), and Meg Ryan (Innerspace) have all been scanned.

Only five Cyberware full body scan units exist. The only "public access" to one is in Monterey. One unit was recently sold to Fugi University in Japan, and three others are the property of the U.S. Military. Yes, there are other 3D scanners, but they are not capable of recording the entire body in one sweep. It takes only 17 seconds, which according to C.J., the Cyberware technician, is a breakthrough because now the massive amounts of data necessary to map the body using laser optics can be done in a time frame that a person can actually stand still for.

The scanner itself is made up of a circular platform, which is surrounded by four scanning modules and a lighting system. The modules move vertically, and hold the lasers which record the body surface precisely, in a matter of 17 seconds. Objects up to 2 meters 20 can be scanned. The results can be observed immediately.

The surface of my body was recorded as 25,000 points, which results in a data file for which every point is described as a coordinate made up of three axes, expressed with a number consisting of 8 decimal points. During the scan, my body was recorded as an outer surface, in contrast to the visible human project, where single slices of a complete (dead) body were digitized for analysis.

Eva Wohlgemuth

From this one scan, three different processing steps were made. First, via a 3D program, the points were displayed as a simple wireframe model, where every wireframe point can be manipulated, in general. In the next steps, the wireframe model was wrapped with surfaces and structures. Fur, plastic, wood or marble are pre-prepared industrial software structures which Eva tested in a playful way, in a mix between fascination and technical experimentation.

"Right side or left side: two views in white plastic surface texture." Eva regards the basics of rendering, like the reflection of light, Ray Tracing, and Phong Shading, as games that take up her time.

THE INSIDE

The Bodyscan project was adapted for Linz's Ars Electronica Center "Museum of the Future" in September 1997, for the Ars Electronica 1997 Festival. In this highly charged environment, the data of her body was displayed in the 'Humphrey', a virtual reality ride_set at the AEC, where the user is alone and hanging freely --like a bird-- in a harness, wearing a head mounted display to view visual data. The landscape through which this year's Humphrey user could fly was Eva's body.

I have had to learn the tools to work on my data_set. In Linz, we simply put a transparent pattern inside the Bodyscan file, like a wallpaper. This can be seen like a projection surface, on which information is somehow displaced. A further step was produced, that allowed the virtual entrance into my body. The first phases, in which my body was only observable from the outside, was only due to my technical limitations.

Eva Wohlgemuth

IN BETWEEN: NEW ACCESS TO THE BODY CONCEPT

Eva's concept of body is different from the concept of improvement, or of the extension of the body, like Stelarc's third hand, or the stimulation of certain body parts (Cyber SM and other works by S. Stenslie/K. Mork), or even the remote controlled plastic surgery of Orlan. Basically, hers is a research of the influences on the outside of her data body.

The users of the Bodyscan always have influence over the data_set. Sure, this influence is controlled, but users can directly manipulate the surface and change certain points. In small steps, Eva is developing a personal thematic process based on the body, and the construction of identity.

Several questions immediately showed up with the making of the Bodyscan data_set. These were questions on my identity, and on the other hand on the view of the researched object: the body.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

A work in progress, the Bodyscan is very ambivalent. At the moment, her relationship to the views of her body are linked to the Bodyscan variations and her personal stories. She describes the data_set as she would her own body, which poses additional questions about reality-based self-identity.

Eva refers to her data_set with this remark:

When the body is represented as big as a landscape, like hers is at AEC, it is experienced as a landscape.

The people from the art context are (maybe) just to shy to admit that you also can get very close to the body by this kind of presentation at the AEC. I tried to deal with the contrast between the data_body and the person that I am. I show the Bodyscan, which follows mechanistic principles, and on the other hand, sketches and unfinished drafts of my thinking, which I let fly like fog around my body.

I also have made several efforts to animate this body, to make it breath. This I want to develop further to bring the realistic image to its full realization. And, to explore where it all starts, that this data_set is recognized as an identity.

Eva Wohlgemuth

AIMS

I took my female body because it was my body. It was the closest choice for me. I also could have done this with a male body. Concerning the female body, I don't have a specific theory. Up to now, I have not been asked for this in discussions.

Eva's idea, what she wants to do with her Bodyscan, is "to take influences from outside on it, which I want to crystallize -- maybe even in printouts".

I always proceeded like this in my work, that I researched certain things in all aspects. At the Bodyscan, I was focusing on the distance, the coldness (of the mechanistic body)...meaning these shiny surfaces.

I want to make a starting point for research on the different aspects of my body. I want to make the work develop and grow intuitively. I think that women deal more playfully with their self-image, and are not as stuck in their definition of their unique personality.

Eva Wohlgemuth