3. Phigital world: is it her or is it her?

Calculation and computation saturate our daily life, making it free of material restrictions. Materiality, however, continues to persist and reaffirm itself. The installation Phigital world: is it her or is it her? addresses this dilemma in relation to the perception of a human. By exposing the participant to the overlapping material and digital, we wonder which layer will take over. 

Transfiguration of the space project

phase 1. Space

Personal space was our starting point. What is it? When do we become aware of it? How do we manifest it?

The changing volume of Lady Gaga's dress at the MET Gala 2019 made us think of the physical representation of space and the proximity levels while interacting with others. Abstract concept of personal space becomes here tangible. Clothes set a barrier and protect against intrusion.

phase 2. Being (un)seen.

The metaphor of the red carpet walk: it illustrates the vulnerability of the personal space in its environment. This made us reflect on our own indifference towards being monitored by city-cameras, unconsciously giving away personal data and letting ourselves being a brainless victim of modern technologies like face recognition.

phase 3. What does it mean to have a body?

In the era of omnipotent technologies:

- will being physical work against us? 

- will we remain ourselves?

- will it be possible to trick the technologies and swap personalities?

phase 4. Phigital world

In the reality where material and digital are seamlessly mixed, how do we differentiate between those two? The question we posed here was whether we will pay more attention to our own physicality or rather, the digital version of ourselves? Is there a room for personal space when those two overlap?

Exploration process

In our eyes, the experimental process in this project was more important than a strong concept behind the work. Letting the project develops as we went, in contrary to structured work on a pre-defined conceptual idea, allowed flexibility and helped us to get out of our comfort zones.

Plaster Face Casting

OpenFrameworks - FaceOSC

Resources:

https://www.wgsn.com/blogs/masks-is-privacy-a-fundamental-right-or-luxury-item/

https://www.ted.com/talks/jonah_stillman_the_phigital_world_of_gen_z