Luciana Haill - Lucy Porcelain

Augmenting a dream

My work is often influenced by the study of liminal states of consciousness particularly during sleep and surrealist paintings. Adapting this into live art following a recent encounter with a 'false awakening' during Sleep Paralysis or a possible OBE, I documented it upon actual awakening.

I purchased a tiny vintage porcelain doll in the morning from a local antique shop to explore for new work and began with a 90 image photogrammetry capture using 'Polycam 3D' augmented reality app with an iphone 13. I extended the capture with extra frames with the doll lying face down as well as on its back and standing up. The resulting capture was not as anticipated, and the almost dual exposure photographic effect now presented in 3D resembled the vivid dream from the night before, with the paralysed sleeping self at the foot of the doll.

At this time of year in Hastings and St Leonards the sunsets can be phenomenal between 3.30 and 4.30pm so I took a walk to the seafront with my smartphone and triggered her as the sun began to set, the unconnected 3D Polycam and the environment began to merge, mixing a new hybrid reality. The effect the augmented inflated scale of the doll added to the unexpected 'other self', when approached using a phone you see her melting secondary prescence on the promenade, this felt appropriate in a seaside town where ice creams and inflatables are often seen discarded or ruined.

examining Lucy, and her second (melting) face on the pavement - made spontaneously with free software Polycam on an iphone 13

Over 3 days I recorded these images using 2 types of Lucy porcelain scan, the newest one has lost some of the voxels between thighs and lower second half so she floats, I did this by deleting some frames in the unprocessed duplicate capture of the tiny porcelain doll. With careful arrangement, in certain lighting I can achieve an almost realistic prescence- such as as on the wooded groyne on the beach and not increasing the AR projected model in scale. Also looking for reflections of sunset in other elements like cars and bus shelters allows me to place Lucy into a scene as if she is wandering through it.

Lucy waits opposite St Leonards' iconic Marine Court as the sun sets

Anomaly in augmented reality

The porcelain doll i I now call "Lucy' has several digital AR models, it now has two poses melded into one, lying as if melting and standing simultaneously. Immediately this provoked memories from the incredibly vivid, non lucid dream from the 16.01.23. I felt the model was imitating me without being planned. Even her face appearing on the floor has a semblance to my own. The voxels appear to melt into the paving slabs as I move the model around whilst triggering it in front of the sunset on St Leonards sea front. The model even contains some of these colourations from the polycam capture.

Lucy (enlarged over 500% in Polycam3D) views Marine Court

Lucy, whistfully views the sunset as her sleeping self melts into the pavement

close-up of the sleeping face of Lucy on the pavement, projected in AR

another view of Lucy when walking around the model looking down

I proceeded to bring the brain model, and reclining on gold Lucy Porcelain, using Polycam I can choose any capture to trigger in AR, the only issue is in this freezing weather having almost numb fingers when trying to adjust the 3D scale and position on my smartphone with gestural pinches, swipes and drag movements.