Due to the shifting in concepts of SCP-CMU-920, my model design of SCP-CMU-920 becomes more ambitious given the amount of time I have during the Thanksgiving break and weeks after. Therefore, I decided to create a full-body sculpture of SCP-CMU-920 with complex poses and other auxiliary objects to define and reflect at least some property written on the text document of SCP-CMU-920.
For now, among the tools I have learned in class, I find proficiency in ZBrush is the most challenging one as well as the most rewarding one since it is the most convenient too to create organic sculptures (most things around us are in fact, organic). Therefore I also want to use this chance to improve my skill in ZBrush. During the process, I expect myself to watch a lot of tutorials on YouTube to figure out the full possibilities with ZBrush.
Here, I started the pose-making by adjusting the manique shipped by ZBrush as a nice starting point so that I don't have to worry about the proportion of the human body too much before sculpting.
Here, I turned the manique into a 3D mesh that I can start sculpting on. After smoothing the surface from a robotic sculpture to a more organic human. Then, I extract a layer of the organic skin to make the clothes for SCP-CMU-920.
Sculpting virtually can sometimes be more complex than sculpting physically because one brush can only do one thing. For example, using Standard Brush to move the shape of the clothes can be very painful without Move Brush. The rotation and zooming need practices to become instinctual because I have to remember a lot of keyboard shortcuts in my muscle memory. Therefore, I have to spend a lot of time to try different brushes as well as to explore some hidden functionality of ZBrush.
Here, I added a "subtool" to model the hair of SCP-CMU-920 as another layer so that I can modify the hair easily without accidentally touch on the face.
With a lot of labor, I gradually learned how to make folds on clothes to make SCP-CMU-920 realistic by adding details. Making the correct folds requires careful study on physics and how textile work. (sadly I didn't have experience in drawing the folding of clothes - imagining how clothes can fold correctly is hard.) Anyway, in the end, I created something I am satisfied with.
Then, since I am not super proficient with the basic function of Fusion, I created a desk, a chair, and a computer for SCP-CMU-920. I resized them into C4D to do the final renderings.
How would you describe Sarah Brady’s work? What materials is she using, what is her research practice, and how do her processes / materials and her research inform the final meaning of the work? What is her critique of technology and the field of aerospace science, and how does this come across in her talk and works? Include references to technologies, historical art works / or art traditions that may come to mind (not just those referenced by Sarah), and you must include at least one reference to another contemporary artist you would put in conversation with Sarah Brady. Who does her work remind you of, or what other projects are interesting in dialogue with hers?
Website: Here
Artists About:
research
speak on data colonialism, AI, autonomous
earth and space
computational craft and active media
wanted to generate textile pattern, but, data
how machine see
stimulant of mars materials
3D aluminum printing, black hole
Material:
sculptures to capture endangered species
digital understanding of language (GAN: on world language) -> turned into sculpture
Research Practice
Meaning of the Work
Critique on Technology
Critique on Science
Many of Sarah Brady's work uses technology as a medium to establish critique on science and technology. Her topics of discourse include data colonialism, AI, and automation. She loves to explore science, including biology, astrophysics, and computational technologies. Aside from these science and academic-related topics, she loves to explore the connection of spirit line in the textile industry and everything else.
Most of her work consists of generative digital imagery, but she also uses technology to create items from 3D printings and modeling: including plastics, aluminum, and textile. She is currently doing research with a laboratory. The use of aluminum in her work resembles light-weight machines like spacecraft, which relates to the meaning of many of her work.
She establishes critiques on data colonialism: how big companies collect and use a larger amount of user data to create profit. Her work also explores and appreciates the underlying labor and extensive human resources to create the technology that we enjoy today. In addition, she critiques the "space race" to colonize the moon and Mars by comparing them to the American West in the colonial period.
There are two contemporary artists that I like to mention who did similar things as Sarah Brady. Sarah Brady generated a lot of her artwork using computer graphics such as Convolutional Neural Networks and perhaps Generative Adversarial Networks. Philippe Starck also uses AI technologies to generate chair sculptures. (see https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/11/ai-chair-philippe-starck-kartell-autodesk-artificial-intelligence-video/) And I am the second contemporary artists who I like to mention. In my high school senior year, I also trained several types of Convolutional Neural Networks to do arts for me. I also explored the same idea as Sarah Brady did: to see how computers interpret the world and to use computers to generate written characters. For detailed descriptions, see the images below:
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