Digital Traces is supposed to be a process of importing physical into digital and vice versa, to introduce a material/product/artwork which is Phygital. The very sentences were totally confusing for me, and I have done lots of research during the unit X on other artists who could be a great sample of Phygital artists to find out how may I present and produce a Phygital artwork on my own, besides every inspirer series that was held to put us on our way.
For the very first point we visit the material sources exhibition to get inspired by the innovative material and products. On that point, I wondered about all samples which were inspired by nature by their shape while they were innovative, rather than being a copy of nature.
• THE TILE WAS SHAPED LIKE SAHARA,
• The natural greens which were like plastics
• Sculpture those represent cliffs
• Textures inspired by natural mineral stones and their brilliant color.
Then we started to imagine how digital and physical can be merged to introduce Phygital. At this level, lots of ideas came out:
• A frame of light that can play with visuals and mind to make an illusion like a 3D monitor.
• Using optical fiber to make a light dress, as a digital dress in the physical world.
Material: It was vital to focus on only one material to narrow down our thoughts. So, we agreed on plastic.
Plastic going to be a very popular material and supersede for all-natural materials to stop mining natural for a greener world, based on statics, humans are using too many natural resources which means in the future there won’t be enough natural to mine anymore and only material in access will be Plastic. Therefore, plastic is a case study for artists, designers, and scientists to discover its feature more and more and there is also worldwide competition for recycling plastic as an unguilty material. However, it is the biggest threat to nature right now, especially for oceans that are polluted by plastics.
Concept: Ocean
• the concept is a way of giving us a theme for our work that brings it together.
• Ocean is where humans made a plastic continent on it.
• Ocean is usually referred to show the unknown, same as the digital traces s known to us.
• The concept allows us to be imaginative: just by simply exploring an alternate world we can use that to get the viewer to think about the world we live in.
Research: I started researching Plastic to know it well since it can be found in different shapes and types with a variety of features.
1. PET: Polyethylene terephthalate
2. HDPE: High-Density polyethylene
3. PVC: polyvinyl chloride
4. LDPE: Low-Density polyethylene
5. PP: Poly Propylene
6. PS: Polystyrene
7. Other
These are the common types of plastics that are the reason for pollution usually for their huge consumption. Besides that, I searched on the plastic recycling process in mass production and workshop scale. The most common way is shredding and melting which both need a workshop with special facilities to produce recycled plastic products. The negative point, which stops me to be eager about it is on ending process when the final product needs a polish with orbital tools to shine and perfect, in this level, millions of microplastics get back to nature, they cannot be seen, and they are a bigger threat over the plastic.
I decided to continue with any type of plastic that can be found in my basket as personal trash. These are the huge part of waste and pollution, and I can start with the main problem cause. Also, this type of plastic is the killer of sea creatures since they can float on water easily. Be mistaken as a food source by turtles, catch fishes inside ourselves to die, analyses in the nature and finally they are found in the blood cells of fishes.
Continuing the meetings and collaboration, talking about 100 years later, I defined the future will be more plastic based than what is imagined till now, if we want to have a look on evaluation system.
Referring to the relation of nature with plastic, which is a huge threat to all creatures these days, we can imagine a future when all fauna and Fiona solve microplastic in their cells and get adopted it as a part of their body. (If we imagine all plastics on the earth could be recycled once and no more plastic trash would be found, there is enough microplastic produced now that will show its effect on all specious body and I guess as a part of surviving, it is ineligible to host and adopt it in our cells.)
On the other hand, an article about Pacific Garbage Patch, says about an examination of a specious which founded next to the eastern Garbage Patch proofed that the organism is cohabitating by floating alongside. “They live essentially like an inverted ecosystem, hanging upside down from the ocean surface, kind of like a [upside down] coral reef,”.
This spot I was sure that as a graphic designer, I may visualize my idea about the plastic aliens, creatures merged plastic on their body, on oceans.
Process:
I focused on Plastic as a material instead of any natural like wood, iron, and such to imagine how our world would be if there were no other materials and how would any product good be made and shaped, then narrowed down to our concept, Ocean. To this aim, I chose sea creatures to imagine how they would be if they all get genetic mutations with plastic on their cells.
Besides that, it was the first time I was working with plastic and to define its feature and purposes I searched on plastic and recycling variety.
Put me on the way, I tried common techniques:
• Heat
• Melt
• Fold
• Cut and paste
• Swen
• Knit
• collage
It was a very unfamiliar way for me and still felt confused, wondering how it is possible to deliver physical to digital and vice versa, a kind of I had no choice except experiencing to discover what will happen step by step. With this point of view, I continued making different textures with plastics. Some of them are just a texture while the other ones I tried to represent a part of an ocean like waves of water or coral Dari or a jellyfish to do something that is both futuristic and abstract, not something that is a direct reflection of the world we live in, but an alternative.
As mentioned before all plastic was selected from my shopping basket.
Types of those crafts are 2D, in different sizes from A6 to A3. Small sizes for melting and combining layers of plastic on each other to avoid putting myself in danger of any kind, and big sizes for those are sewn. The very first experience I had was with sticking and it was the hardest one because usually plastic does not accept regular types of glue, I also applied a hard Loctite glue to stick parts of plastic to a sheet, and steel is very sensitive. Then I decided to try another technique.
For importing this physical into digital, tools like Java coding, Virtual Reality, Maya, and 3D fusion were introduced to us. All of them are totally perfect but none of them Was working for my goal because I needed AI to imagine and visualize what is going on in my mind. I was thinking of Photoshop to illustrate what I want to present (usually when I want to visualize a concept, I use my preferred tool to do digital art), until when Dall-E and Midjurney were introduced.
The first step, my command was a text-to-image, but the outcome was totally different from what I wanted. Then I tried merging images, the technique is fantastic by its nature, but the outcome was not satisfying.
I have done more and more to discover and declare a unique outcome which I can claim is my digital artwork, in reason of my try and creativity in doing something new, not an AI, robot one.
The solution I find is importing relative images, near to mind imaginary.
I categorized my Photos:
• plastic artworks
• volume, value, and color changed one
• samples of our concept
then blend them based on the similarity of artworks to samples to my imagination and the outcome appears!
My background is in graphic design, I love art, do pottery and ceramic and painting in my free time, it’s because I like to create with my hands, and innovate with my minds Digital Traces was an opportunity for me to combine all my pleasures together to make value with discovering different ways of transformation between physical to digital with a different process And finally present it in a professional way.
Reference list
Anon, (n.d.). Guiltlessplastic. [online] Available at: https://www.guiltlessplastic.com [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Army, O. (2016). Precious Plastic - Introduction #preciousplastic (part 1). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1s7viFZHY [Accessed 21 Jul. 2022].
awolfram (2022). What Are the Different Types of Plastics? [online] Pura Vida Bioplastics. Available at: https://puravidabioplastics.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-plastics/ [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Bassett, D.S. and Gazzaniga, M.S. (2011). Understanding complexity in the human brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, [online] 15(5), pp.200–209. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.03.006.
Braddick, O. and Atkinson, J. (2011). Development of human visual function. Vision Research, 51(13), pp.1588–1609. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2011.02.018.
Construction Junkie. (n.d.). The Next Green Construction Material: Recycled Plastic Bottles. [online] Available at: https://www.constructionjunkie.com/blog/2016/8/16/the-next-green-construction-material-recycled-plastic-bottles [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Hi-Fructose Magazine. (2019). The Otherworldly Landscapes of Dylan Gebbia-Richards. [online] Available at: https://hifructose.com/2019/11/29/the-otherworldly-landscapes-of-dylan-gebbia-richards/ [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Material Source. (n.d.). Destination for interior designers, architects and makers. [online] Available at: https://www.materialsource.co.uk/ [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Material Source. (2022). Top 23 biomaterial designers to watch in 2023. [online] Available at: https://www.materialsource.co.uk/top-23-biomaterial-designers-to-watch-in-2023/ [Accessed 4 May 2023].
phygital. (2020). phygital. [online] Available at: https://phygital.studio/ [Accessed 4 May 2023].
Precious Plastic - learn about plastic. (2016). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsqLJNyrVss.
Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2018). Plastic Pollution. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution.
Smile Plastics. (n.d.). Smile Plastics - Recycled Plastic Materials Design. [online] Available at: https://smile-plastics.com/.
Traldi, L. (2013). Neri Oxman, 3d printed and programmable materials are the new software. [online] DesignAtLarge. Available at: https://www.designatlarge.it/neri-oxman-mit-3d-printing-materials/?lang=en [Accessed 4 May 2023].
www.instagram.com. (n.d.). Joshua Vermillion (@joshuavermillion) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/joshuavermillion/?hl=en.
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Precious Plastic - How to finish objects from recycled plastic (part 5.2). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwdlLelQWws.
