Out of Our Skins

Abstract:

This paper discusses ontologies of the digital model. The adoption of 3D imaging techniques into fine art practice redefines image and object and proposes new methods of composition and aggregation. How do the instrumental tools of technologized vision inflect knowledge production?
 Vernacular uses of 3D modelling in online multiplayer environments disrupt conventions of artistic and social production, governance and copyright. Archaeological imaging practices, in this case photogrammetry, have been brought into the apparatus of art practice producing technical objects with a distinct and contingent temporality that operates between the mnemonic and the affective. Such objects may usefully be described as skeuomorphs, or container-forms. What might be produced and deduced from accidental outcomes of the 3D process and through provocative misapplications?