@@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ For this weeks' assignment, I've done the research and practice work without sep
5. Cut the designs using a *laser cutter* and assembled a paper model.
## Part 1: Digital bodies are standardized bodies
## Part 1: Research - Are digital bodies standardized bodies?
Let's start here: How is it possible, that in 2019, a sports wear brand like Nike manages to spark a total online outrage by introducing bigger mannequins at their London flagship store? The consumerist glamour fantasy hasn't been real for a long time now! Walk out of the Nike store, onto the highstreet where it's located and you might see that actually, it is pretty common to have a body like this. Western European and Nothern American norms and culture tells us it's ok to judge a big body, mercilessly. Wow. Unlike some other commentators, Dr. Nikki Stamp explains this issue very well in *The Guardian* in her piece ["Berating Nike for Plus Size Mannequin is no War on Obesity, It's just War on Bigger Bodies"](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/12/berating-nike-for-plus-size-mannequins-is-no-war-on-obesity-its-just-war-on-bigger-bodies).
How did we get here? And more importantly, how do move on?
###Albrecht Dürer's synthesized ideal nudes
**Albrecht Dürer's synthesized ideal nudes**<br>
In the 15th and 16th century, Albrecht Dürer investigated Renaissance concepts of perspective and the right proportions of the human (nude) figure in his Four Books on Human Perception. Dürer's work is considered seminal in the field of art and foundational for the practice of life or figure drawing. His development of the “ideal nude” is the result of calculating the average of many bodies and synthesizing them into one body. John Berger explains in *Ways of Seeing*:
> Dürer believed that the ideal nude ought to be constructed by taking the face of one body, the breasts of another, the legs of a third, the shoulders of a fourth, the hands of a fifth - and so on […T]he exercise presumed a remarkable indifference to who any one person really was. In the art-form of the European nude the painters and spectator-owners were usually men and the persons treated as objects, usually women (Berger 2008, p. 56-57).
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@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ In the 15th and 16th century, Albrecht Dürer investigated Renaissance concepts
That's not a far cry from standardized sizing systems and even big data around the body. To measure = to know = to control. I don't want to take this direction even though I'll be using tools that allow me to take and use measurements of a 3D body scan immediately.
### Standards and Deviants: the Measure of Man and Woman
**Standards and Deviants: the Measure of Man and Woman**<br>
> The average woman stands 160.5 cm tall and weighs 62.5 kg. The average man is 175.5 cm and weighs 78.4 kg. If these standards do not apply to you, you are not normal by design standards.
(Pater in *The Politics of Design*, p. 181).
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@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ In his book *The Politics of Design*, Pater discusses designer Henry Dreyfuss's
Ruben Pater describes *standards* and standardized models of human bodies as being useful for mass production, but as also creating a false sense of truth: such as projecting only a binary view on gender (i.e. man *or* woman), ignoring other gender types suh as genderqueer, androgynous, transgender, agender and other gender identities. Often these models can be seen to be biased towards West European body types (Pater mentions e.g. average height of Bolivian females being 142.2cm compared to Dreyfus' standard of 160.5cm) or conversely, they are based on stereotypical and racialized representations.
**Caroline Criado-Perez wrote whole book about it!**<br>
**Data Bias in a World Designed for Men**<br>
In her book *Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men*, that came out in 2019, Criado-Perez describes an overload of design problems due to gender bias in the design world, from toilets to clothing to urban planning. Amazing book. Watch the video for a teaser relating to women's clothing and toilet use, then go buy the book.
@@ -80,8 +80,30 @@ Download *MakeHumanAngry* (made with MakeHuman) here:
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##Creating a 3D mesh of a body by scanning it
## Part 2: Beyond inert matter
What I used for bodyscanning is the [SizeStream SS20 body scanner and software](http://sizestream.com/ss20-classic/) we have at work. Colleagues at the Fashion Research and Technology group use this machine to create a database of measurements to optimize e.g. the design of uniforms. The process of scanning is so straightforward, it's a bit silly to document, but here are the steps and below is a video that shows how it's done. Even the voice instruction and music you hear is really how the interface guides you lol.
* Step 0: find a model and ask them to step into the scanner and hold handle bars
* Step 1: open the software
* Step 2: press the big button to start scanning
* Step 3: wait until the lady sings and download your files in the program folder
You get a 3D file and a textfile that holds the measurements defined in this particular software. The file is often not perfect, e.g. when somebody is moving during scanning or when they are wearing loosefitting clothes, or when they have a atypical body that is not delimited in the software's classification system. It will literally not recognize the person if they are not *standard* enough. Not much has changed since white privileged males their pencil-drawn studies of the human form: they are still preferred (near)-nude, as passive as possible and to not deviate from the norm. Unruly bodies ~~not welcome~~ I mean not accounted for.
Fortunately things like the file can still be repaired. A far cry from healing from centuries of patriarchy, sexism and body shaming under the guise of building generalizable knowledge but hey.
**Body language of the SizeStream**
What is kind of nice I think, is that it requires you to grab the handlebars next to your hips. I think it's a nice and strong position to take, not taking any notice of the kind of desirable positioning a male gaze might require, lol. This position also suits the personality and body language of my model quite well.
**Repairing the 3D file**
I repaired my file using the [Netfabb Service](https://service.netfabb.com/service.php) where you can upload your .obj or .stl and it tracks down naked edges and messy meshes and repairs them so you can print your 3D file nicely if you wanted to.
## Part 2: Accuracy Beyond Inert Matter
What I personally find more interesting are studies that also acknowledge the fact that bodies act, they move, they morph, they change, they have agency. Capturing that can also tell us a lot about the body.
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@@ -117,27 +139,25 @@ It sounds like this person deserves a statue for this. Here's what she looks lik
##Measurements & Culture
##Part 3: Measurements & Culture
Also, the way the body - and how it is captured and measured - is inscribed with culture is not addressed in Marey and Muybridge's work. For that we look elsewhere.
### Orlan's MesuRAGEs
**Orlan's MesuRAGEs**<br>
This artist does amazing work using her body as a material. In this series of art work, the artist measures streets or buildings using her own body physically and literally as a unit of measure: the ORLAN-corps, whilst raging against the male power that is represented in the way big institutions, like museums are built.
Somewhat related is designer Lucas Maassen's workshop [Meten is Weten](https://educatie.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/workshops/meten-weten) at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam in 2016 (I did not attend!), where he questions measuring systems with kids. A lot of measuring systems are historically based on the body (e.g. the measurement in *feet*), but where do they come from, and whose bodies are they based on?
### Experiment 3: Beyond Accuracy - a *less* Measurable Model
To allow her to be unruly, I thought to think of a technique that prevent her from being captured with standardized measuring systems with any precision. How could I abstract her in a truthful way, without re-presenting her with the kind of razorblade precision that measure-controls her down to the mm?
## Ideas & inspiration
**My model is a rolemodel**<br>
The model for my mannequin, Alex is a super bright and wonderful person and friend, and also the mother of an amazing 8-year old boy. The way I've come to know her: she will only wear one label: that of *feminist killjoy* and she wears it with pride. I learn from her every day. She is able to create a welcoming space for everyone without making herself smaller for anyone, and I love that about her. That is why I want to model a torso based on her 3D scan that is fully lifesize, and not a mm smaller.
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@@ -151,54 +171,27 @@ INSERT PINTEREST PINS
INSERT PICS FROM PRESENTATION
**Material use considerations**<br>
That said, I'd prefer not to go overboard creating this assignment, as it's unlikely I'll be *using* intensively, so I'll try to reduce the amount of materials required to produce the torso. The material provided by is 4-8 sheets of corrugated cardboard, with dimensions of 1160 X 960 cm and a thickness of 3mm.
Stacking slices makes for a nice solid mannequin with a lot of detail but easily eats up 10s of cardboard sheets. So you will see I've opted for the folded panels technique using Slicer (see below), and estimated I'd get better results using 300gms colored paper because it allows me to fold the vertices using tongue connections (see below). I got my go-to heavy duty paper: Florentino paper at Van Der Linde in Amsterdam.
Stacking slices makes for a nice solid mannequin with a lot of detail but easily eats up 10s of cardboard sheets. So you will see I've opted for the folded panels technique using Slicer (see below), and estimated I'd get better results using 300gms colored paper because it allows me to fold the vertices using tongue connections (see below). I got my go-to heavy duty paper: [Florentino 300gms at Van der Linde in Amsterdam](https://www.vanderlindewebshop.com/nl/catalog/papier-karton/gekleurd-papier/van-der-linde-gekleurd-papier-en-karton/florentino-gekleurd-papier-300-grams/g+c+bg+a).
[Florentino 300gms at Van der Linde](https://www.vanderlindewebshop.com/nl/catalog/papier-karton/gekleurd-papier/van-der-linde-gekleurd-papier-en-karton/florentino-gekleurd-papier-300-grams/g+c+bg+a)
##Abstracting the model in Rhinoceros
##Scanning with SizeStream
What I used for bodyscanning is the [SizeStream SS20 body scanner and software](http://sizestream.com/ss20-classic/) we have at work. Colleagues at the Fashion Research and Technology group use this machine to create a database of measurements to optimize e.g. the design of uniforms. The process of scanning is so straightforward, it's a bit silly to document, but here are the steps and below is a video that shows how it's done. Even the voice instruction and music you hear is really how the interface guides you lol.
* Step 0: find a model and ask them to step into the scanner and hold handle bars
* Step 1: open the software
* Step 2: press the big button to start scanning
* Step 3: wait until the lady sings and download your files in the program folder
You get a 3D file and a textfile that holds the measurements defined in this particular software. The file is often not perfect, e.g. when somebody is moving during scanning or when they are wearing loosefitting clothes, or when they have a atypical body that is not delimited in the software's classification system. It will literally not recognize the person if they are not *standard* enough. Not much has changed since white privileged males their pencil-drawn studies of the human form: they are still preferred (near)-nude, as passive as possible and to not deviate from the norm. Unruly bodies ~~not welcome~~ I mean not accounted for.
Fortunately things like the file can still be repaired. A far cry from healing from centuries of patriarchy, sexism and body shaming under the guise of building generalizable knowledge but hey.
**Body language of the SizeStream**
What is kind of nice I think, is that it requires you to grab the handlebars next to your hips. I think it's a nice and strong position to take, not taking any notice of the kind of desirable positioning a male gaze might require, lol. This position also suits the personality and body language of my model quite well.
**Repairing the 3D file**
I repaired my file using the [Netfabb Service](https://service.netfabb.com/service.php) where you can upload your .obj or .stl and it tracks down naked edges and messy meshes and repairs them so you can print your 3D file nicely if you wanted to.
##Rhinoceros
###Basic manipulations
box, meshbooleandifference and meshbooleanintersection to chop off unwanted parts
how did Rhino work again?????
<divclass="sketchfab-embed-wrapper">
<iframetitle="A 3D model"width="400"height="200"src="https://sketchfab.com/models/da7886cbd431414496b42399dcb04956/embed?autostart=1&camera=0"frameborder="0"allow="autoplay; fullscreen; vr"mozallowfullscreen="true"webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
by <ahref="https://sketchfab.com/loesjebo?utm_medium=embed&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=share-popup"target="_blank"style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;">loesjebo</a>
on <ahref="https://sketchfab.com?utm_medium=embed&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=share-popup"target="_blank"style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;">Sketchfab</a>
</p>
</div>
#### Rotating, multiple perspectives at once
dadadadaada
#### Abstracting
### Process
> Mesh > Mesh edit tools > Reduce mesh
95% still pretty good! Lost the face though
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@@ -212,7 +205,7 @@ nice and abstract! Lost the damaged foot though
Oh yeah I like this, let's go
## Slicer for the win
## Translating 3D model into flat design plans with Slicer
orientation wrong, changed to... z on import
click the rotation button at the top until you get it right
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@@ -223,55 +216,22 @@ My pieces were wayyyy to big so I removed a lot of seams
Ended up with 6 sheets but the nesting algorithm isn't optimal, so did that manually in Illustrator and was able to fit them onto 4 sheets, and still make a lifesize mannequin.
## Illustrator
**Manual nesting using Illustrator**<br>
Nested all files in Illustrator
Use RGB to only cut the lines
I'll score lines manually, no dotted lines, not nice
<iframetitle="A 3D model"width="400"height="200"src="https://sketchfab.com/models/da7886cbd431414496b42399dcb04956/embed?autostart=1&camera=0"frameborder="0"allow="autoplay; fullscreen; vr"mozallowfullscreen="true"webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
by <ahref="https://sketchfab.com/loesjebo?utm_medium=embed&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=share-popup"target="_blank"style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;">loesjebo</a>
on <ahref="https://sketchfab.com?utm_medium=embed&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=share-popup"target="_blank"style="font-weight: bold; color: #1CAAD9;">Sketchfab</a>
</p>
</div>
## References
# References
Berger, John. *Ways of Seeing*, London: Penguin Books, Penguin Modern Classics, 2008 edition.
