Editing Yourself #91

2023

Augmented reality/Recycled plastic

It is now established that ancient Greek statues, which have come down to us in the laconic form of white marble, were brightly painted with wax paints. But, our entire European civilization grew on the white marble statues of the ancient Hellenic culture, of which we are also a part. 

Our modern culture is materially expressed through plastic, upon which a second, additional digital layer exists: augmented reality, social networks, and a whole cultural layer of memes, patterns of online behavior and so on. Nowadays, a self-portrait (a selfie) is unthinkable without filters, masks, and special lighting.

You see a plastic mask that replicates the face of the ancient Greek Venus with lighting, referring to the circular selfie lamp that no blogger can now do without. The holographic film is my symbol of a CD disc, as a unit of material embodiment of archived information.

An additional layer growing through materiality is the object of augmented reality — my self-portrait. A 3D scan taken from real space and placed into virtuality. Thus, this installation becomes an interactive self-portrait, where the viewer can explore the connection between the individual ‘I’ and cultural stories of the physical object through augmented reality.