Yung hee Jo
South Korea
About Looking – Venus, 2014
PLA filament, stainless-steel mirror, iron, motor:
3D printing
Yung hee Jo’s sculptures draw on a longstanding painting tradition of anamorphic projection, where the true nature of a painted subject is revealed only from a particular angle or in a mirrored surface. Using a computer and 3D printer, he extends this tradition into sculpture
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK & PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH IT
Yung hee Jo contextualises the tradition of anamorphic projection, by extending the longstanding painting tradition in a 21st Century sculpture. The piece ‘About Looking – Venus’ is a morphed 3D PLA filament printed sculpture of Venus. The sculpture is set on top of a spinning motor, and placed a top of an iron box that once reflected in the curved stainless steel mirror, reflects its true form.
I was immediately drawn to this dysmorphic scultpture. There was something really interesting about it’s warped presence. To be totally honest, I was so intrigued by the sculpture itself, that I didn’t immediately notice the reflecting mirror.
The creation of the sculpture itself was obviously the product of some form of 3D printing as I could see the imperfections from the joining of the seams. This idea of body dysmorphia, and the imperfections from the creations of the sculpture struck me as a nice correlation.
The juxtaposition of place and sculpture also interested me in this piece. – that being having a sculpture of Venus, something iconic with ancient Greece, in a Museum of Contemporary Art.
Upon discovering it’s reflection in the curved stainless steel mirror, I was mesmerised. I felt as if I was witnessing some form of magic and immediately wanted to know what this form of representation was and its context. I later found this technique to be anamorphic projection, which is traditional in painting and is a form of perspective.
WHAT IS ITS INTENTION?
I believe the intention of this work is simplistically beautiful, in that it deals with the idea of perspective on varying levels, and how it changes the way we view, not just the sculpture, but life around us. Jo’s intent for this work is obvious and he showcases this through his choice of method and subject.
Method: Anamorphic Projection
In choosing to create an anamorphic projection, his work, regardless of subject, would always have motifs of perspective. The beauty about this art form for me, is that only one person at a time, can see the subject for what it really is – therefore every person’s encounter with the artwork at the one time, will be different based on where they are looking/positioned.
Subject: Venus de Milo
The use of Venus de Milo as the subject of this sculpture is the one thing that probably interests me the most about this piece. As I mentioned earlier, the sight of something so iconically ancient amongst a sea of progressive artworks, was perhaps the aspect that initially drew me to this artwork.
Venus, referred to as Aphrodite by the Greeks, is the ancient goddess of sexual love and beauty – the choice of Aphrodite as the subject also makes a statement about the nature of beauty and its subjectivity. Jo could have also been making reference to Venus’ eternal image of beauty regardless of the progressiveness of the setting.
WHAT ARE THE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT & MAKING PROCESSES INVOLVED?
It is clear that Jo’s research, development and making processes would have been quite involved to create ‘About Looking – Venus’. Not only would he have had to have a sound knowledge on the art form of anamorphic projection, but I believe he would have researched Venus as a symbolic figure quite intently, as well as the mechanics behind 3D printing.
Anamorphic Projection
Anamorphosis was first employed in the 17th century and is a “projection technique that gives a distorted image of the subject represented in a picture when seen from the usual viewpoint but so executed that if viewed from a particular angle, or reflected in a curved mirror, the distortion disappears and the image in the picture appears normal” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The earliest examples of anamorphic distortion, come from the notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Perhaps one of his most famous anamorphic pieces, was Leonardo’s Eye, a drawing he made in 1485.
Although D Vinci did not leave notes specifically on how he created the drawing of the eye, he did mention the mechanics of anamorphic drawing in his treatise on painting:
“And if you were to paint this on the wall in front of you which you can move freely, the effect would appear out of proportion to you because of the great difference OR and RC (the intervals). This happens because the eye is so close to the wall that the painting appears foreshortened. And if you wished to paint that, however, your perspective would have to be viewed through a single hole.” (Start Studio Arts)
Another artwork prominent in the anamorphosis genre, is that of Hans Holbein and his well known painting ‘The Ambassadors’ – 1533.
“The picture is in a tradition showing learned men with books and instruments. In the foreground is a distorted image of a skull, symbol of mortality. When seen from a point to the right of the painting the distortion is corrected.” (National Gallery).
There are 2 main types of anamorphosis images: the perspective (oblique) anamorphosis, that can be seen in the original form when viewed upon in a certain angle. The second type is catoptric anamorphosis , which uses a curved mirror, usually of cylindrical or conical shape, to restore the anamorphosis to the undistorted form (informatik) – Jo’s ‘About Looking – Venus’ takes the shape of a modern catatropic anamorphosis .
Hunt-Nickel-Gigault Algorithm
In terms of creating a 3D representation of anamorphosis, Jo would have had to research into the operating systems that would allow him to input an image of Venus to create an anamorphic structure to be 3D printed. The Hunt-Nickel-Gigault Algorithm that uses current computer technology, resulting in computational processes.
Using implementations of the Hunt-Nickel-Gigault algorithm “for the IBM Cell BE, Intel’s Core i7 and NVidia’s general-purpose graphical processing units were developed and optimised by adjusting to corresponding hardware elements. By transforming successive frames even a video can be transformed to an anamorphic representation” (informatik).
In addition to the Hunt-Nickel-Gigault algorithm, there is also a wide range of software available to create anamorphic art. These include;
Anamorph Me! is a free software application to carry out anamorphic transformations on images.
Users Guide: https://www.anamorphosis.com/UsersGuide.pdf
The only limitation with this software, is that is provides software for traditional 2D types of anamorphosis, and therefore would not have provided Jo with the means to create his anamorphic sculpture.
MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) would have been much better suited, as it is designed to make models for 3D printing giving you the ability to perform all sorts of mathematical transformations to define or deform the creation.
The program uses the underlying properties of physics and the laws of reflection, with in-depth algorithms to feed the 3D printer the exact design that is needed to create an anamorphic sculpture that’s true form is reflected in a curved mirror – exactly what Jo achieved!
Venus de Milo
The sculpture of Venus de Milo, commonly referred to as Aphrodite, is arguably the world’s most well-known statue in the history of sculpture. The marble statue depicts the goddess of love and beauty and was sculpted during the Hellenistic period between 130 and 100 BCE.
Characteristics and Analysis (visual-arts-cork)
Materials & Making: “The statue is made from Parian marble and stands some 6 feet 8 inches tall without its plinth. According to restoration experts, the sculpture was carved from essentially two blocks of Parian marble, and is made up of several parts which were sculpted separately before being fixed with vertical pegs.”
Mythology: “According to most experts, the Venus de Milo depicts the mythological Greek Goddess, Aphrodite, and the story of the Judgement of Paris. In this tale, a young Trojan prince, Paris, was given a golden apple by the goddess of Discord and told to award it to the most beautiful of the three candidates: Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. Aphrodite won the beauty contest by bribing Paris with the love of the most beautiful Mortal woman – Helen of Sparta – and was awarded the apple.
3D Printing
When researching on how to 3D print his anamorphic sculpture of Venus de Milo, Jo would have had to have a sound knowledge of working the machinery and understanding the software as well as an understanding for the materials he would be using – in this case PLA filament.
The Basics
Essentially, 3D printing carries out a number of processes by which production is carried out layer by layer in an additive process which is in contrast to traditional methods of production that involve subtractive methods or moulding/casting processes – much like the creation of the original sculpture of Venus de Milo (3D Printing Industry).
PLA Filament
In terms of materials, plastic filaments (ABS, PLA, PVA) are the most common and economic form of material used in 3D printing. In saying that, Jo could have used marble (http://www.3dprinterworld.com/article/marbleecodesign-3d-printing-with-marble) to create his anamorphic sculpture of Venus de Milo – so the fact that he did not, leads me to investigate the process of PLA printing further.
PLA or Polylactic acid is a thermoplastic polyester. PLA is biodegradable, and derived from renewable resources such as cornstarch, sugarcane, tapioca roots and even potato starch – making this a great option for the environmentally conscious.
PLA’s natural melting temperature is around 80C but it is mixed with other plastics to make it suitable for 3D printing and is generally considered to be the easiest material to work with.
PLA Printing Specifics
PLA filament is considered to be quite hard, durable and easier to get a nice flat part with when 3D printing (making it easier to print big parts with).
Printer – AXIOM by AIRWOLF 3D
Upon researching what would be the best 3D printer when working with sculptural objects, I seemed to come across the AXIOM 3D printer quite often ($3995USD).
The printer requires APEX 3D Printing software, and it comes with pre-configured print profiles for major materials including PLA filament (AirWolf).
Software Installation & User Guide:
THE BLOGGER PICTURE 