Final project proposal for continuing this piece.

Three word description

synthetic, grotesque, vulnerable

One sentence description

A virtual sculpture of a ghostly person-thing that comes to life in augmented reality.

Full description of the proposed project

A ghostly human-scale 3D figure is placed on the ground in augmented reality. The figure is idley standing but turns to face the user if they walk closer.

This figure is a 3D model made of synthetic and exaggerated body parts. It is made from combining 3D models of robots and anime figures readily downloadable from the internet.

Concept

This is piece #2 of a three piece series I am creating for my thesis called Person Thing #1-3. It is a series of experiments where I attempt to create representations of the yellow woman using synthetic and immaterial mediums and examine my relationship with my creations. Will I see my creations as another object? Or as a clone of myself? A new separate being?

For some background, on the topic of east asian femininity in Western visual culture, Anne Anlin Cheng writes, “We have roughly marshalled this vast and tenacious history under a broad heuristic that we might roughly label Oriental female objectification, refracted through the lenses of commodity and sexual fetishism. Yet we barely know how to process the political, racial, and ontic complications of confronting a human figure that emerges as and through ornament. This project aims to explore that elusive gray area in between thing and person by specifically playing with the visual language used in science fiction media to depict both futuristic and atavistic concepts.”

I want the viewer to experience an eery feeling from seeing a breathing, human-sized figure that is grotesque and inorganic in appearance at an intimate distance. I also want the viewer to be confused by the combination of humanlike movements and a mechanical, synthetic avatar.

Why is this concept a meaningful exploration of video sculpture?

I’m creating a virtual sculpture that appears alive.

Plan for installation

The virtual sculpture will be available as an app on the Google Play Store. In the future, I would like to host it on the internet using the WebXR framework. This is so that more people can access it across all devices. It’s also easier for people to go to a web address rather than download a seperate app.

Sketch

Artist Statement

Jillian Zhong is a multi-media creator who appropriates and deconstructs visual languages in popular and corporate cultures throughout her work. Working in mediums varying from fashion to web to XR, she focuses on themes such as identity and memory.