The project title Memento - Traces of Identity has almost an infinite number of branches in which to create diverse pieces of work. Some preliminary ideas I had for this project included 3D modelling a significant artefact from a film or of personal value, as well as photographing the paths that people take in their daily lives. The first step I took was creating a mood sheet and a mind map to help me brainstorm ideas for this project.
After collating all of my ideas I started to think about crucial contextual research that I would need in order to inspire my work and create a smooth flow between a concept and its final piece. With my great interest in the film industry, I wanted to find a movie that both explored the ideas of memento and gave me something to produce work from. After a wide amount of searching I decided to base this project around Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception. I was already very knowledgeable about this film from previous viewings however in-depth research allowed me to uncover buried symbols and motifs that may not be instantly recognisable.
The plot Inception follows a small band of characters who extract important information by entering a dream-like world. Each character carries what is known as a totem. This helps them to determine if they are in another person's dream or in the real world. In the film a totem is shown as a small, inconspicuous object whose behaviour is unpredictable to everyone except the its owner. This idea a totem is why I decided to base this project off of Inception. An artefact is a physical object that holds a memory of either a past event or a loved one. In Inception Dom Cobb, the protagonist, has a constant reminder of his lost wife when holding his totem.
After an informative talk with Megan Swaffer about her work she produced for her master’s degree I enrolled in a photogrammetry workshop with her. Photogrammetry is the process of obtaining precise measurements from photographs of a physical object in order to create a 3D digital representation. It is accomplished by a software that places thousands of points in relation to the shape of the photographed object. I took over 60 photos of a model skull which I then processed in Meta Shape and viewed in Cloud Compare. To see all of the detail that the software had captured, I experimented with changing the size of the points and viewing angles. The 3D scan of the skull was very reminiscent of the artist trope Memento Mori, which is derived from the Latin phrase "remember you must die."
To further my research, I looked into artist M.C. Escher and digital designer Pete Ulatan. Each of these artists create work reminiscent of the dream state visual effects seen in Inception. Pete Ulatan's work has a phenomenal mind-bending aesthetic. He chops up personally and publicly-sourced images in Photoshop and stitches them back together. To create some of my own edits I photographed landscapes and buildings on the UCA Rochester campus with a Canon 1200D camera, used a fisheye lens and experimented with orientation/perspective and edited them in Photoshop.
As another form of experimentation for my final piece I attended a plater casting workshop. To begin, I arranged all of the necessary equipment on a table. I conducted a test using a cabbage leaf in order to create clean casts. To make my own mould to be casted, I used a block of clay that I imprinted my fingers into and scratched with the silicon clay tools. I chose this design because it was a way that I could personally react to the memento project. My fingers are a representation of identity, and the scratches could represent life's memories. After waiting for the cast to dry overnight I experimented with 3D scanning the model into Meta Shape with my knowledge from the photogrammetry workshop.
In connection with my contextual research; for my final piece I decided to 3D model the four totems from Inception in Fusion 360. A spinning top, a chess bishop, two dice, and two poker chips are the four totems seen in the film. They all have their own distinct feature which allows the owner to determine the reality that they are in. With my previous experience in Fusion 360 from this course, it allowed me to produce highly accurate representations of the totems seen on screen. I made a total of four final renders, with two of them displaying the totems in a room outlooking a surreal landscape.
To conclude, this was a successful project in which I produced a wide variety of work to compliment my portfolio. With my progressing skills 3D modelling I am considering working with Fusion for a substantial part of my final major project.
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