portfolio - university of calgary in...

Portfolio Oksana Kryzhanivska https://www.linkedin.com/in/oksanaart http://touchsoundart.com http://oksanak.com

List of Projects

Aesthetics of Electronic Touch Page

1.  Disturbed System 3 2.  Silicone Valley 5 3.  Hemorrhage 6

Material Fabrication

4.  Formula 7 5.  New Religion 8 6.  Plato 9 7.  Trace 10 8.  Fetus Flower 11

Machine Perception

9.  POV 12

Collaborative Aesthetics

11.  Breeder Art 14 12.  Digital Dance Project 16

Portfolio Oksana Kryzhanivska Page | 2

Disturbed System

Type Interactive electronic sound sculpture

Year 2015

Dimensions 30 cm x 30 cm x 100 cm

Materials silicone, dye, wire, sensors, actuators, audio interface, Arduino, mac mini, speakers

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DUIZ7QHtlg


Disturbed System is an interactive sculpture, which electronically simulates my aesthetic experience of touching art materials in the studio. Squeezing and stroking the sculpture generates sound and vibration from within the sculpture. The piece speaks about the augmentative nature of our senses with technology.


Since my integration of computing in sculptural practice, I aim to share with others the experience of technologically augmented tactile sensation. The sculpture conveys this sensation through visitor interaction with the tactile sensing, electronic response, and mixed reality environments. I embed the computing devices inside of the flesh-like sculptural forms, so that my audience experiences the sensory expression of my creative processes, without the requirement of learning fabrication skills.

My haptic sculptural series inquire about the possibilities of the tactile sensation in art and its ability to re-establish a human sensory relationship with the consumer technology. It introduces the visitor to the interaction style practiced by the artists with their medium. By engaging with my sculptures, visitors explore tactile interaction as an aesthetic experience within the multimodal multisensory system.

Through tactile experiences augmented with sonic textures, Disturbed System aims to take the visitor’s experience with the artwork into an unfamiliar sensory territory. Visitors experience interaction with the sculptural instrument by touching its surface. The aural and the vibration electronic feedback evokes the sensation of first being outside of the sculpture and then being immersed in rich sonic textures as if transported inside the sculpture. Triggered by touch to the sculptural surface, sound emanates from within the sculpture and then is transformed and transferred into the surrounding generated soundscapes. The visitor perceives the connection between the surface friction triggering the close sounds in the sculpture.

Silicone Valley

Type Interactive electronic sculpture Year 2014 Dimensions 60 cm x 30 cm x 60 cm Materials silicone, dye, wire, sensors, actuators, audio interface, Arduino


Silicone Valley is an interactive sculpture, which discusses the themes of artificially augmented bodies. The audience is pursued to touch a large copy of my breast made in soft silicone.

The breast rests on the plinth facing the audience with the exposed raw flesh. This flesh is embedded with hard plastic sensors inlaid in 3D printed vaginas and nipples. The plastic nipples and vaginas vibrate in response to the touch.

Hemorrhage Type Interactive electronic sculpture

Year 2014 Dimensions 25 cm x 30 cm x 35 cm

Materials silicone, dye, wire, sensors, actuators, audio interface, Arduino


The abstract shape of the sculptural piece references an internal body organ that pulses in a similar way to the previous work, however, the sensors and actuators are completely inlaid within the sculptural ‘tissue’.

This presentation encourages motion in addition to placing their palm on the sensitive area. The search for sensor locations invites visitors to actively explore the surface of the sculpture. Occlusion of the feedback mechanism speaks about the notion of art’s mystifying of technology and romanticizing of it in science fiction. Touching Hemorrhage during the Calgary Maker Faire illustrates a contrast in visitors’ relationship to art in a gallery to the science center.

Formula

Type Sculpture Year 2011

Dimensions 6 m x 6m x 72 cm Materials wax, aluminum sheets


This installation explores the notion of artificial and natural body, concepts of nature and nurture. It presents the audience with three tables, which have deformed breasts on them.

These breasts are enlarged fabrications of a 3D scan of my breast. Thereafter, I manipulated this scan in a graphic software to have one, two or three nipples on each breast. I machined the virtual models and later cast them in wax. The wax texture reminds the visitor of real flesh. In addition, the sweet scent of the sculptures evokes the images of a lactating breast and formula-fed babies.

My sculptural background in stone, clay and metal casting informs my understanding of the physical, chemical and aesthetics properties of electronics, composite materials, and machine fabrication. I initiated my ongoing investigation into advances in sculptural medium, industrial technologies, and innovative materials with computer-aided design and manufacturing.

New Religion


Dimensions 60 cm x 45m x 35 cm Materials ABS, acrylic sheets


This piece consists of the ten bright plas2c 3D prints set inside of an acrylic niche. It inquires into the no2on of roman2cizing technology. With this work, I strive to evoke in the visitor ques2ons regarding the status of technology in our lives. The industrial materials and printed ABS refer the visitor to the ar2ficiality of our surroundings, which are infiltrated of plas2cs.

The exaggerated texture of the print mimics the aesthe2cs that is usually associated with the errors in computa2onal technology. However, here the error is purposely planned, which I realized through G-‐code instruc2ons to the printer. This inquiry into aesthe2cs of error led me to the study of computa2onal aesthe2cs.

The display of digi2zed hands refers to the kine2c crea2ve process, conducted through tac2le handling. There is a type of knowledge associated with hands: it is physical, experien2al and ac2on-‐based. Handling tools and equipment links the human body with technology. With technology hands become medita2ve conductors to virtual networks, code, and hardware.

The sculptural pieces put the superiority of a human being into ques2on since the objects configure autonomous shapes infused with plant form. The involvement of hands in handling technology aLributes to the reconfigura2on and regenera2on of the human-‐technology rela2onship. The piece New Religion directly refers to the praising and poe2cizing of technology with the mirrored plas2c hands oriented upward gesture.

Plato


Dimensions 2 m x 3 m x 18 cm Materials Styrofoam, paint


In this work, I investigated the intersections between the philosophical concept of Platonic Cave and Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulacra. This work approaches the questions of identifying the real through a play of meanings and visual misperceptions. A wall-mounted foam core piece, Plato eludes to a classic stone relief. Unlike classical stone carving, I fabricated this work with a digital router in industrial-grade Styrofoam. I composed this relief out of fragmented 3D scans of my head, placed on the framing blocks.

The six painted panels hang from a wall above eye level, establishing the connections to the classical frieze. Approaching the piece from a distance misleads a viewer to perceive the pieces as stone carvings. However, upon a closer inspection, it becomes obvious that the material is rough Styrofoam covered with a layer of white house paint. The carving lines traced with the router become visible to the naked eye, adding to the fake appearance. The sculpture initiates the discussion of real and ideal in the context of technological reproduction by integrating into the white wall, becoming part of the gallery architecture.

Trace Type Sculpture Year 2010 Dimensions 3 m x 35m x 35 cm Materials aluminum, thermoplastic sheets


Trace focuses on the action of human fingers, leading to the discussion of the role of their actions. Set within the folds of thermoplastic sheets, the fist-size aluminum objects suggest to be picked up and handled. This piece initiated my investigation into various modes of tactile interaction with sculptural materials.

The objects combine forms of cast fingers and biological references. The sequence of the four objects depicts the cycle of creation and recreation modeled after the maturation of a flower into a seed.

Fetus Flower


Dimensions 3 m x 35m x 35 cm Materials aluminum, thermoplastic sheets


This cast sculpture initiated my inquiry into the notion of the hand as a tool and as an intelligent perceiving organ. The process of fabrication of this sculpture involved casting my hands with a clay-based technique. In this process, I placed my hand inside a clay pocket to take an impression. Later I filled the pocket with wax. This way the clay preserves the texture of the hand, however deforming its shape and embeds folds in the surface. My tactile experience with clay and wax in this process developed into an inquiry of creating the sculptures that are meant to be touched. Visual references to a flower suggest the themes of transformation, regeneration and nurturing with the hand. This hybridization of forms in a viewer a sense of erotic imagery through a plant-flesh metaphor conveying references to the notion of female body. This context opens questions up of normality and monstrosity in our understanding of the reproduction processes between species and fetishes.

POV Type Projection

Year 2014 Dimensions 6 m x 14m

Materials wall, camera, projector, Processing


POV is the abbreviated ‘point of view’. It explores the ideas of vision and perception from perspectives of an artist and a surveillance camera. The two projections display self-generated images reactive to visitors’ motion in camera’s field of view. This system generates curves between astronomic bodies, reflected by visitors’ movements into a kaleidoscopic surface. With this work, I explore the aesthetics of scientific imagery, complexity theory, and self-organized systems.

The mathematical origins of computational aesthetics translate into two autonomous generative systems, reactive to the same set of video surveillance data. While the left display generates axis of symmetry based on the recorded positions of human motion; the right display interprets human motion as a force, which creates attraction forces within this drawing system. The system displays these shapes when a visitor connects the starts with his or her motion in front of the camera.

My exploration of autonomous systems, data, complexities and artificial intelligence lead to a series of generative projection-based works. These systems rely on the data from a physical world, either through sensors installed in the exhibitions space, or data from science databases, such as astrophysical data. With my projects, I explore augmentation of the visual representation of the meaningful information with other senses, haptics, and materials.

This documentation captures the generated drawing on the screen of the installation POV. This work inquires into the understanding of computational aesthetics, representation of human interaction with the generative system, and the aesthetics of 2.5 dimension.


Breeder Art Type Virtual sculpture

Year 2014 Software 3Ds Max, PS6

Materials generative sculpture, procedural texturing


These evolu2onary sculptures I designed as part of a collabora2on with a painter for a research project Breeder Art. We studied the rela2onship of the texture, form, and image in these sculptures. Within the scope of this project, I explored the aesthe2cs of complexity to transform digitally generated pain2ngs into three-‐dimensional sculptures. Instead of a tradi2onal science approach of genera2ng pain2ngs and sculpture, the painter produced crea2ve work by evolving his selec2on of my sculptures. In return, I selected the two-‐dimensional generated works that I deemed interes2ng to give these pain2ngs form, texture, and material quali2es.

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The process of selection and generation followed the methodology of evolutionary computing, colored with a creative approach borrowed from the art field. In this approach, my collaborator and I limited ourselves with a set of minimal conditions: his condition to me was to build forms based on the outlines found in linear qualities of the painting; my conditions to my collaborator was to keep a level of graphical complexity, informed by my understanding of complexity aesthetics.

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Type Virtual sculpture Year 2014

Software Mudbox, 3Ds Max, PS6 Materials digital modeling, procedural texturing


I interpreted other team members’ research outputs into modeled and generated virtual sculptures. These sculptures served as avatars in a virtual world of contemporary dance. To produce these non-‐realis2c avatars, I interpreted digital pain2ngs into models. In my design process, I incorporated the mo2on-‐capture data of dancers, architects’ evolu2onary models, anima2on, music synthesis, and tools in a customized game engine.

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Digital Dance

Special thanks for images: Jerry Hushlak

Denise Kitagawa Cynthia Radford

Levi Wedel Hakan Temucin

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