falling asleep
Interactive Live Simulation (webGl), Performative Virtual Sculpture / Self-Portrait sound design: Alexander Martinz
2023
“falling asleep” is an online interactive and performative virtual self-portrait, a ludic yet introspective journey into the depths of sleeplessness and the artist’s long-lasting struggle with insomnia.
Clones of Martina’s body fall relentlessly and continuously across the webpage and screen space. As they fall, they sometimes find a brief moment of rest when they hit a lonely bed - but are soon thrown back into their free fall. Users can reposition the bed in an attempt to stop the virtual bodies from falling, but ultimately fail. "falling asleep" reflects the unrelenting turmoil of insomnia and the pursuit of sleep, as well as introducing a new form of self-expression and self-representation within hybrid realities.
Experience ︎︎︎
I'm sorry I made you feel that way
Interactive Installation2023
Developed in collaboration with: Frederik De Bleser, Lieven Menschaert as part of the “The Algorithmic Gaze” research project of Sint Lucas Antwerpen.
“I'm sorry I made you feel that way” is an interactive experience and performative self-portrait exploring new possibilities for empathy and care for our hybrid selves.
Martina Menegon’s biometric data collected daily via a wearable smart ring device is linked with an artificial avatar generated via Machine Learning AI. The physical body state - specifically in connection to stress and tiredness - has an immediate and direct impact on its virtual extension. When physical bodily needs are neglected and fatigue or stress sets in, the AI self-body deteriorates, exhibiting fragmented and abstract behaviour and making interactions increasingly challenging.
In linking very personal biometric data to an AI generated avatar, “I'm sorry I made you feel that way ” draws attention to our hybrid corporeality and how we can foster care both offline and, by extent, online. This intimate and intricate bond creates a new sense of responsibility for our virtual extensions and nurtures a unique emphasis on self-care that extends beyond our physicality.
I'm sorry I made you feel that way.extended
Virtual Sculpture, Augmented Reality 2023
Accompanying the physical installation, “I’m sorry I made you feel that way
Experience the AR︎︎︎
I am but an uneven terrain
Digital Image (.jpg), Virtual Sculpture (.glb), Augmented Reality2023
Just as a landscape can have different elevations, textures, and colors, the contemporary self can be composed of physical, virtual, and emotional elements that come together to create a unique and complex identity.
Using 3D scanning and the glitch as an artistic medium, Martina's self-portrait I am but an uneven terrain breaks free from the constraints of physical appearance and explore new forms of expression and representation that challenge the traditional boundaries of identity. It becomes a statement on the complex, hybrid and multifaceted nature of the contemporary self: not perfect but rather a constantly evolving and changing terrain.
Collect and Experience ︎︎︎
one last click and i'll be gone
Mixed Media2022 - ongoing
“one last click and I’ll be gone” is a series of self-portraits as digital images, videos and Augmented Reality, generated through a custom live simulation that monitors the cursor’s movements and gestures.
At every mouse click, a new clone of Martina Menegon’s digitised body is created. Trapped within the virtual and physical boundaries of the screen, these avatars are forced to follow the cursor’s position while struggling with the physics and limits of the virtual environment and leaving visual traces of their every movement.
Through this algorithmically driven simulation, left running while working in front of the computer, Martina creates a new and unpredictable kind of phygital self-portraiture. Throughout her screen time, the algorithm takes pictures or short movies of the running simulation at random intervals (saved with a timestamp in the title) and resets the virtual canvas. The results are unique impressions of Martina’s virtual selves as well as her physical self mediated and embodied through a cursor or an interface. A self-portraiture that includes the digital, the physical and her intimate relation with computer and screens.
Collect and Experience ︎︎︎
a point of no return
Interactive Live Simulation, Performative Virtual Sculpture (webGl, Desktop only)2022
An irreversible action, a point beyond control, impossible to stop, unavoidable, unpredictable. In “a point of no return”, a group of glitched digital selfies of the artist is forced, by algorithmic constraints, to continuously and helplessly be together and follow a point in space. Forming a tormentous cloud - whose size is randomly determined at every load - the avatars follow the user’s cursor movements and react at any mouse click as the gravity of the virtual environment would randomly change.
“a point of no return” wants to bring attention to the idea of care for our digital selves within virtual spaces. As the avatars are extremely sensitive to the user’s gestures and cursor’s movement speed, their very perceivable struggle can be almost interrupted if the user is willing to act carefully and delicately.
A temporary and not interactive iteration of “a point of no return” as Augmented Reality sculpture was commissioned by Boris Kostadinov (Scope BLN) for the project Kleiner Gottesgarten, part of the festival ORTSTERMIN in August 2022
Collect and Experience ︎︎︎