While
working on selfportrait.map we began to consider different ways to further
manipulate and reconfigure the data that comprises what is essentially a three
dimensional photograph and its spatial coordinates. We had seen a utility
program while being scanned which aligned the four laser views in the whole
body scanner. As the application traced the contiguous layers of our volumes,
which ultimately define the resolution of the three dimensional model, we
were captivated by its description of the body as an almost liquid drawing.
In one format the scanned data is expressed as parallel horizontal lines that
describe the outer contours of the human figure. Points are located along
each line with instructions on joining the adjacent points to create triangles,
or polygons, which, when all connected, form a wire frame volume.
By eliminating the points and vertices we were left with line drawings composed
of the topographic layers which described the figure in a way that is very
traditional, even classical. These drawings are given an almost Renaissance
appearance; the figure is being rendered structurally from the inside out.
To bring more control to the process our software was modified to allow the
figure to be topologized from any angle and into any number of layers. We
could also separate out layers and adjust their depth and we found that in
disassembling these layers and rendering them sequentially, like a text, we
could develop a typography from the topography inherent in the human form.