Body topography: Simulating human form

This paper discusses an art installation, which creates a merged environment between physical and virtual realities in the form of a figurative sculpture. Our artistic explorations of the human body unveil the impact of technology on changing perception of the ideal and real body. We explore the perception of the body with projected virtual sculpture on the surface of three-foot-wide wax reproduction of a breast. The hybrid wax-and-projection sculptural object serves as an invitation to reflect on issues surrounding human body appearance. The shape of the projection surface comes from a three-dimensional scan, an array of sensors estimates the position of an observer to the sculpture, and the projected model subtly references a mammary gland. Thus, rendered correctly for the observer's perspective, the virtual sculpture appears embedded within the projection surface. The resulting object combines mathematically enlarged physical copy of the breast with the fictional projected anatomy, which exposes the confusion between virtual and physical, and impossibility to set a threshold between natural and artificial in the appearance of a body. Our work applies mixed reality to the dynamic sculptural installation to discus how technology redefines physical and psychological boundaries of a human body.