1 00:00:19,089 --> 00:00:20,689 The way that I was making art 2 00:00:20,689 --> 00:00:21,909 before I knew it was art, 3 00:00:21,909 --> 00:00:23,710 it was like making homes. 4 00:00:23,710 --> 00:00:25,664 Just trying to find home. 5 00:00:30,977 --> 00:00:32,859 Florida is already a strange place 6 00:00:32,859 --> 00:00:38,543 filled with a lot of contradictions and strata of chaos. 7 00:00:39,239 --> 00:00:41,010 Growing up, there was a lot of intensity 8 00:00:41,010 --> 00:00:44,134 and my parents were just fully, fully overwhelmed. 9 00:00:45,430 --> 00:00:47,629 So I think it was out of this idea, 10 00:00:47,629 --> 00:00:51,386 escapism does end up being necessary. 11 00:00:56,359 --> 00:01:00,870 It's interesting because I see so much of that in my work still today. 12 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:03,213 The same things keep coming up. 13 00:01:07,602 --> 00:01:13,280 ["Rachel Rossin's Digital Homes"] 14 00:01:17,479 --> 00:01:21,670 I started programming when I was around eight. 15 00:01:21,670 --> 00:01:23,220 I was starting to use command line 16 00:01:23,220 --> 00:01:26,369 and understand that, if I typed "print," then I would print the thing. 17 00:01:26,369 --> 00:01:30,369 Or I was making ASCII art, which means arranging letters in a format 18 00:01:30,369 --> 00:01:31,889 by just hitting the "enter" key a lot. 19 00:01:31,889 --> 00:01:33,335 Just playing around. 20 00:01:34,485 --> 00:01:39,490 But then when Windows 95 came out, I started opening up EXE packages. 21 00:01:39,490 --> 00:01:40,999 So I was seeing the backend. 22 00:01:40,999 --> 00:01:42,779 I was opening video games. 23 00:01:42,779 --> 00:01:45,464 I was opening the games that came loaded, like Solitaire. 24 00:01:45,464 --> 00:01:47,359 I was trying to figure out how to open that 25 00:01:47,359 --> 00:01:51,039 and then would have to try to repair it because it was the family computer. 26 00:01:51,039 --> 00:01:53,579 It's just a lot of breaking things, 27 00:01:53,579 --> 00:01:56,010 which I think is the best way to learn. 28 00:01:58,941 --> 00:02:02,033 --Of course, nothing is working now that you're here. 29 00:02:05,824 --> 00:02:07,244 --I need to calibrate it. 30 00:02:08,313 --> 00:02:12,099 My go-to tool for animation is always motion capture 31 00:02:12,569 --> 00:02:16,856 because I want to be able to see something living behind 32 00:02:16,856 --> 00:02:19,010 something that's typically pretty sterile. 33 00:02:19,010 --> 00:02:21,149 --This thing is fun because it's like... 34 00:02:21,149 --> 00:02:25,030 --You're also just kind of working with the way it breaks. 35 00:02:26,212 --> 00:02:30,310 --So it's like I've rigged this man to live inside my hand. 36 00:02:30,310 --> 00:02:32,849 --So the algorithm is trying to search for a humanoid figure 37 00:02:32,849 --> 00:02:34,430 --using markerless motion capture. 38 00:02:34,430 --> 00:02:39,603 --And instead it has the only thing they can latch onto as limbs: 39 00:02:39,603 --> 00:02:40,812 --my fingers. 40 00:02:43,291 --> 00:02:45,540 When I first started gaming, 41 00:02:45,540 --> 00:02:49,939 I started saving the assets, like the 3D models that I could find. 42 00:02:49,939 --> 00:02:52,401 So I built up a library from when I was quite young [Rachel gaming at age 15] 43 00:02:52,401 --> 00:02:55,464 and recovered a lot of the assets from those hard drives. 44 00:02:55,464 --> 00:02:58,183 ["Skinsuits," 2019] 45 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,760 The first avatar that I remember consciously using was a generic male avatar 46 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:11,131 and it was trying to find a neutrality in the Internet that I was just navigating. 47 00:03:13,496 --> 00:03:16,730 That is what led to "Man Mask." 48 00:03:16,730 --> 00:03:19,859 I was just looking back and thinking about when I was playing Call of Duty, ["Man Mask," 2019] 49 00:03:19,859 --> 00:03:22,590 I took on this male avatar to sort of live inside. 50 00:03:22,590 --> 00:03:24,170 It was just like safety-- 51 00:03:24,170 --> 00:03:27,016 you're trying to find some sort of point of neutrality. 52 00:03:36,750 --> 00:03:38,309 There's this virtual avatar 53 00:03:38,309 --> 00:03:42,431 that I've more or less kept in the studio just for myself. 54 00:03:42,431 --> 00:03:44,069 It's this harpy, 55 00:03:44,069 --> 00:03:47,340 which is half human, half bird. 56 00:03:48,636 --> 00:03:54,000 She, for me, represents how I feel very much in two places at once. 57 00:03:54,879 --> 00:03:58,769 She speaks to a reality that most people feel, 58 00:03:58,769 --> 00:04:02,672 which is so much of our emotional and cognitive space lived in virtual spaces. 59 00:04:05,904 --> 00:04:08,157 But still... 60 00:04:10,409 --> 00:04:12,439 being tethered to a "mortal coil." 61 00:04:12,439 --> 00:04:13,952 [ROSSIN] --Have you grabbed this guy? 62 00:04:13,952 --> 00:04:14,911 [ASSISTANT] --Yeah. 63 00:04:18,556 --> 00:04:21,180 [ROSSIN] The installation is titled, "I'm my loving memory." 64 00:04:21,180 --> 00:04:23,960 The work is 65 00:04:23,960 --> 00:04:27,500 eight plexiglass pieces that I formed 66 00:04:27,500 --> 00:04:29,832 and an accompanying AR piece. 67 00:04:32,828 --> 00:04:34,380 First they start as paintings-- 68 00:04:34,380 --> 00:04:35,860 digital paintings. 69 00:04:35,860 --> 00:04:39,789 They're sourced from 3D renderings, 70 00:04:39,789 --> 00:04:42,707 spaces that are fully virtual. 71 00:04:43,106 --> 00:04:46,539 Then they're just printed out onto the plexiglass-- 72 00:04:46,539 --> 00:04:47,630 just UV printed out. 73 00:04:47,630 --> 00:04:50,230 The way that the UV works is it's embedded inside the plexi, 74 00:04:50,230 --> 00:04:52,300 so that I can heat it enough 75 00:04:52,300 --> 00:04:54,000 and then mold it. 76 00:05:00,131 --> 00:05:06,694 They act so much as these hollow body imprints of myself. 77 00:05:06,694 --> 00:05:10,565 I'm physically using my body to form them. 78 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,680 I think of them as... 79 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,057 as shields. 80 00:05:22,057 --> 00:05:25,061 ["I'm my loving memory", 2020–2021] 81 00:05:25,896 --> 00:05:28,699 The way that the work is installed is 82 00:05:28,699 --> 00:05:31,740 it's important that it's shown with its shadow 83 00:05:31,740 --> 00:05:35,090 because the AR piece blends with the shadows 84 00:05:35,090 --> 00:05:37,125 that are made by the plexiglass. 85 00:05:38,534 --> 00:05:40,984 When you walk into the installation, you see the sculptures 86 00:05:40,984 --> 00:05:44,270 and then you see this window that's the AR piece. 87 00:05:44,270 --> 00:05:46,830 Once you ask the AR piece to start, 88 00:05:46,830 --> 00:05:49,837 there's this scene that unfolds in front of you. 89 00:05:53,190 --> 00:05:55,930 For myself, it always comes back to my own embodiment 90 00:05:55,930 --> 00:06:00,960 and how to anchor this very abstract, loose space 91 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,674 in the same dimension that I'm in. 92 00:06:08,270 --> 00:06:11,060 It's very sweet how, in a lot of ways, 93 00:06:11,060 --> 00:06:14,258 the work doesn't change, it just... 94 00:06:14,258 --> 00:06:16,030 looks different. 95 00:06:16,030 --> 00:06:18,069 The heart is still there in a lot of ways. 96 00:06:21,377 --> 00:06:24,249 ["everyone's connected"] 97 00:06:25,707 --> 00:06:26,613 --It's okay.