Clara And Yiyao
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence.”- Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” What happens to the aura of an object when it is scanned and read by a digital machine? What is the relationship between digital presentation and physical artifacts? We use photogrammetry technology as an experimental device to observe the melting process of an ice cube. Since the optical scanning performance is disturbed by its material transparency, light reflection and constantly changing appearance, this experiment unexpectedly generates an abstract morphological texture from its failure/error. Having captured three phases of the melting process, we manipulated the scale aliasing and transformed the ice cube into a glacier scene. While the aura of the original object is lost through the process of 3d scanning, a new aura is produced in the reinterpretation. An ephemeral ice cube melted, while eternal glaciers are generated.