Making Up the 3D Body: Designing for Artistic and Serendipitous Interaction in Modelling Digital Human Figures

Making Up the 3D Body: Designing for Artistic and Serendipitous Interaction in Modelling Digital Human Figures details the process of developing a new software tool for digital artistic exploration. Previously available software for modelling mesh-based 3D human figures restricts user output based on normative assumptions about the form that a body might take, particularly in terms of gender, race, and disability status, which are reinforced by ubiquitous use of range-limited sliders mapped to singular high-level design parameters. CreatorCustom, the software tool created during this research, is designed to foreground an exploratory and open-ended approach to modelling 3D human bodies, treating the digital body as a sculptural landscape rather than a pre-supposed form for rote technical representation. Building on the foundation of prior research into serendipity in Human-Computer Interaction, creativity support tools, 3D modelling systems for users at various levels of proficiency, and usability, among others, this research takes the form of two qualitative studies and an autoethnography of the author’s artistic practice. The first study explores the practices of six queer artists working with the body and the language, materials, and actions they use in their practice, as described in interview and structured material practice sessions, which were then applied toward the design of the software tool. The second study deals with the usability, creativity support, and bodily implications and outcomes of the software tool when used by thirteen artist participants in a workshop setting. Reflecting on the relationship between affect and usability, and surprises and the unexpected in creative technology and artistic practice, these strands are brought together in an analysis and discussion of the author’s experience of using the software tool to create her own artistic work dealing with gender and sexuality