Linanotes
's
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
a little bit more about me...
a Brazilian, a woman, a mother, an artist
I usually use these four words when someone asked to me “why” or “how” I do what I do. I think work with technology in a creative way require a kind of parallax point of view. Everything is there, we just need some observation, imagination and openness.
My interest in these “Medical Bodies” meetings probably have something to do with my spine. I was diagnosed with 42 degrees idiopathic scoliosis. I remember with 9 years old stay in hospital doing exams inside machine in a space without colours and smelling like sterilisation. It’s really curious how medicine doesn’t work with health, but with diseases.
But, much more interesting are the machine that were developed to show inside us. I remember a lot of x-rays in my childhood. I don’t have these images anymore. At some point it’s really sucks be recognised by some “diagnosed”, so I just threw away. But one x-ray I kept: the first image of me inside my mother’s body.
Seeing this image now, I remember when I was a kid, the doctor saying to me something like with my spine probably my pregnancy will be very difficult. But in fact, was a really easy moment. I don’t remember any back pain for this time. Diana was born in a natural pelvic birth with a lot of health and desire for life.
NOTE: I think I have a CD with the ultrasound images of Diana. Some in 3D view. Maybe it’s a good idea do a “vjing mashup” with these images. Keep it in mind…
Think about the past, seems now natural my interest in dance and images (photographies and videos). I spent my teenage doing everything I can’t done before (like any teenage). At the school I didn’t the sport classes (my teachers didn’t know what to do with me). So, When I was 15 years old I decided start a ballet classes and aerial acrobatics lol. I did every day, 3 hours a day for one year and a half. I think I was bad, but I was small and weightless. So, for some moves, I was perfect for my dance group.
Thanks to the digital revolution, there are many tools to explore the way we can see the body. Here I did some experimentation using 3D digital body navigation and projection mapping.
Using platforms that we can navigate inside the human body, I showed to Diana (6 years old) how her heart beats and the movement of her lungs. she had doubts about which side the heart beats.
The simple platform I found was Zygote Body but I preferred used Bio Digital cause have more libraries and some animations. In neither of them I founded kids body specifically, so I needed to adapt.
For the projection I used a mix of VJing software (Modul8) and mapping projection software (MadMapper)
A important note: mapping a kid it’s hard. She refused to stand still. I need to try again in one day she is not crazy to leave and play videogame… But the result pays off. The next day she started questions about her own body.
Nowadays I am known for doing physical prototypes. Things that blink, spin and whistle. Or some variation of these actions.
So, everything is in standing by now and I decided to learn new things. And why not learning digital prototypes? I think you can’t imagine my pain when using the internet to research some thing and trying learning. I am not talking about social media. I am talking about “internet”. This little hell of crossing information. I’m feeling like a citizen in some street with a lot of garbage at the streets when neither walk you can get out of place.
So, I am feeling back to 90’s. In this case, the technology, sorry, the technical objects, devices and support in general are really better than ever. But sounds curious to me that the visual language seems the same. A friend mine said to me “we have library for thousand of years, and the internet just for 30 years. Why are you surprised that is this mess? This take time…”
I found some old stuffs this week. Material from the time I did photos based in the human body. Some pictures for reference and some pictures I did during my photographies classes at the University (I have a degree in cinema).
I studied at the time of the transition between analog and digital photographies. So, for doing some pictures, I needed a special film, some chemicals, a black room. And the results were black and white photos similar to x-ray images. Founding this material, brought me back a composition I did in one photo using my spine x-ray. It was funny, until last week I thought lost this image. But some analog image about another analog image found a way to tell its history.
A longtime friend saw the result of the photos and commented: "Photos remember me the idea to put some light in something. You brought enlightenment to your body".
After so many black and with images trying with my bones, I decided to look for two things: see inside my thorax and the colors of my body. I usually saw in the x-rays just the bones, but I think everything around changed the position for adjust better. I remember doctors saying I couldn't wear the Milwaukee vest because it would hold my breath. I was 9 old. I had a very clear picture of what the vest was, but I have never researched it… until now. It looks like tailor made using plaster. The same way for doing sculptures. I found in web a company that performs using 3D scanning. I did this kind of scanners 2 or 3 times in my life: when I was living in Barcelona and my body take part of Body database project in 2013 (I was pregnant and I didn’t know; once in 2015 for show someone how to do and the last one in 2018 after remodeling our maker space. I am trying to find these files…
In all of these cases, I was doing this for some artistic or conceptual proposal without think the process for doing braces are the same…
It’s hard to scanning itself alone, but it’s not trying the position of your body in 2D and 3D using softwares and machines. So, I took some of the nudes I did with living models and tried to engraving using laser cut and moving the photo with my hand. My natural “curves” is not easy to mimic.
NOTE: Maybe do some mechanical systems (funny way) or just change the image of the spine at the vector software (not challengig)
I printed in 3D with the help of my business partner parts of thorax organs, like heart, lung and intestine. I don’t know yet if it’s better do the skeleton in 3D also or just doing some fabric doll to put this organs inside. Ahhh, so many ideias.
Coincidentally, my period started the day after last medical bodies meeting. So I collected my blood and at the end I did a kind of data visualization. Trying to do some pigmentation with this material, but I need to solve the coagulation and changing color things first.
So many ideas working progress... at the end I think I have a different kint of self-portrait this week: a little museum of my DNA!
I did an accordion book with some combination of laser cutter paper, a hacked A3 printer (for printing 1 meter of paper direct), some embroidering, my own blood, paper engineering and all kinds of collage with the founds.
I tried to put all images of the skeleton at the the near scale of my body. A kind of material to set up a Lina, a book how-to-do or diy a Lina’s paper doll maybe :)
I painted one part of the book with the menstrual blood and seemed to me different kinds of red. The trigger for doing some data visualisation was in my mind since last week. So I pick one ordinary day (if there is any thing ordinary staying in corona times…) of my week and took all possibles notes (using WhatsApp) to see the moves of my body during the day.
Now, I’m trying to make a visualisation that crosses the activities and information of my smart band into the iPad in the middle of the book…
