Joe de Lappe - MGhandi Avatar and Cardboard Ghandi

As part of the Research Away Day, Joe de Lappe presented his inspirational MGhandi project which used a "treadmill customised for cyberspace" de Lappe (2008) . I am interested to see how game technology and  interactive experiences, could be applied to my research, with the possibility of 3D tangible outcomes too.

Life,2008
Over the course of 26 days, from March 12 - April 6, 2008, using a treadmill customized for cyberspace, I reenacted Mahatma Gandhi's famous 1930 Salt March. The original 240-mile walk was made in protest of the British salt tax; my update of this seminal protest march took place at Eyebeam Art and Technology, NYC and in Second Life, the Internet-based virtual world. For this performance, I walked the entire 240 miles of the original march in real life and online in Second Life. My steps on the treadmill controlled the forward movement of my avatar, MGandhi Chakrabarti, enabling the live and virtual reenactment of the march. Post reenactment I created a number of artifacts including 3D rapid prototyped printed sculptures and three monumental 17' tall cardboard sculptures of my avatar as extracted from Second Life. 



http://www.delappe.net/project/cardboard-gandhi-2008-2009/

Cardboard Gandhi, 2008-2009
monumental polygon sculptures
"The Salt March reenactment resulted in a number of artifacts and objects that further explore the connection to my avatar, MGandhi. I’ve used a variety of processes to extract the 3D data of my avatar from Second Life to allow for the sculptural recreation into physical objects. This page features documentation of the three 17' Cardboard Gandhi's created in 2008 and 2007. Each of the Gandhi's were realized in cardboard using adapted “Pepakura” papercraft techniques. The resulting sculptures was designed to be the same height as Michelangelo’s 17’ classic marble sculpture of the Goliath slaying “David”. The first was constructed and installed on site at Eyebeam Art and Technology in New York City, the second was built on site as part of the Farewell to Post-Colonialism, the Third Guaghzou Triennial, the second was built in Mechelen, Belgium for the exhibition All that is Solid Melts Into Air. This particular version was shipped later the same year at ISEA ‘09 in Belfast, Ireland at the University of Ulster. "






























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