RADIX | ORGANISM / APPARATUS

Radix is a work that combines a root of a tree with 3D projection mapping. During a single sequence that lasts for 10 minutes, the initial natural object becomes covered with digitally created structures, and eventually becomes part of a geometric pattern. The shape of the root was captured using 3D scanning technology, and 3D printed polygonal artificial objects were added on to the surface of the root. To have a perfectly calibrated final image, a virtual replication of the root was created, and the actual trial and error of combining all the elements— the root, the moving image, and the music—were done digitally and repeatedly. The perfected result is this surreal hybrid that blurs the boundaries between real and virtual. The project reexamines the relationship between nature and technology, and questions whether beauty found in organic shapes and beauty created through digital techniques are mutually exclusive as believed by many.

This is a work that projects moving images on a tree root. Though projection mapping is already a widespread technology, this project reexamines it with sincere interest and succeeds in improving it. With the technique to accurately map complex organic surfaces, an uncanny image that straddles the border of the real and the virtual was created. This piece, with the unlikely joining of digital techniques and real objects, allows the beauty in nature’s design to emerge, while at the same time, by making full use of the technology, alters and expands the concept of digital aesthetics. It is fascinating that the relationship between “object” and “information” in the present age surfaces when the boundaries between nature and technology are blurred as in this work. (KUDO Takeshi)