The Space In-Between
Nicola Boss
For virtual, digital games, players select a character (avatar) to represent them, usually based on preferred roles and behavioral patterns. The appearance of these characters, the shell of the avatar, is of particular interest to many players. It serves as a vessel for creating an ideal, yet fictitious, self-image.
With a critical eye, Nicola Boss investigates the connotation of an emerging “space in-between” or, in other words, the constructed space between the physical realm of the players’ body and the digitally constructed bodies of the avatar. For this purpose, the project examines the relationship between the material similarity of real bodies and their digital copies, while experimenting with their transitional states of matter.
To evoke physical experiences in his installation, Nicola Boss uses screen printing techniques to produce four murals based on macro photographs depicting the surface of a protagonist human player. His photogrammetry-based 3D model is printed onto materials such as leather, aluminum foil and latex, to be shaped into three sculptures.
