This work is from a collaboration with Bowdoin College student Laura Griffee '17. We were both excited by recent advances in gaming software and creative technologies that have opened up new possibilities for contemporary art. With this in mind, we began exploring possibilities for interactive 3D interfaces through a 2015 Gibbons Fellowship. We continued our work through a 2016 Coles Fellowship, followed by a yearlong independent study that culminated in the spring of 2017. 
 
Left: Laura Griffee ’17
Right: Jackie Brown

The process began with making a 3D model. Laura took 250 photographs of a selected sculpture, capturing the work from every angle and then imported the images into Autodesk Memento where they were stitched together and used to generate a 3D model. Laura then used the 3D model to generate animated videos that rotate and move the object, offering viewers a sense of the 3D dimensional form in a way that can’t quite be captured through traditional documentation.

Laura then generated an interactive model that allows viewers to rotate and explore the work on their own. This interface aims to give the user greater control over how they experience the artwork. Laura developed the interactive model using a WebGL web player and Blend4Web.
 
We then used an animation program called Unity to take the interactive quality even further. Installation art often involves physically moving through an environment and by developing a virtual installation we hope to offer viewers a related experience. This was an exciting step towards allowing viewers to navigate through virtual space in a way that speaks to the experiential nature of installation art.

           
Left: Jackie Brown
​Right: Laura Griffee ’17  

Through our final collaboration we developed a build-your-own sculpture application to explore Google Virtual Reality (VR)—specifically Google Cardboard. The application offers viewers a chance to be inventive and imaginative in creating their own sculptures with parts taken from my work. Our goal is to offer viewers a dynamic, interactive experience that gives them creative agency and a means to explore the concepts of growth and transformation that are central to my work.