Pucker & Bloat

Mona Alcudia

August 6 – 27, 2022

Opening
Saturday, 06 August

Qube Contemporary
Design Center of Cebu, A.S. Fortuna St, Mandaue

Positioned at the point of tension between the physical and digital, this exhibition focuses on curating objects, both of notable narratives and/or anonymous origins, translating and manipulating them as 2d/3d data, and returning them to the physical realm through digital fabrication. Through the juxtaposition of these 3d scanned and fabricated objects, the exhibition explores how one’s perception of reality can be skewed and remade through the multi-layered lens of technology. The title for the exhibition, “Pucker and Bloat”, is in reference to well-known specific tools for distortion across Adobe toolkits.

Using a 3D scanner, CNC pen plotter, laser cutter and 3D printer, the artist underwent a process of experimentation on processing techniques with each machine as an extension of her own craft practice. For data making, she determined specific historical references for both the physical and digital planes: select objects in the Casa Gorordo Museum and an online database of images of weavers and weaving techniques from the public domain book, “Philippine Mats” by Hugo H. Miller et al.

This exhibition focuses on using digital fabrication technology as a tool to explore the realm of phygital art and design. Phygital, a portmanteau of the words physical and digital, is used to describe work/phenomena situated at the intersection of these two terms and visually explores the relationship between man and machine. By harnessing the generative technology of digital fabrication, one can explore unexpected forms by the digital alternation of physical objects and physical manipulation of digital materials. In these translations, we look at how digital manipulation, open source design, data loss, and fabrication errors as natural byproducts of these tools, and reflect on the role of the designer through this current socio-political zeitgeist of misinformation and disinformation.