Looking Outwards 05

Graham Murtha

Section A

James Jean Woodcutter Awakening

This week, I’m looked into the 3D artwork of James Jean, specifically his video called “Woodcutter Awakening.” In this video, a sculpture that he created begins to slowly move, and then is engulfed in flame and emerges as a painted mosaic. This mosaic sculpture then becomes enveloped in flowers, and as the petals wilt away is reborn again as the original sculpture. I find this particular piece interesting for numerous reasons. For starters, I love that photogrametry programs allow for us to take objects from the real world and manipulate them in a digital space. This is exactly what James Jean did in this process- after creating many technical drawings of his character, he used Maya and 3d printing software to make an actual, stone sculpture with natural imperfections from existing in the wilderness. After weathering the sculpture, he used photogrametry to bring the sculpture back into Maya, to create it’s incendiary transformation into a porcelain mosaic, a feat that never could have been accomplished naturally. The vines and flowers that engulf the statue (returning it to its natural state) referencing the natural physicality of the base model. The transformation that this stone sculpture goes through represents the transformation of the 3d art world with the introduction of 3d programming and modeling software.