It’s not new but we just bumped into an interesting video of a project that took place in 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. The “Be Your Own Souvenir: A Take-Away Experience” project by blablabLAB won Honorary Mention in the Prix Electronica 2011.
As you’ll see in the video, passers-by were enticed into posing for a 3D capture, which was then processed and 3D printed. Posers could then “take away” their experience as a printed figurine of themselves.
It’s crude by today’s standards, as the capture device is a Kinect and the relatively coarse and stringy prints are done by a BFB RapMan. Today’s scan-to-figurine tech is significantly better, but that’s not our point here.
What fascinates us about this project is the emotions of the people, who suddenly realize what is happening and then what is possible with this technology. Watch the video and look at their faces. Each is amazed.
It’s the personalization effect visualized. We’re surrounded by an ocean of anonymous Asian-made objects, none of which has any connection to us directly. But when you see yourself as an object, it’s quite different. It’s a connection.
Via Vimeo
