1:9,6, 2002
3D Bodyscans of the living person
Plaster material, pigment

During the Spring of 2002, visitors to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart exhibition were offered the opportunity to have a 1:9.6 scale sculptural replica of themselves created by a new technology conceived Karin Sander.

There was a small catch: by agreeing to be scanned, they set into motion the first step of an artistic project. While the exhibition was on view at the museum, the scanned portraits were placed on view as works of art. At the end of the exhibition, the small-scale sculptures were added to the permanent collection of the museum, a collection which covers art from the Middle Ages to the present. Through the act of being scanned, the visitor to the gallery also became a donor to the museum. By being scanned – and paying a modest fee of eighty Euros – the visitor acquired a new identity as a museum patron and received in return a signed certificate from the artist illustrating the donated sculpture. Each “donor figure” was numbered as a unique sculpture and was named for the person depicted.

The appearance of the final sculpture is the sole responsibility of the donor. This is in opposition to the traditional role played by a sculptor’s model, whereby the individual is subjected to the artist’s subjective view. In a few seconds, the individual is scanned by the 3D Bodyscanner. The data is fed into a computer program that outputs a STL File, which is then outputted to a 3D color printer that builds the figures layer-by-layer. In a few hours’ time, the “mirror image” is complete, miniaturized but with all the details of the original person’s pose and appearance. Karin Sander refers to these works as self-portraits.

The individual chose to exhibit him- or herself. What role does the artist play? In this case, Sander is only the frame, the instigator of a process that allows for many interpretations of the process and the final product.

The procedure was developed by the artist in collaboration with Tecmath AG, located in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Gudrun Inboden