How can the "broken" 3D scan be taken at face-value as an object whose imperfections are not flaws, but inherent qualities, produced via the contextual moment of its creation?
In scanning sculptures at The Met, I allowed the uneven lighting, the security guards, and the noise from my iPhone camera to interfere with the quality of my 3D scans. The results were fragmented 3D meshes with missing pieces, fragments of the background space floating in space around the statue, and baked-in lighting that I could not change. Looking toward the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, I explored these imperfections and dug into them. I changed the error fragments into gold flakes and adjusted their positioning around my statue, creating ornamentation: a crown, a necklace. The flaws were not only beautiful, but they made the object even more beautiful by being there.
The original scan images.
