Polyhedra. The extended sculptures

Polyhedra. The extended sculptures (2015/2018). Out of the project Future is now, 2010/in progress.

Interactive installation on touchscreen, printed paper sculptures, QR Codes.

In Polyhedra. The extended sculptures (2015), Pier Giorgio de Pinto enables visitors to play with images of nature and to rearrange them into new shapes and patterns. The artist presents a plethora of photographs of places where people have interfered with nature, and makes use of nature›s principles in architecture. Using the Internet, visitors can project these photographs virtually onto geometric bodies, as philosophers and scientists did in days of old when classifying and measuring the world. With this work, De Pinto explores historical scientific approaches to deciphering nature using geometry and computation, and applies this approach to today’s digital possibilities. The resulting ‘extended sculptures’ can in turn be shared in social networks, printed and reproduced as physical sculptures. Text by Alexandra Adler.

Venues:

– Intersezioni digitali. Group show at Chiesa Storica, San Martino di Lupari, Padova, Italy. October 2018

– Die zweite Natur (Second Nature). Curated by Alexandra Adler & Sabine Himmelsbach. Venue: HeK – Haus der elektronischen Künste in Basel. November 2016 – January 2017. Event in the frame of Regionale 17, Tri-national contemporary art exhibition. Various venues CH-D-FR.

–  Le latitudini dell’arte II edition, Hungary and Italy. Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea. Palazzo Ducale, Sale del Munizioniere, Genoa (I). July/August 2015.

____

If you want to play with the sculptures, please, click here

____

With Future is now, Pier Giorgio De Pinto continues his study of the body’s thousands of different facets, zooming into
focus on a topic as old as man himself, one that first came about with man as the expression and the limit of his
historical identity. De Pinto’s thinking induces him to express the concept of definition, adapting it to suit society in the
last 20-30 years, i.e. the society that has experienced technological virtualisation as a close corollary of the mass
expression of intimacy. Using computer-processed mappings of the real body to devise parallel, non-material
generalities, thus further feeding the computerised fantasy that seems to be so vital to contemporary society in this latest
phase, De Pinto has generated an important addition to his opus, which is conceived of globally as Future is now.
A Genius Loci (spirit of place) as a territorial comparison and a new geographic/geometric definition, using the body as
territory in terms of its “divine” proportions. This aspect of definition is not restricted to the body alone, but includes a
journey on our common environment, our planet, whose route can be plotted on the body, developing in terms of
contemporary esoteric features and how they relate to the archetypal forms of the past.
The project includes photographs of places around the world which are considered by De Pinto to be important for their
Genius Loci.

De Pinto is re-interpreting by means of contemporary media the places where people live, work, share the same
environment, trade or worship from the past to the present day. He is shaping this interpretation by considering the
functioning of polyhedrons as network interfaces which provide today’s fast flow of information and communication.
To do this he benefits from the development of many different 3D software, AR (Augmented Reality), QR codes and
other technologies. Each work is a trans media installation. Usually De Pinto combines drawings, videos, interactive
audio-video installations, performances, 3D sculptures.

The meaning of the installation.
The study of geometry has its roots in the study of nature, and the mathematical principles at work therein. Many forms
observed in nature can be related to geometry, for example the honeybees construct hexagonal cells to hold their honey.
There is also a study about traditional “sacred” geometry that relates the cube to earth, tetrahedron with fire, octahedron
with air, icosahedron with water, and the dodecahedron with the universe or “prana/aether.” Because Plato had written
that, “The earth viewed from above, resembles a ball sewn together from twelve pieces of skin,” we can say he related
the dodecahedron to Gaia, the living planet earth. We also can propose that Plato’s mysterious “fifth composition” is
more complex than the dodecahedron — but based upon it.
De Pinto finds interesting this connection between science and philosophy.
Each 3D sculpture is a microworld, it contains the related symbol given by Plato about the connection with the planet
environment/nature/universe:
Tetrahedron – Fire
Octahedron – Air
Cube – Earth
Dodecahedron – Gaia
Icosahedron – Water
The virtual world where people connect each other via digital processors with social networking is creating a gap, a
distance to the “touchable” reality, each day.
The photos of places that De Pinto puts together in his work remove the sense of depth of field but adding a new 3D
dimension thanks to the digital manipulation. The outcomes are not only part of a perception but also a documentation
of information on our environment.

De Pinto, in this context, is transforming the architectural structures of the human environment built by touchable
factors to an interactive world which allows us to play with today’s perspective of Human being and Nature.
This constructed amount of digital and physical artworks allows geographical and geometrical surprises and wonders
for the most not thinking idea about the environment.

How does the interactive installation work?
Each sculpture has a QR Code, a link and a dedicated page on web; scanning the QR code or typing the short link you
will obtain the virtual objects of the same sculpture.
The direct link of each 3D object allows you to view the polyedron online with no need to register on the site. Each 3D
object is fully playable, you can rotate it, zoom it, change the viewport shading, toogling subdivision surfaces, spinning
the model also via auto-rotation. You can choose the navigation style: mouse, keys or touch for a tablet, a smartphone
or a pc with touchscreen. You can even share the 3D objects via social media, chats, forums, websites, blogs
customizing the view for your contacts. Multiple people can play simultaneously.

You can see a demo of the “extended sculptures” here:

You can watch, play and share the 3D objects here:
Tetrahedron
http://p3d.in/spkQt
Octahedron
http://p3d.in/tT6vu
Cube
http://p3d.in/3MCpT
Dodecahedron
http://p3d.in/Mjh6f
Icosahedron
http://p3d.in/BFTtf

Readers, Players & Browsers
– As QR code reader to let people to open the links De Pinto used the app Quickmark QR Code Reader but there are
many “scanner” for Qr code. All of them can recognize and open the QR code of the installation from a Google’s
Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems based devices.
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/index.asp
– As 3D objects player platform to let people to watch, play & share the 3D objects De Pinto used p3d
http://p3d.in
– The best and fast browser with mobile devices De Pinto has tried, to enjoy a full experience, is Firefox but Chrome
with the last updated version is ok.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
https://www.google.com/chrome/