An exhibition which blurs the lines between the physical and digital worlds is on display in Werribee after touring parts of Australia and New York.
The Shifting Skins exhibition by Deakin University PhD student Alison Bennett features up-close, detailed prints of skin marked by tattoos.
The images have been overlaid with 3D- augmented reality technology, which uses computer-generated sensory inputs to create a series of 3D moving images that jump out at the viewer.
The work is part of Ms Bennett’s PhD research into the nature of surfaces in digital photography.
She says her work plays with the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, encouraging people to re-think how they view a photograph on a digital surface.
To capture the images, Ms Bennett rolled a re-fashioned flatbed scanner around her subject’s bodies.
She said using the scanner helped to “unwrap the skin” and added an air of mystery to the exhibition as people were not quite sure which part of the body they were looking at.
Ms Bennett says she chose to photograph tattoos because she’s interested in the way people use them to signal who they are.
The exhibition took Ms Bennett about 18 months to put together, but she’s always looking for new images to add to it.
“It has taken on a life bigger than anticipated,” she says.
“It was first shown halfway through my PhD project. It started at [Deakin University’s] Burwood campus and was then picked up by [digital news site] Mashable.
“As an artist, it was an affirmation that people were excited by my work.”
Since then, Ms Bennett’s work has been on display in New York, Sydney and Geelong.
Next month, she will host a workshop at the Wyndham Art Gallery, where she will discuss her work with visitors and give people an opportunity to be part of her future work by having their tattoos scanned.
The workshop is on Saturday, October 25, from 2-4pm.
Shifting Skins is at the Wyndham Art Gallery until Sunday, November 2.
Admission is free.
For more details visit alisonbennett.net
