Citing / Siting a Digital Twin (2022)
Citing/Siting a Digital Twin (C/SaDT) is an experiment in digital twinning cultural institutions with sites in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Cork, Ireland. A digital twin is a created digital entity representing physical objects or processes. Existing online, C/SaDT twins nondigital institutions via 3D-scanning and modeling, and the project intends to amplify the point of view, scale, or connections between visitors [who, currently, can fly and, even eavesdrop]. The project notices that twinned entities, e.g. cities, generally use simulation techniques as the modus operandi, and that, often, cultural institutions are no different. Is twinning merely a quoting mechanism, or at best, an act of paraphrasing? When does this sourcing of the non-digital uphold needed ethical positions or falls into unethical trenches? And how shall culture-makers invoke their speculative agency in the in-between of citing and siting?
Citing/Siting a Digital Twin (C/SaDT) is part of a series of experiments conducted by Studio Alight in collaboration with the curatorial/artistic collective CONJUNCTION, and cultural institutions in Cork Ireland such as The Guesthouse Project, The National Sculpture Factory Cork, The Kinship Project at the city landfill turned Tramore Valley Park, among others. Citations were taken while visiting Cork on an artistic research trip, funded by Sljödföreningen; The Gothenburg Society of Crafts and Design - Project Grants for Design and Crafts, and conducted in May 2022. Specifically, what began as the project titled: Point of View-er in Residence (POVer.iR); Acting in the In-Between of a Digital/ Physical Contemporary Art Space, transformed into a series of experiments including this piece,Citing / Siting a Digital Twinn, and the Ester & Paddy’s Toaster, a teaser for Twining the Binning, a public art proposal.
If you want to explore C/Sa DT on your own find the space here. There, one enters in the size of a spice jar and from the departure point of its resting place. We imagine the space to be scaleable through our views and we hope you do too. The space can expand and contract in this twinning for example entire exhibitions could transpire on the floor, and even the outside of the walls is a new space to hang work or experiment with making. It is built via the open-source software Mozilla Hubs [in case you want to explore the online communities that work with this tool to give some tips] and it is viewable in your browser [or your VR goggles if you have a pair].
