Meshmemories is an augmented reality portrait by ODL Fellow Fabiano Mixo. Below is the project treatment.
Imagine a face of woman fluctuating in space. She is still and stares at the horizon. Slowly, sounds of water emerge as if the sea is not so far away. The volume increases, mixing gradually with the sounds of Agogô, Caxixi and Bongô. Meanwhile the woman is transforming, unravelling, and building herself in fragments of old photographs throughout the emerging song of Iemanjá.
Meshmemories is an augmented reality portrait of Beatriz Moreira Costa, known as Mãe Beata de Iemanjá, an African-
Brazilian writer, activist, and religious leader. The artwork explores Mãe Beata’s photo archive by choosing photos from different perspectives and moments in her life to create new photogrammetric 3D compositions. A portrait of memories – folded in time and by time. Mãe Beata de Iemanjá was a prominent Candomblé high priestess and activist who dedicated her life to the defense and preservation of traditional African culture, education, and religions in Brazil. Through her memories, the artwork reconstructs the journey of a woman fighting for her cultural and historical identity in a country deeply marked by religious intolerance and racism.
Unlike 3D realistic models, Meshmemories focuses on the passage of time exploring distinct forms and textures of images to generate a unique piece in AR. It is rather inspired by the idea of one Afrofuturist digital bust and, at the same time, is part of a long term investigation that first started in ‘Woman without Mandolin’, a portrait of Miriam Goldschmidt which rethinks cubism as a film medium. By using 3D compositing & animation combined with sound design, Meshmemories researches experimental forms of documentary in the context of new technologies. And above all, it highlights fragments of the African Diaspora History in Brazil through the eyes of Mãe Beata de Iemanjá.