Xerox Dust
Mollie Fabric
A naked body is xeroxed over and over until its image degrades into the dust of digital compression artifacts. This degradation is caused by the compression of visual data as the antiquated (low resolution) xerox tries to record and replicate as much information as possible from the original image, but is unable to accurately reproduce the image pixel for pixel.
On the micro level the pixels begin to morph into tiny island shapes, turning the body into some kind of imaginary micro landscape. On the macro level the body is first abstracted into geometric shapes and then blurs out into nothingness.

Xerox Dust was exhibited in the DXARTS Undergraduate Works in Progress Show at the School of Art Sandpoint in May 2008.

People contemplating Xerox Dust, May 2008.

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Also, I put a lot of time into the poster:

… and the program

• organized/collected (nagged)/edited everyone’s artist statements and project statements
• designed the digital postcard
• designed the 11×17 poster
• printed posters out of pocket
• looked up buses/transportation
• made wall tags for the gallery

I plan on

• making arrows for within sandpoint to guide people to the door

-Is the decision in the progress of your project based on your concept?
Are all choices and steps reflecting your concept or in the context of your direction?

Yes, I think it is very important to work in the context of the concept of the project.
For this reason I will go ahead and use the non-archival supplies my project was originally printed on, because it feels more honest, right now, to the original thought of making a billion xerox copies.

I think it is important to keep this project as simple and elegant as possible, as the idea
grew out of the simplicity and fun of playing with an old xerox machine.

*Gatorboard with large swaths of velcro on the back, to stick it to wall. (Talked to Paul Berger about this, who mentioned a ceramic artist who used velcro to successfully hold up a considerable amount of weight)

*3M sticky iron on (or push on) stuff to adhere the individual papers to the gatorboard.
*possibly spray adhesive would work for this job too (but not as well, and probably not as archival)

*Look into the specs of the ink I used- is it archival?
*re print on RAG paper, NOT the crappy stuff from staples I used (haha)

Other things Paul brought up, which are of interest:
*adding depth across the matrix to imply the time/repetition of the process (under more copied columns, have a tiny stack of paper)
*recompositing (digitally) parts of more copied sections into earlier stages, then copying those (and vice versa) to get a weird integrated effect/ give it some kind of punctuation.

(I did not get to any museums last week, but I plan on the Henry and the James Harris on tuesday afternoon.)

1. describe your project(s) in 3 sentences
I xeroxed the female body, then fed the images through the copier over and over and over until the images desintigrated into the dust of visual compression artifacts. On the micro level, the pixels slowly morph into tiny island shapes, turning the body into some kind of strange imaginary micro landscape. On the macro level, the body is abstracted into geometric shapes, and then blurs out into nothingness.
2. describe how you are going to use the space (writing or drawing)
I will be presenting this piece on a wall. I will either take a corner and do a black-box-adult-room kind of thing, or will proudly display it on a wall in plain sight, to attract more attention to it. Not 100% sure yet.
3. describe what equipments you need
If I build a black box, I will need the black fabric from fremont, and some kind of structure to hang that on.
I will need to figure out how to mount the images on the wall. I will figure that out later this week.
4. describe any special condition you need (for example; dark room, independent sound space, unique entrance, unique use of existing structure or furniture, unique color of wall etc.)
I probably won’t really need anything special. Unless I want to paint the wall black or something, which I probably will not.

8.5×11 luster $2 x 30 = $60 (not sure glossy would look good)
8.5×11 bw $.10 x 30 =$3 (essentially duplicate what i have now)
13×19 matte $3 x 15= $45 (plus cutting time)

Not sure if luster (glossy) would look good anyway, probably prefere matte (feels more honest and true to xerox). Not sure if 13×19 matte is archival anyway, so it might not even be worth it to re print this at this time. Might just go ahead and use the prints I have now, straight from the xerox.

As far as a poster version of this (compiled from scans of the xeroxes):

DJet800ps 42×60-Poster (Heavyweight coated paper, 1200×600dpi) $20.00
DJet5500ps 42×60-Poster (Heavyweight coated paper, 1200×600dpi) $20.00
STY7500 24×36-Poster Yes (Archival semi-gloss paper, 1440×720dpi) $10.00
Stylus 9600 44×62-Poster (Enhanced matte, 1400dpi) $30.00
(non-postscript) 44×36-Poster (Enhanced matte, 1400dpi) $20.00

I might print out two or three 42×60-Poster (Heavyweight coated paper) to have at the show if that’s ok- I know I’ve invited a few people who have requested to purchase poster sized copies of this piece. Is that ok? If it’s not I can just sell them online instead. Was just thinking it’d be cool to have them there if someone was like “COOL I WANT THAT” haha

Also, link to my other research and IMAGES of the xeroxes:

http://molliefabric.wordpress.com/category/research/