This project started off in casual dialogue over herbal tea and biscuits. Michael was planning his Model S*X magazine programme and was looking for willing victims to be interviewed, and asked me. This sparked a converation about how would a person describe the multifaceted persona that make them up in a short interview.

We decided that we should continue the conversation and planned a photo shoot afternoon in his garden, with me wearing the clothes that he has designed. In an ad-hoc manner I brought my little handheld HD camera and decided to film this test sketch video with no particular end outcome in mind.

As the editing process began and our research into the Vitruvian Man deepened it further fueled the dialogue between the object, creator and observer. A soundtrack was required, copyright is a substantial problem, so, an original composition was scored. Eva joined the dialogue and a script was written. We Collective was born.

The project is envisioned as a multimedia installation formed around a tryptych of videos. This first video is a sketch for the centrepiece 'In the Garden', a representation of the human form in harmony with nature. The other two videos will record the history of society from the 15th Century Renaisance up to the present Renaissance 21C.

This history is lined with a burst of great discovery and positive social upheaval; the Guthenburg press and the spread of knowledge; the ascendency of science; the diminishing of the Church's authority; the Nation state; the roundness of the world. And the great (for some) Age of Enlightenment; Libertie, Egalite, Fraternite; and the science that leads to the James Webb telescope.

But, it is also responsible for equally disasterous consequences; industrialization and the Carbon imbalance; totalitarianism; the slave trade; building of toxic empires; an oil dependent growth economy; plastic; nuclear weapons.

"The secret of change is to focus all your energy ,
not on fighting the old, but on building the new. " Socrates

Renaissance 21C, the techno-socio revolution has begun! No-one quite knows exactly when but, here it is bulldozing it's way over all the belief systems of our past.

Technology and society have always had a symbiotic relationship. History is marked by great epochs of dependent growth cycles; pottery, farming, the wheel, the bronze age giving way to the iron-age, the first inscribed clay tablets, etc. These ages bookmark mass social changes as our cultures and societies developed from hunter-gatherer to the city state.

And now, once more, digital technology has come to disrupt our view of everything that went before. The relationship the person has with society has changed so rapidly that parents have little-to-no knowledge of the new tools that are invading our private space. How can they prepare their children for the changes we know are coming. We all now know the dangers of giving private information online. Probably a bit late for some of us early adoptors.

This project sets out to bridge the transition from the physical analogue to the digital virtual world. The output is envisioned as a multimedia installation based around video tryptych and holographic visualizations. We aim to record the human form in available technologies and master for forward compatability. It is planned, for a future iteration, to record multiple models and provide an opportunity for people to become part of the art piece as we re-imagine the aggregate of the perfect human form.

Have you ever tried fitting a square peg into round hole? it is as impossible as fitting a real person into the perfect form of Vitruvius' model. Have you ever felt like a square peg in a round hole? Hmmm...?

The circle is associated with 'Oneness', a perfect state in symmetry and harmony with the universe, and the square with our shape in the natural physical world.

In the art of Vitruvius, the circle is the centre of oneness with the universe, radiating from the navel. The square fits squarely within the circle, in a diamond aspect which is also centered on the navel. His interest lies in the natural shapes of the human form, so as his buildings might find better harmony with nature.

Da Vinci also considers the shapes as such, however, he attempts to reconcile them in order to find a more perfect natural form mathematically, using a set of dividers and a ruler. He calculates that if you move the centre of the square, to the root of the penis, the shapes will nearly fit, at least a very close approximation. But, therein lies the conundrum, for all his mathematical genius da Vinci is not able to reconcile the square with the circle.

"The area of a square is equal to the length of one side squared (A = s^2), while the area of a circle is equal to pi times the radius squared (A = πr^2). Therefore, even if the square and the circle have the same area, they will not have the same volume because the circle has no height, only a radius, while the square has both length and width.

If you were asking whether a sphere and a cube can have the same volume, the answer would still be no. A sphere has the smallest surface area for a given volume, while a cube has the largest surface area for a given volume. Therefore, the sphere will have a smaller surface area and a larger volume than a cube with the same measurements." (openAI)

What I say to myself:
"Dare to imagine, dare to be, even if you are not free. Your true, pure, self, is like a piece of gold, untarnished by outside elements. You can't be normal, it's a waste of time and a denial of all the tastes and possibilities. Chaos and order are friends, brothers, sisters, strangers; necessary components in any relationship, with others and with oneself."

Inspiration: Malcolm McClaren's principal in art college gave him and his classmates the choice to strive to be 'Benign Successes or Magnificent Failures'!

Michael worked for over 20 years as a dancer trapped in his own confines of inner conformity that had shaped him, nourished him, but that kept him on a tight leash. After a debilitating back injury he discovered the study of clothes design, and the key to releasing his true nature. Stepping into clothes became an act of Drag, not the limited cliche just of cross dressing but the swagger of authenticity through appearance, reaching into a new silhouette. Since then he has re-applied himself to his dance, his music, everything, grateful for the patience of everyone who gave him opportunities from day one, his earliest struggles through to the present and forward.

Model S'X is a theatrical ploy, I like that script.

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