Mountainose is a 3D scan of my nose that is edited on Blender and imported using GLTF. My work is about the colonialism mentality that is ingrained in the Filipino community of physically having a “flat nose”. With Western cultures being the number one influence, Filipinos are losing their sense of culture. I immigrated here in the United States at a young age from the Philippines, so my Filipino culture has slowly been diminishing. I am now accustomed to the “American lifestyle”, and since my Filipino culture has been left out, I do not appreciate it as much. With my “flat nose”, I want to glorify and acknowledge this insecurity that a lot of Filipinos go through in their day-to-day lives. I also want to open up the conversation to people who feel like their physical appearances aren’t enough and they do not appreciate it. Furthermore, I expanded on the colonial mentality in the commercial world of skin whitening industries. I made a physical soap brand called, “Totoo” to express also the colonial mentality that western culture put upon the filipino culture. The soap box and the soap itself is a 3D scan that was processed in TRNIO and imported, then edited on Blender. These skin whitening products are greatly destructive to the physical and mental well-being. Filipinos have the tendency to break away from their native culture, being their appearance. The skin whitening industry targets mostly the lower income groups using the soap to increase aesthetic appeal, economic and social status. Totoo means “real” in filipino and a lot of soap brands have the word “original” on the front cover. This brings up a conversation about authenticity and the manipulation that is in the advertising world.
Filipino-American digital artist Ranz Ocampo is currently pursuing his BFA in Digital Media Art at San Jose State University. His works mainly focus on the physical body, the inner body, insecurities, and his own culture. Taking the themes of his own personal experiences with escapism, dreamworlds, colonialism, and mental awareness, he creates very captivating and interactive environment that moves people in a non-linear direction through various forms of digital mediums such as digital illustrations, 3D Modeling, Photography, Web Development and Video.
In the Digital Autonomy lobby, there is a sailboat waiting for viewers to follow it and eventually will lead the viewer(s) to a sphere of skin and a portal to my own NAC room. The plastic toy sailboat represents my childhood of growing up in the Philippines. I used to have a blue toy sailboat that I would play in the rain. I wanted to reflect on my life from being born in the Philippines to moving here to the United States. And so, I want the viewer(s) to experience the space as a traveler on a journey to an exclusive sacred land. That sacred land consists of insecurity of mine and with a lot of Filipinos as well, in which we always acknowledge our flat noses. I 3D scanned my face and modified the scanned object in Blender. The purpose of making the nose look like a mountain is because I want it to be praised by people, not judged. To add on, I also 3D scanned my hands because it was an insecurity of mine in the past. I used to get bullied for having girly hands in elementary school.
I expanded the conversation about the colonial mentality that is still happening in the Philippines and other third-world countries with the skin-whitening soap industry. Inside the Mountainose, the stoned pores lead the viewer to two nostrils as entrances to two different abstracted soap commercials. Skin-whitening soap is very popular in the Philippines. Filipinos use it because they think that if you become whiter, you become prettier, richer, and people will easily fall in love with you instantly. There are negative effects in using these skin-whitening soaps such as that it can cause serious damage to one’s skin and it erases the physical appearance, identity, and culture.
The commercials are a commentary to the advertising world about the manipulation of third-world countries. The people that are affected by these commercials are people who actually believe what the ads are presenting, which they think is valuable and completely true. Furthermore, I made a soap brand called “Totoo”, meaning original in Tagalog, to bring out a conversation about authenticity. A lot of Filipinos trust the English language more than their own Filipino language. Every time they see a package made from the United States or any packaging that has English words, they immediately think it is trustworthy. This shows that Filipinos are losing their own identity and culture based on what they see on their television or even on social media. I want this project to not only make people more aware that this is going on in the Philippines but to expand on a deeper level of conversation about the colonial mentality that is going on in different parts of the world.
TRNIO, Blender, Procreate, Canon 80D (for filming), and Adobe Premiere. All my assets are organized and placed in New Art City.
This audio plays in the outside environment.
This audio plays in the inside of the mountainose.