DX Arts Proposal
This project reimagines skiing as a form of mark-making and self-portraiture, transforming the transient traces a skier carves in the snow into a dynamic visual and sculptural experience. Utilizing real-time skiing data from the CARV App, this interactive installation will translate the fluid trajectories of the artists movements into a digitally fabricated sculpture suspended above the Denver Art Museum’s main stairway. The artist, with a professional background in skiing, snowboarding, coaching, and judging will use personal skiing data to generate the sculpture.
At the forefront of contemporary art and technology, this project utilizes data visualization, digital fabrication, and interactive design to push the boundaries of mark-making. The CARV App’s sophisticated gyroscopes, accelerometers, and pressure sensors allow for an unprecedented level of precision in mapping human movement on skis. By harnessing these data-driven insights, the installation transforms physical motion into an evolving artistic language, blurring the boundaries between sport, performance, and sculpture.
In an era where digital technology increasingly mediates our interactions with the world, this project raises questions about the materiality of data and the permanence of human expression. By situating skiing within the broader history of art and technology, it reaffirms the enduring human desire to leave a mark—whether on snow, in stone, or through digital space.
Skiing as Mark-Making: The Intersection of Movement, Tools, and Medium
Rendered surface model below
Inserted into photograph of Denver Art Museum stairway.
Below:
Left: The artist carving, Stevens Pass, Washington, January 2025
Right: The artists tracks in the snow, Angel Fire New Mexico, March 2022
Above
Data shown on CARV App
Below:
Data Showing Olympic medalist Ted Ligety’s progressive edge angle through his turn
Proof of Concept
Parameters: Slope, Turn Radius, Progressive Edge Angle, Ski Width.
A Rail sweep and Boolean difference can approximate a track in the snow.
CARV has committed to giving me a much more robust data set than is available tot the general public which will need to be converted to a point cloud or other data structure prior to prototyping. Final material of the will be determined after 3D models and surfaces are created.
Wireframe model below
Fabrication
Rendered surface model
Inserted into photograph of Denver Art Museum stairway.
Note:
Final material and fabrication methods would be dependent on the data and resulting forms.