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Hack Your Face With a Kinect-Mapped, 3D-Printed Mask


April 2, 2013 | Julia Dawidowicz

It was only a matter of time before 3D-printing and body “alteration” — two of the year’s biggest buzz-topics– collided. The result? Art.

COLLAGENE is a Kinect software application designed to create custom, adaptable face masks. The program digitally scans the user’s face, allowing them to edit their own detailed, perfectly-fitting design, which is then 3D-printed from collagen and other highly durable WINDFORM materials. Developed by DO THE MUTATION, the project “explores the border territory between physical and virtual, connecting computer code’s abstractions with the intimate, visceral dimension of body alteration’s sense brought by the mask theme.”

The creepy, Ent-like masks made their debut, quite fittingly, at this year’s Venice Carnevale. Here is a sleek, mondo-futuristic video showing how COLLAGENE works.