MAPPING
ECONOMIC ABSENCES
ECONOMIC ABSENCES
A digital archive documenting the afterlife of mass-produced toys with custom 3D scan textures
Collaboration participants:
Pat WingShan Wong, artist, illustrator, illustration educator; Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University
Ksenia Kopalova, illustrator, illustration educator, researcher; Arts University Bournemouth
Pat WingShan Wong, artist, illustrator, illustration educator; Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University
Ksenia Kopalova, illustrator, illustration educator, researcher; Arts University Bournemouth
How can objects portray their economic environment? And what happens to them when they are excluded from it?
Pat and Ksenia are exploring the afterlife of mass-produced collectibles - Snoopy toys from 1999 McDonald's Happy Meals. Distributed globally, they attracted collectors who believed in their future economic value and fans for whom they held personal significance. Today, after 25 years, these once-coveted Snoopy toys are abandoned and sold in flea markets, car boot sales, and via online marketplaces for second-hand goods.
In this small, but growing online archive Pat and Ksenia get these 1999 toys from sellers and collectors across Hong Kong, the UK, Russia, attempting to get a glimpse of the intertwining personal and economic histories around these objects. This archive uses the imperfections of 3d scanning and drawing to highlight the patchy, changing, irregular, disappearing stories behind these objects and their economic environments.
This one is a reworked ‘Spanish’ Snoopy from a private collection in London.
The scan was taken by the owner of the toy, illustrator from London Nick Peill, who also shared the story behind its acquisition: ‘The happy meal toys were bought at Chiswick car boot sale. They were being sold for £1 a piece and I had £2 left to spend. The stall owner kindly let me have 3 for £2 as I couldn’t decide which ones I wanted'.
Ksenia wrote the details of the story in the texture gaps (below) appearing as a by-product of 3D-scanning. These gaps do not affect the model, so the story is only visible when the model is exported and the texture file is viewed separately. In other words, the story disappears once the object takes shape.
The scan was taken by the owner of the toy, illustrator from London Nick Peill, who also shared the story behind its acquisition: ‘The happy meal toys were bought at Chiswick car boot sale. They were being sold for £1 a piece and I had £2 left to spend. The stall owner kindly let me have 3 for £2 as I couldn’t decide which ones I wanted'.
Ksenia wrote the details of the story in the texture gaps (below) appearing as a by-product of 3D-scanning. These gaps do not affect the model, so the story is only visible when the model is exported and the texture file is viewed separately. In other words, the story disappears once the object takes shape.
'SPANISH' SNOOPY
Pat found this 'Finland’ Snoopy at the Sham Shui Po illegal flea market in Hong Kong.
She focused on the gaps and data loss in the 3D-scan of the Snoopy model. When creating a seamless 3D scan, AI expands the information about the texture and how the 3D camera divides the models based on various conditions. For the subsequent 3D sculptures (Fig. 11, 12) Pat uses watercolours, a very “personal” material, in the sense that it bears a very tangible trace of the artist’s hand. Additionally, the watercolour influences blurring, and the colour spread produces results similar to the original texture's blurring; both equally unpredictable. The final texture was overlaid with a layer referencing the UV map segments to highlight the breaks in each Snoopy figure.
She focused on the gaps and data loss in the 3D-scan of the Snoopy model. When creating a seamless 3D scan, AI expands the information about the texture and how the 3D camera divides the models based on various conditions. For the subsequent 3D sculptures (Fig. 11, 12) Pat uses watercolours, a very “personal” material, in the sense that it bears a very tangible trace of the artist’s hand. Additionally, the watercolour influences blurring, and the colour spread produces results similar to the original texture's blurring; both equally unpredictable. The final texture was overlaid with a layer referencing the UV map segments to highlight the breaks in each Snoopy figure.
'FINNISH' SNOOPY
‘English’ Snoopy found on Avito and purchased from a seller in Moscow, 3d-scanned and reworked by Ksenia
Texts in the image:
‘Condition: used; Description: 1999; Peanuts Snoopy - 600 roubles; Detailed photos available’; ‘I suggest that you buy a toy and make a scan yourself:)’, ‘It was from a Happy Meal, bought for me at Maccies’, ‘Unfortunately, I would not be willing to share that kind of information’,
‘From 1990 to 2022, the American fast food chain McDonald's operated and franchised McDonald's restaurants in Russia’ (Wikipedia)
Texts in the image:
‘Condition: used; Description: 1999; Peanuts Snoopy - 600 roubles; Detailed photos available’; ‘I suggest that you buy a toy and make a scan yourself:)’, ‘It was from a Happy Meal, bought for me at Maccies’, ‘Unfortunately, I would not be willing to share that kind of information’,
‘From 1990 to 2022, the American fast food chain McDonald's operated and franchised McDonald's restaurants in Russia’ (Wikipedia)
'ENGLISH' SNOOPY
Reworked ‘Norwegian’ Snoopy found in a Hong Kong illegal night flea market. Texts inserted into the image: ‘In other countries there is panic-buying of rice. People here are panic-buying a toy [Hong Kong Standard 1998)’ (Bosco Joseph et al.)
'NORWEGIAN' SNOOPY
‘American’ Snoopy scanned by a collector and vintage goods shop owner Emily May Anscombe, who purchased at a carbon sale from a person who was selling his grandad's belongings, since the grandad wanted to go travelling around the world and was getting rid of his collections.
The customised texture features copyright free maps, extrapolated into semi-abstract textures with AI, thus creating a patchy, ragged skin made of AI-conceived maps: what is this toy's travel history? And what would be the travel history of its first owner?
The customised texture features copyright free maps, extrapolated into semi-abstract textures with AI, thus creating a patchy, ragged skin made of AI-conceived maps: what is this toy's travel history? And what would be the travel history of its first owner?
'SCOTTISH' SNOOPY
‘American’ Snoopy scanned by a collector and vintage goods shop owner Emily May Anscombe, who purchased at a carbon sale from a person who was selling his grandad's belongings, since the grandad wanted to go travelling around the world and was getting rid of his collections.
The customised texture features copyright free maps, extrapolated into semi-abstract textures with AI, thus creating a patchy, ragged skin made of AI-conceived maps: what is this toy's travel history? And what would be the travel history of its first owner?
The customised texture features copyright free maps, extrapolated into semi-abstract textures with AI, thus creating a patchy, ragged skin made of AI-conceived maps: what is this toy's travel history? And what would be the travel history of its first owner?
'AMERICAN' SNOOPY
‘English’ Snoopy found on Avito and purchased from a seller in Moscow, 3d-scanned and reworked by Ksenia
Texts in the image:
‘Condition: used; Description: 1999; Peanuts Snoopy - 600 roubles; Detailed photos available’; ‘I suggest that you buy a toy and make a scan yourself:)’, ‘It was from a Happy Meal, bought for me at Maccies’, ‘Unfortunately, I would not be willing to share that kind of information’,
‘From 1990 to 2022, the American fast food chain McDonald's operated and franchised McDonald's restaurants in Russia’ (Wikipedia)
Texts in the image:
‘Condition: used; Description: 1999; Peanuts Snoopy - 600 roubles; Detailed photos available’; ‘I suggest that you buy a toy and make a scan yourself:)’, ‘It was from a Happy Meal, bought for me at Maccies’, ‘Unfortunately, I would not be willing to share that kind of information’,
‘From 1990 to 2022, the American fast food chain McDonald's operated and franchised McDonald's restaurants in Russia’ (Wikipedia)
'IRISH' SNOOPY