Through 3D scans and animation, Agusta Yr creates a dreamlike world for Moschino and Yang Li

Agusta Yr, an Icelandic-born and Miami-raised digital artist, always went that extra mile in school. Taking on classes that encompassed a multitude of departments, including fine arts, computer animation and VR, she would also spend her summers in New York City shadowing her (many) photographer family members. However, soon enough she grew “bored of photography” due to its “flatness”, which in turn led to her experimenting within the digital world.

“I like to think of my work as a sort of dreamlike fantastical escape, even if it is a short 15-second video or a 10-minute short film,” Augusta tells It’s Nice That. “In a more scientific explanation, a lot of my work has to do with digital manipulation and experimentation.” Immediately captivated by the freedom that the digital platform provides, she began to push her abilities through means of distortion techniques and video – resulting in a harmonious medley of drawing, 3D and animation within her own projects. “My personal work deals more with sexuality, social media and pop culture seen through a childlike lens,” she adds. “My more commercial work was birthed through those experimentations when I landed on 3D scanning.”

In terms of her process, Agusta’s day begins with a brief as well as a fully functioning and spontaneous flow of ideas. Suffering from insomnia, it’s these little pockets of gold that keep her up at night – as her best ideas usually spark right before she falls asleep. “I’m constantly writing things down in my notes in the split seconds before I finally do fall asleep,” she says. Once these thoughts have been finalised, she tends to use either 3D scanning or green screen as her software of choice. Having owned her own film-making process, she explains: “I’ve been told it’s a little unconventional, but I think that’s because I’ve pieced it together from my work in different fields, rather than starting as a 3D animator.”

Unconventional is by no means a negative label. By breaking down the traditional means of filmmaking, Agusta’s work is filled with the spectacular. Her most recent project is a video for London designer Yang Li’s Paris Fashion Week show, in collaboration with ShowStudio. Describing the project as “insane”, Agusta was given the opportunity to work with a group of people she’s looked up to for a while, “which was completely surreal”. Shown during Paris’ fashion week, the film is accompanied with live music from The Jesus and Mary Chain. An idyllic brief for the creative, due to the fact that the most prominent lyric of the song _Just Like Honey_ is “I’ll be your plastic boy”, Agusta "replicated this by adding a plastic sheen to the models, echoing my previous work.”

Much of her work consists of 3D scanned objects, and this project was no different. Agusta scanned 38 looks and then placed them into a surrealist animated world. Each model moves in a 360-degree space reverberating with “acid trip” projections and four different ‘stages’ – the playground where models dance, walk and play guitar. Near the end of the film, the models assemble and start dancing in unison. “They become statues in a dreamlike museum world in the finale, with all of the looks spread throughout all four screens,” she says.

Another project, this time for Moschino, saw Agusta take a more “reserved” approach – reserved, but “still out there because of the scans”. She adds: “We used a mixture of beautiful busts, full-body scans and animated walking scans with classical music alongside them.” What’s most interesting about this one is that it was finalised remotely, with Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott based in LA, Agusta based in London and her assistant based in Milan. “The way all of the pieces came together was a testament to the power of the internet – a kind of digital recreation of what had happened on the runway in Milan that I made, without having been there.”

The power of the internet is astonishing. And, with the rise of digital manipulation and fashion shows, in particular, heading towards more digitally generated realisations, what does this mean for our future? Well, Agusta sees the products of digital as a less affecting issue than the platforms in which we share it. “I think the effects of social media on representation in real life are more the core of the issue, especially for people who have had social media their whole lives.” She concludes: “My work is more about a fantasy world, so I don’t really think about how to make anything seem real; technologically we’re a long way away from being able to blur the lines of reality.”