Interview with Winifred McHenry
from TheWhitePaddedCell.co.za
May 2006
What is the Eve Project?
The EveryWoman Project is a combination of science and art, perception and reality,
to explore the relationship between woman and the planet. By finding the average
form, we find how much or how little we are different from ‘average’.
Not the average/perfect, but the real average, the person next door. I’m
mixing the bodies of different women across all boundaries to create the image
of the average women.
How does it work?
Any set of numbers has an average. the size of a person’s head is a number,
the length of an arm, the width of a smile. find the average and you can recreate
a person from the numbers, one that looks absolutely real. She is the center
of every women. I call her Eve for short.
It’s really simple statistics. the measurement of standard deviation.
We all deviate from the average to some degree. What that average really is
has not been portrayed accurately, especially in the media. Something I’m
addressing.
What about the 1.618 thing?
I was reading an article about brain waves of people with mental disorders
and the ratio of alpha to beta is often 1.618. Something to do with having no
inhibitions and being purely human, rather than part of a society.
Of course 1.618 pops up everywhere in everything natural. especially with the planet and with the female form. There are many coincidences between the female form and the planet, actually too many to be coincidental. Something is going on here and I want to know what it is. Eve’s body has such a perfect relationship with the planet.
How did mother nature make us so perfect?
I truly believe every person is perfect. We all have issues about our
bodies at some point. I think these issues are self-inflicted, or inflicted
by those around us. Babies don’t care if they’re unique. but knowing
that we are unique is very liberating. There is no one else like you, never
has been, never will be again.
Are there differences in how we perceive people’s bodies and
what they really are?
Oh yes. It takes any artist years to learn to draw realistically. We
all know what a person looks like, so why don’t we know how to draw them?
Our brains store people’s bodies in a way that makes sense to it, but
not one that we can use easily. The classic example is the forehead. To our
storage-brain it's mostly wasted space, so when a beginner draws a person for
the first time they will always draw the eyes too high. and not see the mistake.
That’s just weird.
It is fascinating to see how people draw and how they learn to draw. A million
people could draw the same person from the same angle and it would look like
a million different people. Our perception of the human body is really unique.
People with psychoses have really distorted views of people stored in their
head.
How long has this project being going and how long will it take to
complete?
I started with the idea around 2000. I was looking for ways to cheat
while painting portraits, 'cause i’m really lazy by nature. I thought
if I could make a template of the average person and just change it a bit it
would make my life easier. Well, it has caused a lot more work for me, but now
I love it.
It will be done when its done, depends on how many people contribute. The human
eye can perceive about 1618 different tones, so I need 1618 different images
to create the perfect average. I’ve got just over 10% of what I need so
far. I like the idea of people volunteering, because if it means something to
you then you have no issues about it. It’s real and beautiful and personal,
even if it’s just plain average.
You could almost be a woman
Thank you, that is a great compliment.
Where can we find out more about the project?
http://www.zenratai.com/eve/eve_everywoman.htm
There’s also images there of the current version of Eve. She’s already
quite recognizable and unique. But she has a long way to go to be perfectly
average.