Category: Uncategorized

Typology of Pittsburgh Bridges – Proposal/WIP

For my typology, I plan on using the portable (iphone) thermal camera, as well as the built in iphone camera to capture the underside of dilapidated bridges.

My goal is to create a typology of Pittsburgh’s worst bridges that highlights our aging infrastructure and safety concerns.

Background

I came up with the idea for this project after reading this article about the state of steel bridges in the US. They found that over 25 percent of all bridges in the US will collapse by 2050, due to the extreme temperature fluctuation throughout the planet as a result of climate change. I  immediately connected this to Pittsburgh, and the Fern Hollow bridge collapse. There are almost 450 bridges within Pittsburgh city limits (446 to be exact) and I found this report from June 2024 that concluded that 15 percent of these bridges are in poor condition and at risk of failure right now.

The next thing I was curious about was whether it was possible with the tools available to the studio to capture and record damage invisible or difficult to see with the naked eye.  I learned that (among many other methods) one of the ways to identify weaknesses is using an IR thermal camera.  [Jump to Section 3.3]

Method

I plan to standardize the bridge images (as best I can) by stationing myself directly under each bridge, and taking the photo with my phone pointed straight up in an attempt to unify the images and standardize the angle. I will take 2 photos (planned) of each bridge, one with the thermal camera, and one with my iphone camera.

My biggest concern right now is that it’s not going to work! Obviously I am not a structural engineer, and I have no idea if I’ll be able to see the damage even with the thermal camera. My contingency plan if I’m not able to get the thermal camera to work is to create a 3d scan of the underside of the 5-10 of the worst bridges instead, and somehow highlight the structural problems that are visible to the naked eye. That being said, I am very interested in hearing if someone thinks there’s a more effective capture method for this.

Additional Resources:

More about bridge diagnosis methods

Non paywalled article on bridge prognosis

Cause of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse

 

the mighty phone

For this exploration, I mainly just opened the app and used it. Not much thought went into what I was capturing but there were a few things I was curious about.

    • For Genius Scan, I was mainly curious about how the scans compare to the document scanner native to the iPhone (in the notes app). For the subject of just the landscape around me, it appears fairly similar.
    • For Slitscan, I wanted to see how motion would affect how the way the slits would build the final image. So, on my walk to campus today, I took a couple of pictures of the view outside the bus, the view of Tepper with trees and grass, and something that I’m not sure of. The first two are with the phone orientation staying still while the phone moves in a linear manner. The last one is moving the orientation of the phone while the phone also moves.
    • For Polycam/Scaniverse, I wanted to see how well it would capture an entire space. It kinda warps reality in a really funky way and I wonder how difficult of a challenge it is to capture 3D objects, because the results were quite interesting.

Genius Scan:

genius scan

iPhone notes app scanner

Slitscan:

Polycam:

Beyond the Human Eye

I think what I see as the “artistic opportunity” is well-summarized by this quote:

“[Photographic observation] had always revealed objects too small, too fast, too complex too slow, and too far away to be seen with the eye”—specifically, the human eye.

I’ve been working a bit recently (perhaps following in a wave of work challenging the trends of the Anthropocene) on projects involving the other/more than human (here’s a small example!). I think part of what new “methodological/scientific/scientistic approaches to imaging” allows is a humbling of the human self as we realize the multiplicity of worlds beyond our seeing and imagining. The way we perceive, take in, internalize the world is like one moment of a slit scan. To me, the artistic opportunity here comes from understanding beyond ourselves, and in the process, learning a bit more about our capabilities and boundaries along the way.

Also, unrelated, but does the history of photography introduced at the beginning of the text e.g.

Relate at all to modern gear head pixel peeping culture?

Reading 01 – Photography

I’ve had a very limited interest in photography up until this reading that explores the evolution of photography. The various vantage points that limitations scientists had with different forms of photography is what I think artistically makes them interesting. The paragraph that details how photography doesn’t necessarily display the inherent properties of the object behind an image is something I hadn’t considered and is something that I’d like to explore further. A part of my disinterest (I’m sure)with photography has simply been that I haven’t acknowledged how much of a privilege it is to have the ability to capture any moment anytime from my phone.  I appreciate the reading for showing that it was a long road to getting here.

Photography and Science-Reading 1

It was fascinating to learn about the practical and scientific uses of photography, especially how it contrasts with the casual way we use it today. In the past, photography wasn’t just about capturing memories or sharing moments on social media; it was a crucial tool for scientific discovery and documentation. The use of photographic emulsions, for example, enabled scientists to capture phenomena like X-rays and distant celestial bodies, allowing them to study and analyze things that were invisible to the naked eye. This historical perspective highlights how photography was once a specialized, precise tool for exploration and knowledge.

One artistic opportunity made possible by scientific approaches to imaging is the ability to visualize and explore things beyond the reach of the naked eye, which significantly expands our creative potential. Innovations like X-ray, infrared, and microscopic imaging allow us to see the world in entirely new ways, revealing hidden structures and patterns that were previously invisible. This not only broadens our understanding of the world but also fuels our visual imagination, opening up new realms of creativity. By making the unseen visible, these advancements inspire artists to explore and reinterpret the natural world in ways that were once unimaginable. For example, a fashion designer takes images of what fabric looks like under a microscope and makes a collection with these images blown up and printed on the fabrics they use.

The more we know, the more we realize we don’t know, and the more we can imagine as artists.

Looking Outwards #01

Stereographs are really effective at observing the small details of an image that I might otherwise miss. I never had an interest in them until I slowed down and looked through a series of photographs of different minorities laboring in the fields. Certain parts of the image felt more solidified, or calcified looking through the stereoscope versus looking with the naked eye. The photograph almost became a sculpture to me. I’m not necessarily interested in using a stereoscope, but I would be interested in exploring this idea with various lenses and playing with the sense of sight more abstractly.

Below is a link to Keystone View Company – A Pennsylvania based company that holds a large archive of curious imagery available to the public

Their blog – https://stereoscopy.blog/2021/01/03/keystone-view-company/
Archives – https://archives.lib.utrgv.edu/repositories/2/resources/427