Category: Reports

pictures I didn’t take

The readings about poor images reminded me of a project by Matthias Brown (@traceloops on Instagram), in which he finds photos (of people he does not know) that all have the same generic filename, and then paints them, transforming them from forgotten digital artifacts to permanent, deliberate works of art.

link to the post

I realized I could do a similar thing for myself via my iMessages archive.

Even after new phones/computers over the years, I still have this iMessage archive going back to 2013…or maybe earlier. It looks like this – just hundreds of cryptically-named folders, each with a cryptically-named subfolder within it…each filled with forgotten images, screenshots, etc. from old text conversations.
my imessage archive of poor images

These are the photos no one ever saved. Each of the subfolders seems to be labeled with a number between 0 and 13. I chose to look at all the folders labeled “9.” (I’m choosing 9 randomly).

In these folders, there’s absolutely no organization whatsoever. a photo from 2014 will be next to a photo from 2020. All from different times of day. There’s no context besides the date and time, and no way to know who I was talking to, or whether this is a photo I sent or received.

I think this is so awesome. 

Usually, when I go through my camera roll, filled with photos I’ve deliberately taken and saved, I can pick out a random one and after a couple seconds of thinking, say “ah yes” and remember what that picture was about.

The photos in the messages archive, however, precisely fit my understanding of “poor images.” They were never saved to a camera roll; they are forgotten images. Now devoid of context, their stories are a complete mystery. Did I send this? Did I receive this? What was the conversation we were having around this picture? They are silly, scary, dark, intimate. Some bring back memories of my sort of “past-selves” – an ex’s kitchen; the bathroom in a place I used to live.

I am so obsessed with these, and I spent WAY too many hours digging through this archive…I would love to continue this project in some way. For now, here is a small collection of photos I didn’t take. Some of the scenes are more familiar than others; but what stands out is I was not the photographer – yet I am somehow the owner. This is a crazy thing to think about – what are the ethics around this in the digital age?!

 

you may have to zoom in to read the captions – scroll through one by one 🙂

Room Quarantine Time Lapse

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share something I’ve been working on the past couple days!

I created a very David Hockney like time lapse of me in my dorm room on a day to day bases. With the help of a lot of duct-tape I filmed two-three hour time lapses of various spots in my room. I experimented with the frame rate on each video clip. Here is the end product!

 

Poor Images Olivia Cunnally

 

Picture of me from objects on my computer  (portrait comprised of files from downloads, google drive, pictures, desktop and bookmarks)

 

Pictures Throughout Time of Genuine Joy: (pictures of me from my computer experiencing genuine happiness)

 

Picture of Me From My First Google Image Results: (my most common profile pictures and a real old video I made for a college scholarship)

Panoramic App Misuse

I don’t know if this is app misuse so much as just… unusual app use, but it captures images of things in a way unlike they actually are, so I’ll count it. I used my phone’s native panoramic camera to do a few experiments.

Un-bending Bendy Things

For these images I sought out real-world items that were curved and tried to move the camera as I photographed them so that they came out straight in the final image. It only really worked with things that were curved in a horizontal plane, because my app did not allow me to rotate my camera in any other direction. Here are some of my results:

The original bench
The bench, straightened
The original ramp
The ramp, straightened

 

The original headphones
The headphones, straightened
Drawing with Light

I brought a flashlight out to photograph a wall at night, and tried moving it in various ways as I took the panorama.

Moving the light upwards
Moving the light up and down
Moving the light up and down, but going backwards during each movement so the edges are more sharp

App Misuse – Tahirah Lily

I was really curious about exploring space, so after trying a few apps, I decided to use Weird Type.

I built my sister a castle to sit and have her meal in.

I also found abstracting words interesting.

The last capture my phone cooperated with was using letters as architecture. I had a few other structures I liked better, but sadly the app wasn’t saving them. I suspect my phone was out of space from all the app downloading.

App Misuse

I ended up using Monodepth2, a machine learning library made by Niantic Labs and UCL.

I created a Google Colab notebook to make it easier to use the software and converted some of the timelapse below

to this:

I also tried running the algorithm on a scene that doesn’t exist from SCI-Arc student Siyao Zheng’s thesis project.

App Misuse

I used 360 Panorama to show you a few rooms in my house:

https://360.io/user/69d8-1067240/cassie-scheirer

I’m familiar with long exposure already, which works best with a DSLR — here’s a few cool photos I’ve taken over the years.

And finally, I tested out Poloska, a slit-scanning app. I’m absolutely in love.

^ me playing with my cat

^ my cat

^ bananas, a cat toy, and fake flowers

^ bananas, a glass, and a cat toy

^ a glass, a cat toy, and a pair of tweezers

^ a fake bonzai tree