Light painting + Reflective Photograms

This past weekend in my normal scroll of the internet I happened upon a post by Philippe Dubost (@philou.cc) who has been posting shots using light painting with a pixel stick to write phrases in Montreal.

He has also posted a video tutorial on how to create the same effect using TouchDesigner.

So I set it up and my girlfriend and I spent some time playing around the apartment drawing with phones and flashlights. What became interesting was that since it was looking for the brightest spot, a reflection  on a wall would also trigger the feeback/line to continue.

We than started painting our faces with light, with led to using the flash of a camera to imprint a silhouetted reflection.

I realized that doing this was the inverse of what photograms were. Rather creating exposures by blocking light, this process was producing similar effects by reflecting light.

Photogrammetric map of my apt.

Prompt:
Make a field guide to your apartment.
Miranda July includes the prompt “make a field guide to your apartment” — I don’t have a yard to I made a field guide and map of my apartment. (See the link below for the actual guide)

 


See full model here

I used the display land app to capture and build a photogrammetric map of my apt. I’m interested in trying to do compositing  with photogrammetry and other capture methods — I’m excited to this model to aid that project.

Fan-tastic Fan Cam & Fan Slit Scans

I’ve been interested in using my ceiling fan as a motion guide for my phone camera. I started by mounting my phone to the blades of the fan and capturing a slow motion video.

I’ve started to play with building rigs off of the fan:

In addition to the simple rigging systems I explored using the fan for slit scanning, with some intriguing results. To the see the original, non-compressed versions of these, click here.

 

Some photos of the slit scan set up:

Response To Steven

I really appreciate Steven’s description of Marmalade Type by Rus Khasanov. Specifically, Steven discusses how art can use a rigor and understanding of science as a means to create visually interesting pieces. The train exploration Steven described is a wonderful example of how one can begin asking standard scientific questions, such as “what is birefringence?” and use the response as a generator for a project. I would be interested to see to what extent the images were edited and color corrected, and am curious to what extent it would it matter if someone is staying true to the science of the project given its art context.

Other projects viewed:

Joseph

Izzy

Jacqui

David

ProjectToShare Reviews

 

I decided to look at and comment on Huw’s post about non-euclidean renders (and other alternative rendering systems) as a form of photography. In general, I am inclined to support and expanded understanding of photography – so if someone want to claim it as photography, then will hear ut what they have to say. Thinking about non-euclidean render systems strikes me almost as more of a camera making process, that then takes photos via the render. It creates the system for the possible capture in the digital world and then renders it, or it reminds me of Vito Acconci’s work where he would walk down the street and snap ‘random’ photos on film and then develop them later. In a way, the expectations of the non-euclidean render system might not be identifiable until the render mich like the chance photography of Vito Acconci (and others).

Here’s an example of someone’s ‘impossible space’ render system created for Unity.

The projects I looked at:

 

Response to Sean Leo’s Rapid Recap

The idea of using a surveillance tool for image making is quite interesting to me, and the RapidRecap system is a good example. It reminded me of a talk by James Bridle, who uses systems that aren’t originally designed for creative uses- in fact are often used for tracking and data collection- to make projects. He discusses a few in this lecture, one of the more interesting ones was using a system of people and services that track planes to find out how migrants are deported from the UK.

Another somewhat different project of his uses the views of satellites and the ghosting they give to moving objects frozen in time. This kind of system of imaging is a bit like the RapidRecap in that it provides a kind of overlay of objects over time, one being over a long period and another over a very short one.

James Bridle, ‘On the Rainbow Plane’ from AQNB on Vimeo.

 

Reviewed:

Steven’s post on Marmalade Type

Huw’s post on the Non-Euclidean Renderer

Spoon’s post on the Non-line-of-sight Camera

Jacqui’s post on the Unpainted Sculpture

ProjectToShare Reviews

Looking at Experiments with Security Camera by Olivia.

I was trying to think of why thermal cameras are so mesmerizing to me. Photographs deliver visible light to our eyes, so the obvious first step of inventing photography is to record this visible light. Heat energy is not ordinarily visible to us, but it can still be recorded in the same way from light beyond our range of vision.

There are similar processes for capturing energy beyond our range of visible light, but the difference is that heat is something both tangible and ephemeral. We use it as a tool for physically altering materials and we are very familiar with its sensation, using it constantly to navigate and understand the world. This sensation is not what is delivered by a thermal photograph however.  Is it possible to create a photo that possesses the tangibility of heat with less of its ephemerality? An image that is physically cold in places it recorded cold and hot in places it recorded hot?

The photos by Clelia Knox weird me out existentially. Dissociating the photos from the what it must have looked like to record them, you see human energy being radiated into a cold environment. It captures the constant generation of life in relation to an imposing environment. In this way a new sensation is captured, of vitality, beyond the energy used to make these scenes visible.

I also looked at:

The Non-Line-of-Sight Camera from Spoon

Joiners from Christian Broms

Marmalade Type from Steven Montinar

Tea Ceremony from Stacy Kellner

Project To Share Addition

In addition to Christian Brom’s post about joiners:

I feel that David Hockney has always been at the edge of what painting and image making could be (I’m personally a big fan of his Bigger Grand Canyon) and the fact that he’s now largely painting on an iPad I feel is, while safe in it’s execution, somewhat risky within the scope of being a painter. Looking at Joiners I was reminded of an animation I saw last semester, namely Faux Plafond – Cosmic Promenade by Francois Vogel:

faux plafond from francois vogel on Vimeo.

At one level the aesthetic of it is similar to Joiners, but at another I feel the notion of the image spliced together with others to produce a greater whole connects them as well. It’s also an example of a piece where the “360 camera” is used, but also a necessary component of narrative which in my opinion not many work using 360 cameras are.

Other posts reviewed:

Tahira, Quayola and Memo Akten “Forms”

Olivia, Clelia Knox “Experiments with Security Cameras”

Policarpo, James Bulley and Daniel Jones “Variable 4”

Lukas, Dirk Koy “Escape Route”

Response: Sean’s post on “BriefCam” 

These projects were all so great to read!

I chose to respond to Sean’s post on “BriefCam.”

Screenshot from Sean’s post

 

I love the concept of capturing multiple events over time and weaving them into the same moment. This surveillance camera footage reminds me of Jon Rafman’s Nine Eyes of Google Street View, in which sometimes a glitch would create a sort of double-vision:
This also reminds me of the thermal paper we played around with in class, and the toilet seat that keeps an imprint of where you were sitting. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about strangers whose daily routines take them past the same place, just moments apart, so that they barely miss each other day after day. I think it would be crazy to know who you *almost* cross paths with, or who was sitting in your subway seat right before you, etc.
Sean noted at the beginning of his blog post that his security camera example was not explicitly an “artistic project.” I actually like that! It draws attention to the fact that time and personal history is so powerful and poetic; it creates an uncanny feeling all on its own.

 

 

Other projects I looked at:

Christian’s post on “Joiners

Cathryn’s post on “The Capture of Gesture

Joseph’s post on “Triple Chaser

Steven’s post on “Marmalade Type