Port Explorer is a typology of personal electronics utilizing macro photogrammetry to capture and model unseen spaces that we carry with us daily. The collection presented is comprised of the charging ports of people’s personal devices: USB-C, Apple Lightning, and USB-A.
Rather than a reflection of an individual, I believe these captures to be a refracted representation. Not much personal information may be derived from these images, but the use and collected grime, lint and dust found in these spaces has unique personal ties and presented as a typology they become the personality of the images.
It was my aim to capture and represent these spaces as micro-verses that the viewer could navigate and explore. Using the Bebird otoscope and compiling into Agisoft’s Metashape, I brought the resulting 3d models into TouchDesigner to create a gallery of 3d responsive models. The viewer can control and navigate each model by clicking and dragging with a 3 button mouse.
Macro Photogrammetry is quite difficult. The Bebird Otoscope has a very narrow depth of field, and I was also trying to capture cavities externally given the size of the Otoscope. Below is a picture of the set up I used, which did stabilize and to a certain extent mechanize the capture so that I can adjust and line up my next shot somewhat accurately. A more precise rig that could hold the subject and Camera, while also having full 3 axis manipulation of both, as well as controlling distance would have been the most ideal. Given the challenges of this type of capture I did scale up from phone ports to USB ports, which proved less challenging given the extra space and larger cavity.
I believe there is more to explore around this project. By understanding the limitations of my set up and my methodology, and was there more time, I would have liked to further investigate computer cables (DVI, VGA, etc.) as a typology that presents and abstracts their various topographies as micro-verses. There is a gendered component to this work that I am also interested in further exploring. Specifically investigating, colloquially termed “Male” cables that at macro scale are unique bodies and cavities that are not dis-similar from their “female” counterparts.