Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitching The Cloud through Photogrammetry

Tom Milnes

Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitch Practices in Photogrammetry details artistic practice using cloud-based photogrammetry that actively invokes glitches through disturbance of the imaging algorithm by utilising optical phenomena. Reflective, transparent, specular and patterned/repetitive objects were used to confuse the imaging algorithm to produce spikes, holes and glitches in the mesh and textures of the 3D objects produced. The research tests the limits of photogrammetry in an effort toward new image-making methods. It builds upon the research of Hito Steyerl’s Ripping Reality: Blind spots and wrecked data in 3D in which she outlines the errors of 3D scanning media in her work and contextualises amongst thought surrounding the objectivity of photographic media. This research explores the potential gaps in Steyerl’s approach, building upon investigations into 3D scanning’s ‘constructed imagery’ through methods which explore ‘fractional space’ more thoroughly through glitches caused by capturing of optical phenomena. Through practice, the research investigates the possibilities of conducting a ‘media archaeological’ investigation of cloud-based technology using methods akin to ‘Thinkering’(Huhtamo) and ‘Zombie Media’ (Hertz & Parikka). These investigations sought to ‘hack’ technologies through focused technical adjustments or adaptations, centred on media that were ‘local’ or accessible to the artist - artists that have been able to open the machine’s hardware to change circuitry or to access and change the software code. With cloud-based media’s materiality being inaccessible, the investigation utilised techniques which actively disrupt and confuse the image-making process; a form of ‘digital détournement’ which develops techniques which reference Guy Debord’s approach to disrupt the powers of image-making culture. The research is discussed with regards to similar approaches in contemporary glitch practices and aesthetics. Prior (2013) posits that glitch practices form a ‘paralogy’ of the Lyotardian notion of ‘performativity’ of the contemporary techno-economic conditions; acknowledging that paralogy is a method that contributes important critical discourses to culture and research. Previously, ‘local’ glitch practices focused on the internal affordances and functionality of the machine, whereas this research demonstrates practice which is focused externally – through the optical nature of images selected to disrupt the algorithm in photogrammetry rather than through ‘hacking’ the algorithm directly. Through these investigations and a discussion of their methodology, the research encourages a critical reflexivity of the artist/user through use of a dynamic methodology. This is to reflect the issues of technological flux which sees imaging algorithms being updated and refined, forcing techniques and practices into obsolescence.

6th March 2018

After breakfast, I ventured up the hill opposite to that attempted the previous day, in order to get to a view of the landscape. I aimed to capture the area from these vantage points. The ground underfoot was chalky white and crumbling, dry and barren from the perennial breeze. I’m told that Sierra María-Los Velez sits in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada. The almond trees dotted around this landscape were suffering from this drought, although were starting to bloom despite it.

From the top of Sierra Larga María, the hill to the south of the farmhouse, I could see the Sierra Nevada was snow-capped, and partially hidden by cloud. I could also see that the cloud was moving in our direction. Using my phone, I took photos of the landscape below me. In the images, the ground appeared as a pixelated mass of homogenous grey-brown; the limestone soil had no discernible features. The granular earth appeared like noise or static on the phone screen. I captured the landscape to the east. As I panned around, clicking the shutter, the vista became increasingly engulfed in fog. North-westerly clouds swirled and began to obscure the view of the thousands of Aleppo pines that stretched across the valley. The lichen-covered limestone at my feet was marked by droplets of rain as I tried to capture the lunar-esque terrain. Images became blurred and undefined, as though taken through a smeared lens or degraded from compression or reduction.

The crystallisation of the rock appears as a fragmented image, reminiscent of pixels, grainy and abstracted.

Clear rock forms are peppered with indistinct blank spaces, triangles of grey-black.

Textures are smeared across the surface.

In areas adjacent to the camera textures are clear.

However, areas behind the view of the

capturer are blurred, stretched,

and warped. This implies a directionality

to the captured image and areas,

indicating an algorithmic

estimation of form and texture.

Forests become dragged across the landscape.

Their far side is empty and open.

These numerous structures appear as if melted.

Or, as if a paint-brush has dragged through them

leaving a streak of remnant foliage across the land.

These directional stains leave clues

for the construction of the image,

showing the trajectory of vision

in the formation of the image.

There is a clear vantage point

and what is not imaged shows quite significantly.

Complex structures like tufts of grass

become colours scattered across the surfaces of other objects.

Their structural objectivity is lost to textural data.

The fractured face of

the rocks reveals a mosaic

of blank, digital lichen.

The glitch lichen of

un-imaged textures.

They interrupt the illusory

nature of the texture and

force the viewer to be confronted

with an emptiness of the unknown.

These fractals of triangular

multiplication stretch beyond

the far sides of poorly imaged models.

They reach and encircle the

perimeter of the models;

creating an envelope of patchwork outlines.

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