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.

Diary in JOYA – Ephemera

The following text documents a project developed during residency/retreat at JOYA: arte + ecología in Andalusia, Spain, in Spring 2018. JOYA is a residency designed for artists, writers, and musicians to focus on work centring on ecological issues or connections to the landscape. JOYA was established by Simon and Donna Beckmann under sustainable principles: producing their own electricity through wind and solar generators, burning wood for heat and hot water, and collecting drinking water from the nearby village spring. It provides artists with an escape from the trappings of contemporary living such as digital media, with little or no mobile data signal and intermittent satellite Wi-Fi. Released from these modern burdens, residents of JOYA are free to read, write, create, and explore the landscape. During this period, I focused mainly on work using photogrammetry and natural ephemera.

It seems an odd place to base a digital project — far removed from the resources necessary for cloud-based, digital media technology. However, I was intrigued to investigate how the issues I’d previously explored with cloud-based photogrammetry — the parameters of what the technology can visualise — would manifest while working at JOYA. Having established previously that photogrammetry works ‘best’ under certain conditions (dictated by the manufacturer’s guide), JOYA seemed to provide conditions contrary to those stipulated in the commercial product’s guidelines. In essence, the project aimed to test the limitations, vulnerabilities, and peculiarities of photogrammetry’s visualising of ephemera. The assumptions of ubiquitous connectivity and electrical infrastructure make the technology fragile to harsher, less anthropocentric environments. Even visually, the rural environment contains a number of conditions and ephemera that cause issues for photogrammetry technologies. The incomprehensible complexity and yet confusingly homogenous visuality of forests, rock formations, and clouds mean that interesting errors emerge when capturing these environments. The vastness of the landscape, the changeable weather and light conditions, the indistinct and repetitive nature of the terrain: all are the antithesis of the ‘ideal’ conditions for photogrammetry.

Below is a diary of notes documenting the time and works made at JOYA, in an environment that is unstable, vast, and, somewhat contradictorily, multifaceted yet repetitive. The diary reflects on decisions made during the development of the works, influenced by the landscape, sites, and encounters.

5th March 2018

I arrived at JOYA late the night before. Getting off the bus from Granada, I was met by Simon in an old Land Rover sprayed with chalky mud. We headed north, past the 16^th Century Castillio of Velez Blanco which was uplit imposingly,

until the tarmac road turned into dusty trail. The road steadily became more treacherous

as we got closer to JOYA; the characteristic starchy sludge of the mountain

earth shifted under the tread of the tyres.

Emerging around the corner,

the refurbished farmhouse

- JOYA sits 1074m above

sea level in a mostly deserted

former agricultural parkland

of Sierra María-Los Vélez.

The region is scattered with

abandoned farms, not uncommon

in rural Spain, where a now-depleted agricultural

community once contributed

the area's almond production. Simon

mentioned in the morning that, due to the

unusual amount of rain, the delivery of wood hadn’t arrived,

which is why there was no heating or hot water. Owing to a combination

of climate change and agricultural abandonment, the area is occasionally untraversable.

Landslides, forest fires and floods are not uncommon and yet the land is amongst the

most arid in southern Spain.

In the afternoon, I explored the immediate area. JOYA sits in a bowl between several peaks, 12 kilometres east of María and 14 kilometres due north of Velez-Blanco. The hills north of the residency site were covered in woods, save for a stripe of felled trees for fire prevention purposes. I ventured up the belt of cleared woodland hoping to be able to view over the adjacent hill. As I reached the halfway point, the weather changed, with strong gales and torrential rain making ascent impossible. I could hear the wind turbine at JOYA whirring increasingly as the gusts intensified. I headed back to the farmhouse.

Tip

Tip

Diary in JOYA – Ephemera