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.

8th March 2018

A clearer, warmer day meant I could venture further toward the abandoned farmhouses around the perimeter of the Embalse de Valdeinfierno, the nearby reservoir. On the dirt track, I headed east towards the border of Andalucía and the Region of Murcia. Collapsed stone buildings were dotted along the path. Fallen timber, smooth and silvery through weathering, jutted out from piles of rubble from the dilapidated structures.

Unenriched by the acquisitions of prior colonialisation and hindered by the austerity of fascism in the twentieth century, many agricultural communities in Spain were abandoned in favour of life in the nearby cities. As a result, most of the buildings in the vicinity were deserted. I took images of the remnants of the walls of what was once a barn.

I continued down to the shores of the reservoir. Reeds and shrubland had long replaced the pools of water, as the reservoir had dried up decades before. Standing oddly and ominously out of the reservoir, as a barrier to the possibility of flash floods, was what Simon called the ‘Fascist Dam’. Meticulously and uniformly engineered, it contrasted against the desolate landscape. Built as a flood defence for the flash flood-prone city of Lorca, it now mainly provides a road link between the bordering regions of Murcia and Andalusia.

From here, I captured the openness of the reeds and shores of the reservoir. Simple yet complex, the constantly moving reeds and other plants meant that objects appeared in different configurations in each shot, as they shifted and shimmered in the wind. I stepped around the banks, tracing the shoreline, in order to capture the stark soil from several angles.

As I manoeuvred myself around, I could see the etchings of an abandoned quarry over the other side. The craggy hills disrupted by clean incisions revealed bright white limestone, which shone in the sunlight. Here, several dormant quarries could be seen. Their sharp, geometric cuboid excavations contrasted with the weathered contours of the surrounding landscape. I ventured back to JOYA, encircling the quarries from up high.

These environments prove particularly tricky for photogrammetry, therefore they expose many useful characteristics of its image-making properties. Complex and homogenous, the repetitious reeds are indistinct. At the time of capture, they were swaying and moving in waves with the breeze.

This movement, coupled with the indistinct and

featureless character of the objects,

render this expanse bland and fractured.

Although we can see distinct

markers in the far landscape —

dunes, rocks, and edge of reeds

— the photogrammetry software

needs more markers than these to

fully render three dimensions.

In one half of the 3D model,

fractional patterns occur where

dunes and ripples in the sands should be.

Remnants of the undulating sand occurs in the patterns

of blank spots that permeate this half of the model;

replicating the patterns of the dunes but failing to capture its form or texture accurately.

Around the perimeter of the photogrammetric model are smudged or fuzzy textures

— fragmented perimeters, seemingly arbitrary. This represents the liminality of the visual concurrence of the images. These are the limits the algorithm's knowledge of the reservoir's spatiality.

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