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.

16th March

After previous unsuccessful attempts to upload images to the cloud, I tried a different tactic. The satellite internet connection at JOYA struggled to cope with the recent trend in ubiquitous computing, in which all iPhone photography is automatically uploaded to the iCloud as soon as it is connected to the internet. Instead, I connected my phone directly to a laptop and uploaded images through the photogrammetry software. The technology was still an issue, as Autodesk ReCap’s cloud-based processing (the functionality of the software which uses a high processing function of server farms) relies upon the transfer of images through the satellite internet in order to process 3D models. As the software assembled the models, a progress bar would state ‘8%’ or ‘queued’ or get stuck at a certain percentage of upload and then ‘timeout’. Images would get lost, glitched, or omitted at this stage, thus not informing the 3D model. At JOYA, the images became intrinsically linked with the environment. The satellite internet was powered by the wind turbine and solar panels. A pivoting turbine at the top of a scaffolding tower located at the rear paddock stood high above the roof of the farmhouse. Next to it were two reflective panels, pitched diagonally at an angle in order to face them roughly towards the east. The energy produced from these were stored in 24 battery cells located next to the kitchen. The two-dozen Tudor EAN 70T batteries stored enough energy for the modem and transmitter connected to the satellite dish.

The same energies that disrupted images and changed the weather and lighting conditions, also powered the images and transferred their data — an embodiment of the natural materiality of the area upholding the digital processes that it is hostile to. In this way, my time spent at JOYA became an exploration of the capacity of natural energies to become glitch agencies. The transient, unseen and temporal forces that shape the landscape also have a powerful effect on the image. Rather than finding methods to obscure these influences on technology, the research is intrigued by methods in which the natural and technological impact each other.

3D MODEL LINKS

JOYA Gasquez Landscape

Vanitas flores exaruit

Vanitas glass candelabra

Glass/water/refraction

Vanitas ephemera photografia

Sierra Larga Maria rocks 1

Sierra Larga Maria rocks 2

Embalse de Valdeinfierno

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Caine, A. Granular Realism/Ontology and Counter-Dominant Practices of Spatial Photography (unpublished PhD Thesis, Goldsmiths College, University of London. 2019)

Debord, G. "Theory of the Dérive," Les Lèvres Nues #9 (November 1956) reprinted in Internationale Situationniste #2 (December 1958) trans. by Ken Knabb, (Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1981) ><https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/theory.html> [accessed 3 Jun 2020]

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Hertz, G and Parikka, J. "Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method," Leonardo 45:5 (2012) pp. 424–30.

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Local Area Network. 2019.

These experiments and realisations have led to the development of work concerned with network objects and their intrinsic link to the image. In a later project, network objects such as data centres, cell masts, cables, routers, and transmitters were all captures in the local vicinity of the Glass Tank gallery, created for the exhibition ‘Local Area Network’ in 2019. Viewers experiencing the works through AR would need to connect to the same network devices imaged in order to access the images on their phones.

The network objects provide affordances for glitches in their homogeneity, with normally plain or repeated devices huddled together like the servers with their data centre racks. There are visually logistical affordances, too. The objects are often concealed, hidden, or truncated, which makes them hard to capture. Their visibility is purposefully obscured and the glitched nature of the images reflects that.

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