One interesting component of the photogrammetry process is the option of allowing the software to interpolate missing areas of the geometry. When calculating geometric surfaces from the photographs it can operate in two ways. One: it only calculates geometry for what it knows is there, and Two: it interpolates a imagined surface between two points of knowns < a bridge >.

In these photogrammetric based video pieces, Punched Effigy and Tree Shell (both 2015) I sought to explore the re-representation of familiar objects and places in a form that is only skin deep; exposing the fragility of these objects that are perceived as solid and ask the textural aspects to work harder in representing reality and holding the illusion together. The mechanism of a “camera clipping plane” is introduced to carve away at the shells of these objects as they get closer to the viewer. The expectation that more details become revealed by closer inspection is partially rejected here. In addition, some of the elements of Effigy are composited in from other scanning sessions and presented as a coherent whole.

Whole/hole

The peculiar holes in the tree trunks were added later in 3d modeling software and function both to suspend belief in the integrity of the form and to contrast visually with the organic construction of the overall scene.

Holes in geometry as they relate to holes in history. What is intentionally left out?
Realizing both memory and data have holes and those can be filled by interpolation. This interpolation creates a timelessness because it is created by both computer algorithms and humans’ manufactured memory - it is not tied to any one time. It is a bridge, where the idea of a bridge functions as a neutral time / space.

The photographs these scenes were created from were captured just outside my studio window at Bleeker. In particular, the large eucalyptus tree viewable through the many wooden framed windows, always resembled a slowly eroding candle, with its large peeling shreds of bark and copious leaf litter smothering all things under it. Readily, it grew back large patches of bark that had fallen off, and that new bark slowly changed color and texture to match the older variety. It was always shedding and re-building it’s shell, as if that’s all that mattered and there was no inside.

Intended for projection on 10x10' wall.