Johannes Neumeier
Designer
email contact@konturart.net
phone +358 50 53 61 961
One most rewarding experience: Sorting through old files and finding jewels like this. 3D experiment from 2009, I believe, using a distorted normal map on the foreground model and transparent color projection on the background.
Static link to Mirror, mirror on the wall...There's some prints of my 3D artworks available on my society6 store eagerly waiting to decorate some walls out there.
Static link to Prints available
Static link to Fragments - 3D beginningsThe technologies used by artists in the computer art field are designed with deterministic perfection and result orientated philosophy in mind. This bachelor thesis proposes that these programs also facilitate the use of chance, distortion and chaos as a means of artistic expression. This requires critical examination of work processes and tools. These often yield more interesting results when used in contradiction to their expected function.
A particular point of focus in this thesis is the use of digital fragments and the domestication of error as a means of artistic expression in the digital media. Computer art aesthetics are traditionally associated with perfection and controlled patterns. In contrast to this, the techniques discussed here are concerned with inducing distortion and imperfection.
This text further reflects on my own artistic production in a wider context of computer generated art. Similarities and differences to the work approach of other artists and theorists areelaborated and presented in reference to my findings. With the help of concrete work examples the problem of balance between figurative modelling and experimental techniques is presented. The vast field of computer and media art is investigated through analysis of recent phenomenons and trends. These are accumulated under such terms as glitch art, datamoshing and generative art. Here I present my findings of similar techniques and how I applied them to digital three-dimensional artwork.
Throughout the history of computer generated art, chance and randomized patterns have been and continue to be of great importance. The enthusiasm for technology and the possibilities they give artists are a driving force behind the development in computer generated art. Works of this type show an aesthetic that lies beyond patterns conceivable by human artistic sense and is dictated by how we can control and instruct technology to create.
Illustration 1: Picture created in 1962 by one of Desmond Henry's drawing machines, a custom made apparatus based on analogue World War II bombsight computers.
With the advances in soft- and hardware used to digitally create images, computer art aesthetics have over time diversified and eventually adapted or mixed with conventional and commercial art. And the influence has been vice versa. It no longer requires an engineering degree and a super computer to create an algorithm11 Algorithm: Set of instructions to solve a problem or describe a process. and have a plotter22 Plotters are printing devices for vector graphics. Their main difference to common place printers is that they often times featured a single line only and thus had limited capabilities to create photo realistic pictures. output marks onto paper. This was considered a revolutionary novelty in the early days of computer art, where much of the artwork created was done by scientists or in cooperation with larger commercial research labs. (Dietrich)
Unlike in pioneer times of computer art in the 60s and 70s, artists active in the field today have a multitude of tools, software and hand-tailored programming languages33"Processing" can be seen as an example for a programming language specifically designed for artistic use, more information at http://processing.org. available to them to use the computer to create art. And although technology continues to develop and progress, computer art is far from being stuck in a repetitive pattern. In fact, it is because of the constant progress and extended influence of computers and computerized aesthetics into our culture and society that digital art is so potent as type of expression in contemporary art.It is through my own work with digital image manipulation techniques that I gradually got a deeper insight into computer art, the concepts and scope of themes behind it. As an art and design student, I initially understood the computer and programs as tools serving a purpose. They could be used to achieve or fabricate a certain look or task. Only gradually this façade ofeffectiveness and a predetermined way of thinking opened up to an understanding, that the ready-made tools and techniques are not all that computer aided design was capable of. Instead of merely imitating traditional painting or photo techniques, these tools for an excellent ground for experimentation and development of unique work approaches. The breaking of functionality, intactness and predetermined thinking about this media in general was of importance to the artistic part of this graduation work. Eventually, this has opened up a wider understanding of computer art. The starting point for these investigations is a fascination with an aesthetic that reveals its digital nature to the viewer. A visual language that shows affinity for not masking the technology away, but instead, understands and emphasizes this characteristic and uses it to reflect and speak to the viewer.
The process of learning digital techniques and tools seem to be guided by a striving towards control over the medium. Mastering digital tools means facilitating photorealism, imitating traditional painting techniques, or at the very least, sticking within some sort of polished digital look that has been established by some trend.
Exploring an alternative route to this following of premade paths and styles demands a more critical confrontation with technology. It eventually requires letting go of a thinking and aesthetic where there is one right way to do things, and only one certain look. The following chapter will introduce aspects of the digital media that emphasize this, and draw the connection from how something perceived as error or fault can actually end up being used as a means of expression in its own right.
In order to critically examine and understand something, it is often useful to "divide and conquer"44Divide and conquer is a strategy often used in writing computer programs, where a overly complex problem or task is divided into smaller problems until the problems are simple enough to be solved., to take it apart into smaller pieces and explore the whole problem or issue by examining the small parts first. This type of approach might be based on conscious choice, or happen by accident. Either way, it splits up a bigger entity into smaller parts that can be perceived as being separate, yet not independent.
A breaking-apart of this type can often be identified with digital media in particular, where faults in algorithms, data storage or transmission processes can induce imperfections to digital image, audio or video material. These perceivable fragments let us inspect a distinct aspect of the media or piece we are dealing with. Usually, the fragment is identified as an error, something that has gone wrong and stands out. Artwork can, however, draw aesthetic and creative value from these kind of fractures. They offer a novel visual language that refers back the faultless and arguably dull perfection it no longer is. Art can be understood as something that sheds light into those unexplored corners of our society and culture. Fragments are faulty aspects that can expose interesting details in the whole, which we take for granted andunquestioned. Imposing the opposite of beauty and perfection onto the viewer paradoxically also emphasizes the very thing it denies. When the pattern of comforting beauty is broken, it ceases to be beautiful, but it also reminds of the nature of beauty as we take it for granted. The fragment always points back to what it is fragment of. It always also refers to the whole it no longer is. Looking at a "glitched"55 Glitch refers to a temporary fault or error, and the term is mostly used with computer systems. With the aesthetic usage of glitches in audio or visual data, to glitch means to deliberately induce such a distortion. digital TV transmission, for example, we perceive this in part as a distortion.
Illustration 2: Television signal distorted by compression artefacts.
Naturally, we notice the error and how this image looks nothing like how it is supposed to look like, but at the same time we also realize that this is nonetheless a TV signal. This effect of breaking with the expected and functional is something I propose is an inherent potential to computer generated art and media art more widely. Itis in the nature of computer art, that it is most capable of representing the very summit of calculated functionality. Geometric patterns and reduced palettes are emphasized in algorithmic artwork that visually manifests as the outcome of following strict guidelines. Yet on the other extreme, contrasting to this is the growing amount and diversity in artwork pointing out the computer's imperfection. Going back to early video and installation art, it was Nam June Paiks first video art pieces that introduced a similar break in expectations when he used TV screens as sculpture material.
Illustration 3: Nam June Paiks 'TV Cello', "played" by Charlotte Moorman, who also appears playing a cello in the video itself that is shown on the TV screens.
Freed from the conventional use and presumptions that the viewer has when looking at a TV screen, he used the screens as canvases of a sort, distorting their image with magnets or mixing of imagery, combining sculpture, media and performance art. More widely can the Fluxus art movement and the ideas behind their work be seen as an inspiring force to many computer artists today, advocating for a "do it yourself" approach to art that many digital artists have embraced with modern computer technology.
In this examination of computer art I view fragments as a tool or mechanism that is available to artists working in digital media. Artists are always on the search for new ways of looking at the world. Examining art and its interconnection with technology from a different viewpoint can reveal aspects that lie hidden to the eye.
Technology is always linked to progress and advancement. New technologies make life easier, machines work faster and more accurately. And while this continuous evolution is ever-present in all that we do, we become so used to its manifestations that we take it for granted. Accepting without further questions, however, always bears the risk of becoming numb to these stimuli. Fragments are a disruption in this flow of blissful acceptance. Whenever something does not quite work it catches our attention and makes us examine our surroundings more consciously. Upon perceiving an error we wonder about the problem, how it works, and how this affects our life. This is as much true for the artists working with computers as it is for the viewers of such art. In constant striving for perfection and improvement, it is these fingerprints of imperfection
that are perceived as negative and unwanted aspects, some sort of accidental noise disturbing our progression towards a holy grail of perfection
. (Menkman, 2009.) It is this emphasis on imperfection that fragments are able to communicate and which I find to be fascinating and an artistic approach worthwhile pursuing. Artworks dealing with these topics challenge the concept of blind technological upgrade and the constant need for evolution. What are we longing for on our quest of everlasting technological upgrade, and what does it tell about the human nature? These are the type of questions that go hand in hand with a visual aesthetic emphasizing on error and the mere approximation of perfection that technology can offer.
The manifestations of fragments and fragmentations are enormously vast when working with digital media. Often it is the choice of viewpoint that determines, if we are looking at something supposedly whole and finished, or if we are in fact examining a fragment or incomplete part. The digital nature of files and every process within a computer, all of it relying on a big collection of zeros and ones, offers many paths to inspect this technology in a visually interesting way. While in these first chapters the term "fragment" was left rather vague and general, the overall nature of fragmentation in digital media can still be investigated in more detail. In his examination of visual glitch art666 Glitch Art has become an established term to describe visual images that feature qualities created bydigital and analogue machine errors. Prior its entry to visual art, glitch has been a concept already present in electronic music as early as the 90s (wikipedia). Moradi proposes a detailed description of types of visual distortions. His listings of common glitch characteristics (fragmentation [in a visual sense], linearity,repetition, complexity) give a good idea about spectrum of visual manifestations of these types of technological errors. (Moradi 2004, 28 ff.) Yet this brings up the question for a more general viewpoint that goes beyond the limitations of investigating only two-dimensional images and the concrete implications from digital image files.
What can be extracted from these observations is the approach of looking into the technical aspects that are at the core of utilizing these techniques. Fragmentation, no matter if intentionally induced or caused by chance or accident, is always revealing the digital infrastructure we are using. It always refers back to the way data is stored and manipulated, and the types of errors and alterations that can be induced to it.
As an example of how this proposed idea about fragmentation is universal to the digital work flow and can find application in various approaches, I want totake my work titled 'Falling' as a basis for a more detailed analysis of the matter.
Illustration 4: Work titled 'Falling', composed by overlaying the same 3D object on different levels of data accuracy.
The 3D object used in this work was originally sculpted77 Digital sculpting enables users to digital create and manipulate high resolution three-dimensional objects that behave much like clay or other traditional modelling materials and offer tool palettes simulating traditional craftsman tools. on a high polygon resolution in the application zBrush88 zBrush is a popular 3D digital sculpting software widely used in the games and CGI industry by Pixologic, http://pixologic.com.. Sculpting and modifying this mesh in a 3D application is a very conscious work stage, adding to the model here and there according to how I envision it to look like. The way this program in particular enables users to work on very high resolution meshes99 A polygon mesh [...] is a collection of vertices, edges and faces that defines the shape of an [...] object in 3D computer graphics and solid modelling. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_mesh) relies on a hierarchy of information accuracy. The basis for every model is a low polygon model of which each surface is subdivided into four surfaces. Applying this subdivision several times, a model can go from several hundred points in 3D space to several million, thus adding a great deal of detail to a simple structure.
Illustration 5: Three different stages of the same artwork. Left: Low polygon version. Centre: High polygon version. Right: Combination and manipulation of several polygon accuracies to one image.
Working on a model with that much 3D information means getting a very smooth result, one that actually makes the digital characteristics like the "pixelated" and geometric look disappear and creates the illusion of real sculpting on a clay-like object. While these low polygon models are always present during the work process, itis mostly for technical reasons, like the optimization of a mesh, that they are accessible in the program. The shaping and manipulating of the model actually happens on the more high resolution subdivision levels.
However, this technical step by step approximation to the supposedly final high resolution object can also be used to visualize the data structure. Interlayering the exported files of six different levels of accuracy from lowest to highest polygon count captures the finished look of the final sculpt in the same image as well as the underlying fragments it was build out of. Instead of presenting the viewer with a polished version, showcasing all the less accurate and detailed lower subdivision levels opens up more than just an interesting looking visual over layering. The piece is actually using the technology as a type of tool in itself. The harsh and scruffy looking low polygon stages of the model that would be disregarded as faulty or unfinished are shown. Yet here they are just as important as the final and consciously derived highest polygon version.
One aspect this example also illustrates is the usage of aesthetics based on some computer or program logic, as opposed to the artist being the sole decision maker in the work process. As I explained earlier, it is merely a technical aspect that enables this shifting of subdivision accuracy from high to low. It is the highest level of detail that I worked on the model during its creation. Although the lower subdivision levels roughly follow the shape of the version I actually worked on in high resolution, it is the program's internal logic that produces this approximation. By dividing four surfaces into one, the decision on how the model looks on lower detail is dictated by the technical aspects of the software. Consequently, part of the visual inventiveness can be ascribed to the machine logic, that enforces its own aesthetic.
Illustration 6: Subdivision Level tool palette in zBrush.
One of the main reasons for me to experiment with digital technologies and different software is finding new ways of expression. This kind of experimental approach often dictates letting go of control and acknowledging chance. This also means trying to take indeterminable random contributors into account, as absurd as this may sound.
Working with chance and randomness is obviously putting the artist up for a task to find the right balance of control versus chaos. On the one hand, letting chance happen and discovering new interesting ways to work is fascinating. As a work approach this aims to constantly reinvent. The accidental and random gives a never ending source of innovation for the artist to draw from. On the other hand, there is the problem of how to and how much to control this process. What role does the artist take when working with chance? Is he a mere by-stander that records what is happening, or should the artists' aesthetic choices affect the outcome after all, and to what extent?
Graphic designer Andrea Lorenz brings the reasons behind letting the computer take a part in the creation process to a point in an interview by Iman Moradi:
"For me it's not the glitch aspect that's interesting but the generative aspect - letting the unexpected happen and using it. That's what computers are for, in my eyes, and that's why I find that approach important: our own imagination is very limited, and our aesthetic standards are skewed, so human-generated design is often very predictable" (Moradi 2009, 12).
As long as we plan what we do, it will be predictable, and very much the same holds true for using software and digital tools in general: If we do only use these tools within their context and preconceived ways of catering to a particular problem (blur this, adjust colour here, repair this, grain there, and so on), the results achieved will stay within the unwritten boundaries set by the limitations of the tools used in their creating.
What Lorenz expresses by the term "skewed aesthetics" is not a general disregarding or disappreciation of the decisions we make as such. In my view, this refers to an awareness of how our aesthetics have cultural history, personal preference and learned criteria that our decision making, visually speaking, leans towards to. We are more inclined to stay within the common and known patterns, whereas computers know nothing of that sort and stubbornly produce in accordance to a whole different set of rules.
I also find it important to see that letting the computer take a part in the aesthetic decision process does not necessary mean ascribing the digital process some sort of magic power. Indeed, it is rather us humans and artists that make the decision, if something the machine has produced is worth appreciation or not.
"With glitching you know what probably could happen, in what sort of way, with a certain kind of material you use. But then there's always an unforeseen element. This makes it exciting and challenging to push it to a higher, conceptual level in our work" (van Giessen & van der Steen interviewed, quoted from Moradi 2009, 23).
Illustration 7: 3D '.obj'-file viewed in a text editor. Each point in 3D space is described by a triplet of coordinates, which are directly accessible for reading in this file type.
By investigating data manipulation on 3D objects I would like to illustrate some of the points I find important when talking about chance and the control thereof. 3D objects have been created in a three-dimensional space, formed and shaped based on the aesthetic decisions made by the artist. The information describing this object and used to reconstruct and display it is basically a file full of coordinates. There are certain conventions to keep the file technically intact so it can be opened by 3D applications, but the visual information that essentially holds the look of the object from any angle is distilled down to rows of numbers.
Viewing this alternate version of representation brings up many questions, but also gives us the possibility to investigate into the scope and meaning of these numbers. Instead of opening this file with a 3D application, as it usually would be, it is completely plausible to edit the information of that object on a different level. For instance, by changing the numbers in the file, or by going to an even more cryptic level and editing the HEX1010 HEX is short for hexadecimal and is a representational writing for binary code consisting of 0's and 1's, where one HEX value (0-9 and A-F) is representative for four binaries digits. This is closer to binary machine instructions, yet less readable to humans than alpha numeric text. values.
Illustration 8: 3D '.obj'-file opened in a HEX editor. On the left side the hexadecimal values are shown, which make up the human-readable alpha numeric representation as shown on the right half."
Operating on this representation of information that is so far from our understanding of a visual and three-dimensional object, the signs are largely deprived of their visual meaning. Any editing done on this level is still done consciously or by following some logic, yet it is not a visual one. During work on some of my artworks, I have explored ideas about what artistic choices really are. Picking a random logic to be applied to an alternative representation like viewing a 3D object as numbers can take interesting effects. For instance, replacing every "4" with a "2" throughout the file, the visual change to the threedimensional object will be massive. The outcome of this is basically randomized and left to chance, as there is no way of anticipating the effect my changes will have on the structure of the three-dimensional object.
Opening the same file in a 3D application after an alteration of this kind can hold surprising results. By removing conscious choice and inserting a random factor we get a new result, one which has been created by some sort of machine-like logic, a non-aesthetic choice made on behalf of the artist.
Illustration 9: 3D view of four times the same file: The white is the original, the coloured ones have been "hacked" in a text editor by replacing numbers randomly. Titled "Four Faces"."
Simply replacing random numbers throughout a document might not quite qualify as a piece of art just yet. However, the thought behind doing so is all the more important. What is presented to the viewer in the artwork "Four Faces", a piece produced partially with this technique, is not merely the evidence of just swapping digits. The different versions of the original 3D object are put into context with each other and their creation method is not obvious to the viewer. Visually, the effect is one of multitudes of realities. The image shows a breaking apart from the white entity the original sculpted face represents, yet the force inducing this distortion remains hidden.
Utilizing chance as a means of creation has one big problem: Every time we find a way to emulate something we perceive as random, that very random and accidental already becomes controllable and dull. Once the artist has identified a way to create something random, it ceases to be random. Set on the journey to discover new forms of expression, naturally, we look for patterns or practices by which to identify what just happened by chance. Nine out of ten times it will lead to failure and not give a desirable result, if we do nothing to control and simply restrain to recording the process. Quite understandably so, it is in our nature as humans to try to establish a relation from cause to result. As we rely on chance as aesthetic and creative force in this kind of working approach, it loses all its potential to be exactly that, as soon as we understand it and are able to anticipate the outcome beforehand.
This leaves the artist with a problem to solve. Finding a way to tame the uncontrollable nature of chance, but at the same time not diminishing its creative potential. The examples from my own work mentioned above showcase these types of methods found through experimentation. In those samples, the novelty in finding ways to get to the final image is reflected and captured in what we see as the presented artwork. The viewer is presented with something strange and unfamiliar that is the outcome of an artistic research. To me, the new method is as much part of the artwork as is the final manifestation, and therefore, controlling a method to achieve a certain look is not merely enough to create a meaningful piece. Once a method becomes obvious and can be put into an algorithm, it gradually loses its ability to astonish and revolutionize.
While this type of experimentation can lead to a new technique that might not find application in more than one or two pieces, it is quite understandable how such a discovery can eventually manifest into a trend. Animator David Oreilly has received remarkable recognition for his usage of datamoshing1111 Datamoshing is a label applied to various techniques that expose video compression artefacts. Datamoshing has been used in popular culture since mid 2000, for instance by David Oreilly, Mark Brown, Kris Moyes or Sven König, to name a few. A good posting with an overview of over artists and works can be found at Jason Kottke's weblog (see sources). in some of his motion graphic videos featuring a mouse-like character in highly distorted environments. As he explains in his blog, datamoshing really is just another label applied to brand a certain basic technique as something new and edgy. About his artistic intentions and the way datamoshing has developed, he states:
"My goal aesthetically has always been the more broader aim of simply not hiding the artefacts of software, the same way Bacon didn't hide paint strokes, that includes compression but about 1000 other things. It's not a big deal that it's now mainstream" (David Oreilly 2009).
Datamoshing can be seen as one of those trends in the recent years, where an experimental approach and its visual manifestations have slowly been conventionalized to a mere technique that can be applied to everything and anything. In a nutshell, datamoshing means the reduction of image data in a video, resulting in a cubist and "pixelated" look where different parts of the image and time continuum are distorted. This is induced by exploiting keyframe1212 Key-frames in video compression refer to the storage of a complete image every nth frame, while the images in between are stored merely as the changes in reference to the key-frame. It is common for digital video to contain one key-frame per second, every 25th frame. Changes to key-frames have great impact on the image overall, while changes to the data of the other frames, called in-betweens, merely induces compression distortion like blurriness, colour mistakes, jagged edges or lagging movement. compression methods used in digital video storage.
The novelty of the effect in its original form strikes technology educated consumer as interesting due to its odd familiarness as error in the digital signal. Used purposely it has a great momentum of subversive energy, shouting out against the polished perfectness of digital consumerism, which would disregard this kind of video as faulty. It is this powerful aura of going against the stream that many designers clung on to when using the same effect, without acknowledging or justifying the experimental nature of it. Or in Oreilly's words:
"The only criticism for some of the recent, popularized versions of the effect is that it's being stuck on to a normal performance, when the music or content doesn't remotely call for it" (David Oreilly 2009).
What can be seen with this particular technique is precisely the ambivalent nature of such experimental approaches. Once it has been reduced to a repeatable pattern, the innovation has ceased and the creative potential been lost.
What these observations about the innovativeness of techniques try to convey is the constant need for reinvention to produce original work, be it commercial design or pieces of digital art. The most basic idea behind an experimental work approach is in contradiction to repeating the same pattern.
Illustration 10: Still from one of David Oreilly's videos featuring compression artefacts.
Naturally, techniques found as the outcome of a researching process can not just be erased from the artists' mind, nor should they be. It is my believe that true novelty in artistic discoveries and a general factor for creativity is the combination and reapplication of what we know to a new context. Often it is what we already understand and master, that produces more interesting results when used in a way that we have not anticipated. In the digital environment, this holds true for techniques as much as for the technology itself. Constant innovation as method, to me, means not discarding a new approach once it can be put to a rule, but instead, always using new discoveries as a source from which to generate the next.
In the following chapters I want to elaborate on my work process for the creation of artworks and what are the grounds for my choices. Furthermore, there are aspects in my approach that have not been covered yet by the topics discussed in chapters two and three. This is concerning the programs and methods used, as well as grounds for aesthetic choices that I found with this work method.
When working with an aesthetic that strongly features and emphasizes on exposing the digital character used in the creation of the artwork, some of those experiments are bound to go wrong or not deliver the desired result. In fact, talking of a desired result already brings one of the problems in this work approach to a point. When the aim is to find novel techniques or methods for usage in creation of images by digital means, these are often discovered by chance or accident. The approach to find these has to take this unpredictability and unplanned character into account.
In practice this means accepting that many things tried can go wrong and will not yield any concrete evidence of progress in form of new artworks. However, these failures often give great insight into the examined matter and can be beneficial to future investigations.
During my work on this latest series of images I have been pushing myself to find new ways of developing techniques and ideas. At the beginning, all of my works were based on very concrete and consciously designed 3D sculptures. As my work process more and more shifted focus from creating these sculpts to manipulating the 3D data and the renditions thereof, one thought that occurred was to address data as such. But how and in what way?
Illustration 11: Still from the music video for the Radiohead song 'House of Cards', directed by James Frost. Seen is the lead singer as captured in movement by a 3D scanner. Although the video appears to be filmed, it is merely the distance to the fictional camera (3D scanner) that is seen in coloured shades."
One idea that I had earlier on when working on an illustration piece representing singer Nick Cave, was to use my sculpts more as a sort of three-dimensional photo reference, which I could then manipulate in interesting ways once I had the access to such data. Searching online for accurate 3D data of a human head yielded mixed results. There is an overwhelming amount of such data sets available, however, for the most part those are created and modelled by hand in 3D software, rather than being a concrete image in a photographic sense. Using these fabricated ones, I felt, was against the idea I had taken interest in, which was precisely not to imitate a real object and then manipulating it, but rather having an exact copy available to me in virtual environment as a basis for any further work.
Inspired by the music video of alternative pop-rock band Radiohead for their song 'House of Cards', I began to take more interest in the possibility of using an actual scan of real objects. Researching on the web, I found a university project that had actually developed from a research project to a start-up business providing soft- andhardware for scanning 3D with the use of minimal equipment1313 Researched at the Institute of Robotics and Process Control at TU-Braunschweig and commercially marketed as David Laserscanner (http://david-laserscanner.com).
Illustration 12: Left: Scanning set-up with small calibration background. Centre: Software dialogue for combining the different scans to one 3D object. Right: Combined 3D scan.
Inspired by the availability of such software and the ease in terms of equipment requirements, I decided to work on my own first home-made 3D scans. Working with a small Din A4 sized calibration background essential to this technique, I was able to do some first test scans.
Encouraged by these results, I began constructing a bigger calibration background, so I could scan larger objects as I eventually wanted to scan a human face or head. However, the scaling of the calibration background also meant a loss in quality, as the details, in relation to the scanned area, got tinier. It turned out that I could not pursue high resolution scanning of faces without addition equipment. The process of building the different scanning set-ups and calibration backgrounds and then getting familiar with the scanning software took about two weeks. Yet the result from this was unsuitable for my image creation methods.
Illustration 13: Left: Scanning set-up with Din A2 calibration background and red laser line visible. Right: Remarkably less good quality scan from that session."
The reason for listing all of this here, however, lies in the importance failures of this kind can have. Like in this case, the ideas that fuel the want to try out ordevelop a new method can be more significant than the actual outcome. What I realised with 3D scanning was the value I give to the relationship betweendeliberate and planned sculpting of objects. The scanning failed, but I also realised the importance of the work I do on the data and the artistic freedom it gives me to sculpt objects instead of being bound to objects I can scan. On the one hand, I would have liked working with a mirrored reality, data that was scanned and in its purest form representing real objects. On the other hand the process and the difficulties I had with it also reminded me the limitless choices I have when starting digitally right from scratch.
This thesis has widely elaborated on the digital techniques used in the creation of digital artwork. However, the way in which I utilize these methods is not a purist approach that is sufficient in itself and only draws energy from technical aspects, but I rather think of my artistic work as an application of these techniques to my aesthetic vision.
Illustration 14: Work progress stages in zBrush, from rough head to bust.
The series of artworks produced in the context of this thesis has been guided by a theme of ghostly and bizarre human figures. I wanted to explore artwork that would feature a misty and dark atmosphere and at the same time profit from the values I have found during my experiments with techniques and technology. The way I use distortion and consciously inducing fragmentation in my works is a tool that adds to my work as an element more or less out of my control. When I start my pieces, it is a conscious choice making process, no matter how unplanned or unprepared. Stroke by stroke the work progresses and it is my decisions that determine the outcome.The results from this are often plain and obvious sculpts or drawings, other times they are less defined and already leaving more room for an experimental approach.
Illustration 15: Various broken 3D meshes of the above sculpt.
I work further on this base material and its data representation by putting it through a process of experimental manipulation that adds new layers and different interpretations and viewpoints can be discovered. It is at that point that control and decision making play an important role. Faced with my initial starting point and the experiments' offspring, finding a balance between the two is part of the artistic process. As much as finding those experimental ways to work with the material, the directing of those discoveries can be seen as part of the work that goes into each piece.
This chapter introduces some of the problems and solutions I have found in my work and its presentation. Particularly, the fact that many of my artworks are the outcome or snapshot within a process make it challenging to present and indeed pin down, what it is that should be seen as the artwork. Artwork and the process to its creation are always connected. Traditionally, this could be a sketch made before a painting is started, or the different stages with additions here and there. Ultimately resulting in the final work, for example a oil painting. Throughout modern art there are tendencies to regard the process itself as the artwork, and the final piece would merely be evidence of the artistic process. For instance, the modern expressionist movement with artist like Jackson Pollock and his body paintings come to mind, where the canvas was a mere media to record the artistic progress that had taken place. Digital techniques challenge this way of thinking even more. With a digital canvas that can be endlessly worked on, the material restrictions that can limit the process of working on an image seem to be non existent. Layers can be added infinitely to a digital image, colour applied without restraint, and even resizing and cropping of an artwork is no factor limiting what can be done to the image.
Illustration 16: Final piece that got printed.
What that leaves us with is a working material in which the artistic process is even more evident and transparent. To return to the oil canvas analogy, the process of painting is covering itself as the paint covers the underlying layers. With a digital work flow, everything can be saved at any stage, and even something as complex as the three-dimensional sculpting of millions of polygons can be recalled and investigated in its creations every moment. Similar to traditional working methods the declaration of a piece as being finished depend entirely on the artist. The plain amount of possibilities to reuse and develop digital pieces further is endless and rely merely on the artists' aesthetic decisions.
But there is more to working digitally that makes the nature of the working processes worthwhile to examine further. Much of computer art relies on the experimentation with the technology. This approach of trying to constantly exploit new paths to creating artwork is a working method in itself, and as such, its importance not only for the artist, but also as integral part of the resulting artwork can not be denied.
With all the emphasis on the experimenting nature of my work approach, there is another aspect that has so far been unmentioned, yet it has been a great guideline throughout my work. Working with digital technologies opens up many possibilities to affect the visual outcome that a pile of bites and bytes amounts to when interpreted by visualisation software.
However, it is not always necessary to go all the way to the macro details of the matter. Just like artists in any other media are bound by the basic material and tool restraints, and can try to overcome these, the computer art I present here has always been produced with the help of software and the limitations that come along with it. Graphics software products claim to enable the user to create whatever their imagination can dream up, and the software as such only presents the tool kit to visualize these ideas. This is true, to some extent. Yes, graphics software do give a lot of options and manipulation tools and filters, often more than the average user can even begin to comprehend. And yes, graphics software does not dictate what an artist or designer does with it, ultimately.
Nonetheless, software dictates how things are supposed to be done, simply by facilitating one or another option more than going an alternative way to achieve a similar effect. My critique, if it even is a critique, would be to point out that software as such can be used in various ways. Not following the easiest path of predefined settings is sometimes a very rewarding experiment.
Illustration 17: Image by Kazuki Takamatsu, based on z-Depth renderings of a 3D scene.
One artist that distils the core of this idea into his very own visual language is Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu. His recent work caught my attention for its reduced grey scale palette and distinct image motifs. The surreal effect of frozen movement like in a photo negative combined with the choice of objects in the picture produce a striking effect. Looking at the grey scale image one can not help but wonder how this was achieved. The pose and shape of objects seem realistic, yet the mood of the image is dreamy and absurd. After I had conducted some technical tests with 3D software myself, I found that the effect used to create this scaling of depth was actually a rather simple option. In 3D applications, the term z-Depth or z-Buffering describes the distance from camera to objects in the 3D scene. Depending on their distance to the camera viewpoint in 3D space, all visible surfaces are coloured in shades of grey. The closest being on the bright end of the scale, while the further ones tend to the darker end. This effect has been developed to enable the rendering of a more realistic look of three-dimensional objects and environments. While in natural surroundings aspects like moisture and particles in the atmosphere make the farer parts of a landscape shot appear lighter, the same effect can be applied to 3D renderings by using z-Depth information. The same holds true for making portions of the image appear out of focus, an effect that naturally occurs due to optical limitations, but has to be simulated separately in 3D shots via this technique.
The genius in Takamatsu's work lies in the fact that he has combined solid three-dimensional modelling of the objects to be shown in this images with the novelty of using an effect that was available in the software, but used completely ignorant of what it had originally been designed for. I picked Takamatsu's work as an example, because it clearly illustrates the point. An open-minded and critical approach to using software can reveal interesting tools that go unnoticed, if the focus is too much on staying within conventions and using the features only in the way they were intended to be applied. Testing out all kinds of options requires patience and resistance to frustrating system crashes and the like, yet the reward of identifying an innovative and unique technique is quite worth the artists' while.
The techniques and trends elaborated here serve as introductory examples to understand the amount of possibilities of working digitally. Obviously, this thesis is not concerned with arguing how digital techniques can be used to produce the most polished, realistic or perfect results. Instead, the documentation of methods in this text gives inspiration to new ways of understanding, viewing and producing computer generated imagery. The referenced sources underline how this is neither a purely scientific nor artistic endeavour. Techniques like the ones described here find their way into popular culture and design, or on other times are the offspring from research work in computer technology. What they have in common is the symbiosis of technical know-how and artistic vision. While the chapters about digital fragments and the use of chance as a creative force claim relevance to computer art in any of its forms, my personal fascination of the matter is expressed in the references to three-dimensional application of these ideas. One of the results from this thesis was finding justification for this experimental work approach. Initially, I viewed my working methods of combining 3D with image manipulation as a type of illustration technique. This, naturally, was limiting new discoveries by maintaining a strong focus on calculated visual outcome. Intrigued by the visual attraction of nonhuman computer aesthetic, this thesis and the artworks created for it have been a journey of discoveries.
It is my strong hope that some of the enthusiasm for this visual language and the conceptual ideas behind it has been passed on to the reader of this work.
Can we be split outselves into color chanels, seperated from and still part of what we are?
Can we be split outselves into color chanels, seperated from and still part of what we are?
What remains, if our identities fall to pieces like lines of code, like the bits and bytes of an digital image?
What remains, if our identities fall to pieces like lines of code, like the bits and bytes of an digital image?