Systems evaluation for computer graphics rendering of the total appearance of paintings

One of the challenges when imaging paintings is recording total appearance, that is, the object\u27s color, surface microstructure (gloss), and surface macrostructure (topography). In this thesis, various systems were used to achieve this task, and a psychophysical paired comparison experiment was conducted to evaluate their performance. A pair of strobe lights arranged at 60° from the normal on either side of the painting captured color information where the strobes produced either directional or diffuse illumination geometry. By adding a third strobe, arranging them 120° apart annularly, and cross polarizing, diffuse color and surface normal maps were measured. A fourth strobe was added and the four lights were rearranged 90° apart annularly, capturing similar data. This system was augmented by two scanning linear light sources arranged perpendicularly, facilitating the measurement of spatially varying BRDF and specular maps. A laser scanner was used to capture surface macrostructure and was combined with the diffuse color maps from the four-light configuration. Finally, a dome illumination system was used with software developed by Conservation Heritage Imaging to produce color maps. In all, eight different configurations were achieved and used to image three small paintings with a range of appearance attributes. Twenty-five naive observers compared computer-graphic renderings to the actual painting and judged similarity in terms of total appearance, gloss/shininess, texture, and color. Although the rankings varied with painting, two general trends emerged. First, the four-light configuration with or without the independent laser scanning produced images visually equivalent to conventional strobe illumination. Second, diffuse illumination was always ranked lowest

The Initiation of the Beautiful Uncanny

In recent years, there has been a movement in arts and one of the interests was in the uncanny where it was relating to surrealism. Previous artwork has addressed the Freudian uncanny concept as an unfamiliar, frightened emotion that is negatively disturbing. However, the concept of Nicholas Royal that uncanny can be strangely beautiful has opened up a new sight that been followed in this thesis. The artwork and art exhibition on fine art are mostly descriptive on creating acceptable uncanny artwork with a sense of beauty. To address the uncanny differently than what used to be and shed the light into the site of beauty to respond, a practice-based research has been carried out to highlight that uncanny can be perceived as beautiful in art. The fundamental aim of this research is to characterise a clear understanding of uncanny beauty. The three research exhibitions of this work were targeting the understanding of what I call“ beautiful uncanny”, as there is a reflective process in the relationship between the imagination of beauty with the uncanny feelings in a body of visual work. In the light of previous literature, related artwork and my understanding, a creation of human figures, hybrid with insects, through sculpture, based on photography have supported the theory of uncanny as being beautiful with further validation based on testing the responses of the viewers who attend the research exhibitions. The qualitative research has been used in this study to conduct the data of the questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The findings of the study have revealed that the importance of classifying uncanny as being beautiful without any rejection is to establish an artwork that increases attraction and curiosity toward knowledge through understanding the actual feelings of the presented artwork. Therefore, that has proposed an original contribution to the knowledge of the perspective of "The Beautiful Uncanny”

Rockscapes:A Study of Forms in the Natural Formations of Hyderabad

Rock formations in the Deccan Plateau are very old; some of them are older than 2.5 million years. Geologically, rocks constitute of various mineral compositions within the core and these decide how they are shaped due to weathering over many years. These beautifully weathered landscapes are affected by the recent rapid urbanization. Thus by photographically studying the forms and divulging the inner souls, this project attempts to sensitize a viewer towards these rockscapes. Photographs are presented in square format to highlight the form and texture. As per the psychology of shapes, square is quite balanced and that encourages the viewer to move around within the frame. It provides a clutter free and simple composition. In addition, the images are printed in monochrome to eliminate the visual dominance of color, to emphasize form and texture, to feel the timelessness and to amplify the use of negative space. By grouping the images, the subject matter is presented to the viewer with intended emphasis – singles, sky, plants, shadow and radials

Reflection Reframed: The Process of Photography as Strategy for Teachers' Reflective Practice

Teacher reflective practice is described as an effective method for engaging teachers in improving their own professional learning. Yet, some teachers do not understand how to effectively engage in the reflective processes, or prefer not to formalize the process through writing a reflective journal as taught in most teacher education programs. Developing reflective skills through the process of photography was investigated in this study as a strategy to allow enhanced teacher reflection for professional and personal growth. The process of photography is understood as the mindful act of photographing rather than focusing on the final product-the image. For this study, 3 practicing educators engaged in photographic exercises as a reflective process. Data sources included transcribed interviews, participant journal reflections, and sketchbook artifacts, as well as the researcher's personal journal notes. Findings indicated that, through the photographic process, (a) teacher participants developed new and individual strategies for professional leaming; and (b) teacher participants experienced shifts in the way they conceptualized their personal worldviews

Aesthetics of protest: An examination of the photojournalistic approach to protest imagery

Images of protests and demonstrations are crucial to both social movements and protesters who wish to communicate their identity and their messages to wider audiences. However, the photographing of such political events by press photographers is a complex process. The current analysis focuses on questions of aesthetics surrounding issues of visuality regarding protests and demonstrations. Based on empirical data from 17 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Greek photojournalists, this paper examines what is photographed during a protest and how this is affected by the photojournalists’ aesthetic criteria. Drawing on scholarly work on photojournalism (Ritchin and Åker) and photography (Sontag), this article discusses that besides the presumption in the principal of recording reality, photojournalists’ practice is also infused with subjective language and influenced by art photographers’ techniques. Thereupon, the main argument of this paper is that the employment of hybridized photographing practices by photojournalists can have an impact upon their visual decisions with regard to what and how is photographed during a protest. The product of such practices is usually high quality, captivating images with apparent affective qualities

Material Remains: Photography, Death, and Transformation

This dissertation discusses photographic series by nine contemporary American photographers who picture the materials of death: belongings left behind, physical traces, dead bodies, and cremation ashes. In the series by Andrea Tese, Justin Kimball, and Jonathan Hollingsworth featured in Chapter One, belongings left behind—furniture, clothes, keepsakes, and personal effects—retain physical and psychic traces of the lives of the deceased. The blood- and fluid-stained fabrics and the decaying dead bodies themselves pictured in series by Sarah Sudhoff, Sally Mann, and Robert Shults, discussed in Chapter Two, serve as evidence of the physical and sociopolitical circumstances of death. In Chapter Three, series by Jacqueline Hayden, Jason Lazarus, and David Maisel feature cremation ashes, which suggest, through their resemblance to stars and other sublime vistas, an enduring afterlife.These photographs vacillate between emphasizing the “truth” and persistence of material remains and their literal and metaphorical transformation. Utilizing an array of photographic processes and artistic choices, the photographers lead the viewer through various levels of literal and metaphorical transformation, allowing the photographers to explore new ways to visualize that which otherwise may not be accessible, apparent, or knowable: the story of a life lived and lost, the underlying sociopolitical causes of a death, or the existence of an afterlife. These varied approaches to reading death through transformation suggest possibilities but ultimately accept the limitations of attempting to picture the unknowable. Despite their acknowledgement of such limitations, however, each photographer suggests that efforts to memorialize, understand, and envision remain meaningful and worthwhile.This dissertation primarily utilizes visual analysis and incorporates material from in-depth, firsthand interviews between the author and six of the discussed artists. The dissertation also draws on photography theory and interdisciplinary scholarship from the field of Death Studies. Contemplating the photographs discussed herein, singly and in series, and in conversation with each other and with trends in popular media and contemporary funerary options, allows viewers insight into individual experiences of dying and enables them to extrapolate broader patterns in attitudes, sociopolitical circumstances, and institutions that affect how people age, ail, and die, and mourn and remember today

Adolescent Visual Voices: Discovering Emerging Identities Through Photovoice, Perspective and Narrative

This qualitative multicase study seeks to create dynamic pedagogical space - meaning making capacities encouraging multiple types of participation - where adolescent voices are privileged. Opening pedagogical space sits at the intersection of feminist standpoint theory, critical consciousness and social constructivism. Disturbingly, space supporting the inner lives and voices of students is shrinking in current educational environments, partially due to prescriptive curricula and rigid standards. The rationale for this study emanates from the researcher’s (as co-participant) educational journey and professional experience at the middle school and higher education levels. This study’s purpose explores, “what happens when space is created for middle school students to engage in photovoice participatory action research with narrative self-construction and perspective taking?” The writer’s assumptions comprise thinking around photography stimulating renewal of classroom space for imagining, sharing lived experiences and exploring alternative possibilities. Participants include 15 middle school students across two case studies situated in voluntary after school programs. Participant sites constitute a suburban middle school and an urban University in partnership with community outreach. Qualitative methodology, including a photovoice participatory action hybrid model, informs the two cycle analyses: visual content analysis codes photographs through frequency counts leading to meta-themes while thematic narrative analysis examines discussions and narrative self construction through In Vivo coding leading to meta-theme construction. Framed by three guiding questions, findings are advanced and through reflection and synthesis, the following analytic categories emerge supported by the conceptual framework – pedagogical space reveals strengths; diffuses power; and explores identity. Researcher assumptions are challenged as participants use pedagogical spaces to showcase, “here’s what I am,” rather than, “here’s what I long to be.” Conclusions gleaned from findings include: photographs are multiliteracies opening channels for communication, comprehension and cultural diversity; and middle school students seek power neutral opportunities to explore identity, demonstrate what they know, and engage in topics they care about. Recommendations support classroom habits integrating new literacies, museum components, bi-weekly autobiographical narratives and reflexive memo writing. This research contributes to the fields of adolescent identity, disciplinary literacy, feminist theory, participatory action research, secondary education and visual arts

The architecture of transit: photographing incidents of sublimity in the landscapes of motorway architecture between the Alps and Naples

The aesthetics of motorway architecture has not received attention within theoretical photographic discourse and has never been the subject of an academic photographic research project. This project begins from the understanding of the motorway as one continuous piece of architecture that crosses international boundaries on its route across Europe – an architecture so large that it cannot be perceived in its entirety. As a research-by-practice PhD, photography is used to identify and record incidents of the sublime in the route of the motorway. The photographs are produced with a large field study from the Swiss Alps to Naples, where numerous complex topographical and spatial conditions are found. This results in incidents of the sublime within its architecture when the motorway is forced to negotiate these conditions during its route. The research domain was chosen for its significance within the history of art and literature in European cultural history. Travelling in these regions was and is strongly related to the development of cultural concepts of the sublime. The questions that this research investigates are: Is it possible to make a depiction of architectural, spatial, topographical factors combined in a sublime incident? Can a methodology be defined to photograph these structures? How can photographs be made of large-scale architecture that cannot be seen or experienced in their entirety? The meaning of the term sublime has become diluted in contemporary usage, often being used inaccurately in description of something exquisite or delightful. This project revisits 18th-century formulations of this aesthetic categorisation, alongside historical travel literature, representations of landscape in painting and photography and contemporary architectural and photographic discourses. These references enable a thorough understanding of principles of aesthetic composition, resulting in the creation of a new understanding of the sublime and methodology for photographing large-scale motorway architecture. Employing a photographic aesthetic that embraces representation and post-production enhancement of Fine Art practice, the project culminates in the production of 29 photographs that form a narrative series exploring incidents of the sublime within motorway architecture between the Alps and Naples

The Application of Machine Learning to At-Risk Cultural Heritage Image Data

This project investigates the application of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) methods and technologies to problems related to At-Risk cultural heritage object recognition. The primary aim for this work is the use of developmental software combining the disciplines of computer vision and artefact studies, developing applications in the field of heritage protection specifically related to the illegal antiquities market. To accomplish this digital image data provided by the Durham University Oriental Museum was used in conjunction with several different implementations of pre-trained CNN software models, for the purposes of artefact Classification and Identification. Testing focused on data capture using a variety of digital recording devices, guided by the developmental needs of a heritage programme seeking to create software solutions to heritage threats in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Quantitative data results using information retrieval metrics is reported for all model and test sets, and has been used to evaluate the models predictive results