Subjectivity in contemporary visualization of reality: re-visiting Ottoman miniatures

Though Ottoman miniatures are 2D representations, they carry the potential of conveying an individual’s perception in a more detailed manner as compared to 3D perspective renderings. In a typical 2-vanishing-point perspective; objects / subjects drawn in the foreground hide the ones that are located at their back: This phenomenon is called occlusion. In Ottoman miniatures there is no occlusion, all object / subject illustrations are wholistic, there is no partial description of figures. Consequently, you end up with a life form that is the synthesis of individual forms, a sui generis state... This unique visual narrative can be extended to cubist works where multifaceted descriptions are observed. Another advantage of Ottoman miniatures is that hierarchies of image and image maker are quite clear. Miniatures make use of distance, void, shape, scale relationships and their layout to give a sense of depth in space. Though objectivity is very much valued in visual representation, ideal objectivity is not possible since representations are created by subjects and subjects belong to cultures that have different criteria in forming / perceiving portrayals. Moreover, tools that are used for visual representations usually prove to be narrower than the scope of human perception. Departing from the point of view explained above, Muta-morphosis is a photography project that is created as an almost surreal visualization stemming from the real. The lack of a single perspectival structure due to multiplicity of perspectives after compressed panoramic imaging, can be linked to Ottoman miniatures, which in turn, connects the global contemporary representation to its local traditional counterpart. Keywords: Ottoman miniature painting, contemporary photography, child drawings, visualization, representation, reality, documentary, subjectivity, objectivity, visual narration

Inadvertent - Ars accidentalis

Even though art is the product of an intentional act of fabrication, the serendipitous spill of an ink or paint, the unforeseen slip of a pen or brush, sudden shake of a camera in the analog realm have the potential of generating an unconscious lead in the planned course of action. The consequential shift in direction may completely change the aesthetics and content of an artwork. An artist should always be open to such 'accidental' dimension which will help him / her to take the original idea out of its initial framework and recontextualize it for a new conception. The outcomes of software ‘failures’ in digital technology made a similar type of aesthetics emerge: Glitch aesthetics. The ‘dirty’ and sometimes ‘chaotic’ nature of glitches made things look much more organic and human, as opposed to mechanically computerized. This unrefined aesthetics has recently become so popular among designers that some of them have made specific websites as tributes to the process. Despite the fact that the accidental dimension in art looks more compatible with analog practices, there are various instances it finds its niche in the digital world as well. Mystifying benefits like freedom from preconceptions, momentary skepticism about planned course of action, avoiding mechanical thinking / prejudices, reaching a more natural / authentic result, discovering unusual and unique aesthetical domains, etc. will always make 'ars accidentalis' an indispensable part of art practice

Using 2D photography as a 3D constructional tool within the metaverse

Photography is a powerful two dimensional representation tool to document three dimensional volumes like architecture. It is possible to manipulate photos with two dimensional tools like Photoshop in order to suggest new three dimensional re/formations and re/interpret architecture. One can alternatively use two dimensional textures as mappings to create realistic three dimensional model renderings. This project is a combination of these two approaches: photographing architecture, turning the resulting photos into transparent image files, and then mapping these photos onto three dimensional volumes in order to create a ‘new’ architecture from an ‘existing’ architecture. One of the advantages of using photographs to create architecture is that the photo pool can easily be composed of visuals from various cultures and you may end up using an amalgam of visuals from, say, so-called opposite cultures. This possibility reminds the peaceful collaboration of musicians from different cultures to create a unique music. In addition, this act can also be taken as a migration of media through appropriation of photography for three dimensional volume creation and re/presentation. At this point, we are talking about a double representation, since photography is a representation tool already and it gains another representational dimension when it is remapped onto three dimensional volumes for the construction of an alternative reality. This article concentrates on using a representation tool (photography) to construct a three dimensional space (architecture) within a virtual three dimensional environment (Second Life®). During the process the concepts of perception, reality, cultural context, re/presentation and appropriation will be examined

Virtual architecture: reconstructing architecture through photography

The concept of construction in architectural design process is a temporary action that exists for a while and transforms itself into another product; i.e. the final building to be inhabited. Construction site can be taken as a podium where a play-to-remain-incomplete is being staged. The incompleteness causes us to dream, due to the fact that a complete building loses its narrative potential as it informs us about all the necessary pieces that constitute the whole: There is no puzzle to solve... Construction in this sense is like a historical ruin; Paul Zucker asserts that "ruins have held for a long time a unique position in the visual, emotional, and literary imagery of man. They have fascinated artists, poets, scholars, and sightseers alike. Devastated by time or willful destruction, incomplete as they are, they represent a combination of man-made forms and of organic nature." Architectural photography has the potential of re-creating this puzzle back again in order to bring an alternative representation to architecture. The architectural photographer is sometimes offered the freedom of reinterpreting, reconstructing architecture in order to be able to present a novel virtual perception to the audience. The idea here is to get some spatial clues that can later be used in other architectural projects. I was personally invited to two different concept exhibits in which I was given the freedom of inventing a virtual architecture through photography. The concept text written for one of these exhibits goes as follows: “I went, saw, stopped, attempted to grasp and enter it, looked at construction process and workers with respect, tried to internalize, wanted to claim it for a while, dreamed of creating a microcosm out of the macrocosm I was in, shot and shot and shot and finally selected: The created world, though intended for all, was probably quite a personal illusion...” Virtual architecture is a term used for architecture specifically created in the computer environment and never used in the realm of architectural photography. People like Piranesi, Lebbeus Woods, M.C. Escher, Marcos Novak, etc. previously dreamed about architectures that could exist virtually on paper, screen, digital environments. This paper will try to prove that this practice of (re)designing architecture virtually can be transferred to one of the most important realms of visuality: Photography. Various digital processes like stitching multiple photos together and mirroring images in image editing software like Photoshop, allow this virtual architecture to take place in the computer environment. Following this, I propose to raise the term “snap architecture” to connect it to the frequently referred concept of “paper architecture.” Keywords: virtual, (re)construction, snap architecture, paper architecture, illusion, puzzle, incompleteness, representation, perception, reinterpretation, microcosm vs. macrocosm, fictional architecture, metaspace, narrative space, generative architecture

Using 2D photography as a 3D constructional tool within the second life environment

As digital photography became more accepted, influential and widespread, artists / designers started to take advantage of photos to create novel 2D / 3D entities. Panoramic photography, photo-mosaics, stop-motion studies are examples of 2D creations using numerous photographs. Microsoft’s Photosynth, PhotoModeler, DigiCad, ImageModeler are some software where one can employ photographs to create 3D scenes and environments. Photography is a powerful 2D representation tool to document 3D volumes like architecture. It is possible to manipulate photos with 2D tools like Photoshop in order to suggest new 3D re/formations, re/interpret architecture. One can alternatively use 2D textures as mappings to create realistic 3D model renderings. My project is a combination of these two approaches: Photographing architecture, turning the resulting photos into transparent PNGs and then mapping these photos onto 3D volumes in order to create a “new” architecture from an “existing” architecture… There were various offline and online 3D environment alternatives at which I could carry this experimentation out. Second Life (SL) was the one that I selected among these since I thought it had a powerful 3D construction interface. More importantly, SL is a global(ized) milieu on which you can have people from all over the world try your 3D creation interactively. One of the advantages of using photographs to create architecture is that your photo pool can easily be composed of visuals from various cultures and you may end up using an amalgam of visuals from, say, two supposedly “opposite” cultures. This possibility reminds the peaceful collaboration of musicians from different cultures to create a unique music. In addition, this act can also be taken as a migration of media through appropriation of photography for 3D volume creation and re/presentation. At this point, we are talking about a double representation, since photography is a representation tool already and it gains another representational dimension when it is re-mapped onto 3D volumes for the construction of an alternative reality. This sort of constitution of space involving multiple incompatible perspectives to be present in photos to be used, can be likened to Ottoman miniatures where various conflicting perspectives can co-exist. This diversity of perspectives takes us to the idea of “perspectivism” which, after Wikipedia, is “the philosophical view developed by Friedrich Nietzsche that all ideations take place from particular perspectives. This means that there are many possible conceptual schemes, or perspectives which determine any possible judgment of truth or value that we may make; this implies that no way of seeing the world can be taken as definitively ‘true’.” If we take this a little bit further, there is no strictly objective “reality” to be re/presented, but instead, the detailed depiction of our personal perception is closer to reality since it describes a particular experience (which is to be different for every individual). This paper concentrates on using a representation tool (photography) to construct a 3D space (architecture) within a virtual 3D environment (Second Life). During the process; the concepts of perception, reality, cultural context, re/presentation and appropriation will be examined. Keywords: Photography, re/construction, construct, perception, Second Life, reality, virtual reality, cultural context, re/presentation, appropriation, metaverse, virtual architecture, depiction, perpectivism, Ottoman miniatures, experience

Redesigning architecture through photography

Abstract – This paper focuses on the possibility of (re)designing architecture virtually with the help of one of the most important representation tools: Photography. Various digital processes like stitching multiple photos together and mirroring images in image editing software like Photoshop, allow this virtual architecture to take place in virtual environments. Photography can be utilized in the process of ‘constructing’ a new space --that we can call ‘narrative space’-- from an existing spatial body. This narrative space can also be defined as a ‘manufactured metaspace’ which is a space beyond reality and representation: A constructed reality that exists solely in digital realms like Second Life

Kanyon reconstructed

Construction is a temporary action that exists for a while and transforms itself into another product at the end. On the other hand, reconstruction is the representational interpretation of the “once constructed” substance and it never turns out to be the replica of the original, since components and techniques that are used are not the same anymore. This modification points to a certain level of metamorphosis that carries the potential to lead to an “opinion” that may create new worlds. This text focuses on the possibilities of using digital imaging techniques to “construct” new micro/macrocosms from existing structures

Reconfiguring architectural space through photography

Depending on facilities and technologies available at various periods of the world history, architects used various tools like drawings, paintings, miniatures, models, computers, fine arts platforms to represent their design before and after construction. “Representation includes everything people construct to be known as a visual record or figurative manifestation of that reality. […] Within this approach, architects usually reduce the definition of representation to the creation of such visual forms as drawings or models that selectively double or imitate the physical reality of a building. I would like to move beyond this traditional view to define representation as a culture-specific and dynamic process of establishing the relationships between reality and the signs created to symbolize this reality. In this process, reality becomes thinkable, and its meanings are symbolically assigned.” (Piotrowski and Robinson 2001: 42

Photography as a tool of Alienation: Aura

Regular photographical imaging record volumetric planes with smooth surfaces. The reason is the camera’s deficiency in perceiving and documenting the visual richness of “persuasive” details in life. HDR imaging methods used in creating this artwork series titled “Aura” helped making invisible organism-like textures emerge and point to the notions of decay and symbiosis. One of the main objectives in this series of artworks is to facilitate the emergence of the experiential visual complexity between the animate and inanimate, that is otherwise not possible to record. The latent aura of textural presences around us is not always noticeable easily since we tend to consume things too fast. With the rich textures achieved after high-dynamic-range-imaging (HDRI) procedures, a new symbiotic painterly visual relationship between biological (humans) and non-biological (space) was intended. In addition, the paper will focus on photography rather as a tool of personal world making, instead of photography as witnessing. During the process of unfolding this practice; notions of superimposition, palimpsest, painting vs. photography, truth, photography as an apparatus to provoke de-familiarization will be covered. The final aim is to confirm photography as a visual language that enriches and transforms human perception

Muta – Morphosis

Marshall McLuhan, Canadian professor of English literature once said: “We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us.” As soon as the use of digital tools and processes started in art and design, the creative output began to be influenced by these tools, processes and evolved into a new aesthetics. Computers seem to have very precise and strict rules about how one uses them and this concrete ‘mechanical’ aspect leads to the perception that abstract notions like spontaneity and serendipity cannot exist in the course of digital creation. This view is challenged both by scientists and artists. One of the early and significant efforts is ‘Cybernetic Serendipity’; the first large international exhibition of electronic, cybernetic, and computer art which took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, UK, from 2 August to 20 October 1968. “The title of the exhibition suggested its intent: to make chance discoveries in the course of using cybernetic devices, or, as the Daily Mirror put it at the time, to use computers ‘to find unexpected joys in life and art.’” (Usselmann, 2003). Creativity is stochastic and assumptive in nature. The importance of randomness in the creative process must not be ignored, underestimated or intentionally disregarded in a condescending way. Notions of chance, randomness, or unpredictability are much important, especially when it comes to artistic creation. For instance, artistic movements such as Surrealism and Dadaism “used impossible, incongruent images to provoke unexpected truths and sentiments through metaphor, mistake, absurdity, spontaneity, and serendipity.” (Hinrichs, 1995) This dimension of unexpectedness can be taken to the apparently paradoxical conception of ‘aesthetics of failure’ level; where, be it good or bad, you find accompanying abstract concepts of surprise, luck or chance. These concepts are quite in harmony with the phenomenon of internet, where non-linear navigation is of intrinsic nature. Internet surfing is a fantastic practice of serendipitous discovery, in which getting lost to find an unanticipated result or content is highly typical