figurative photo-sculpture with 3-d pointillism

Leonardo

Figurative Photo-Sculpture with 3-D PointillismAuthor(s): Harold A. LayerSource: Leonardo, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter, 1972), pp. 55-58Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1572475 .

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Leonardo, Vol. 5, pp. 55-58. Pergamon Press 1972. Printed in Great Britain

FIGURATIVE PHOTO-SCULPTURE WITH 3-D POINTILLISM

Harold A. Layer*

INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, the pictorial artist has been occupied with the problem of translating the language of actual subject space to that of a plane. The solutions have varied from the overlapping contours of cave paintings, to Renaissance drawings in perspective, to multi-faceted cubism, to 360-degree cinema projection. It follows that much of the viewer's perceptual life has been spent squarely in front of various picture planes, his brain continually suppressing the richness of his binocular vision in order to interpret the illusory space displayed on flat surfaces. This suppression continues even with the printed word, a medium embedded in a simple plane that limits its linguistic structure to two- dimensions.

As a result, many artists have turned to the kind of abstractions that eliminate illusory space. Other artists have adopted relief construction, that is, an object without the mass of sculpture but using a physical language unlike that of painting and photography. Recently, an awareness has emerged that stereoscopy, holography and photo-sculpture are the first tools that permit the recording or creation of a sense of space without a space-to-plane translation by the artist and that permit a new approach to figurative imagery without the need for illusory space perception by the viewer. In addition, holography and photo-sculpture permit useful cues of motion by kinetic depth effects (motion parallax). And further, photo-sculpture, a hybrid photograph/relief object, will permit a reversing of the creative process-the construction of an actual space structure directly from a planar subject.

Of course, regardless of the direction the artist takes, space-to-plane, space-to-space or plane-to- space, his medium must be spatially plastic for all cues of depth perception. It should allow him to depict various spatial elements and intervals iso- morphically, by chance or at any intensity deter- mined by his iconic or conceptual plan. The ad- vantage of stereoscopy, holography and photo- sculpture to the artist is the exceptional control he achieves over the unique, but culturally atrophied,

* A-V Center, San Francisco State College, San Francisco, Ca. 94132, U.S.A., Photos prepared by J. Diaz and D. Okimoto of San Francisco. (Received 30 August 1971.)

Fig. 1. Original subject for photo-sculpture [4].

Pattern A: Pattern B: Top-Positive grid a. Top-Positive grid c. Bottom-Negative grid b. Bottom-Negative grid d.

Fig. 2. Moire patterns used to modulate original subject.

depth cue of perspective disparity and its resulting response, stereopsis [1].

One technique of photo-sculpture is the placement of large photographic transparencies in spaced frontal-parallel planes with transmitted lighting. Each transparency displays a partial aspect, angle or impression of the complete image. For example, the closest transparency to the observer might portray a tree and the rear transparency a mountain. Or the rear transparency might display an enlarged negative image of the same tree. The physical

55



Harold A. Layer

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separation of the transparencies allows the artist to exaggerate or contradict monocular depth cues-a kind of space compression, space inversion or space expansion-or even to create perspective disparity and motion parallax where none existed in the original subject.

DEVELOPMENT OF POINTIIJISTIC PHOTO-SCULPTURE

I would like to describe a type of photo-sculpture that I have developed to produce an image com- posed of pointillistic elements suspended in actual space. My primary goal was to find a way to re- gulate the dispersal of a planar figurative image in three dimensions-a total translation of space-to- plane-to-space but with the key referent being the plane. In other words, a picture may contain optical information of a space subject [2] but also it may inspire in the artist's creative imagination wholly different spatial structures from those in the original space subject. Thus, a means is needed to express these new iconic idealizations for a process in which the planar image becomes a subject in its own right and spatially independent of the subject in space that it originally represented.

Furthermore, I wanted the potential to create a visual mosaic that requires a stereopsis 'gestalt' in the viewer's mind to combine the picture planes into a perception of greater meaning and excitement than a simple monocular summation. My solution was to modulate the figurative image with a finely textured set of patterns, which results in discrete elements that can be re-structured three-dimen- sionally according to varying criteria. The most concise way to describe this technique is to trace the effects on a small part of a planar picture through the various stages that produce a pointillistic photo- sculpture.

Figure 1 shows the original subject, which in this example consists of a high-contrast planar image on 'Kodalith' film. A negative of this image is contact- printed on 'Kodalith' film four times, each time through a different set of two moire patterns (cf. Fig. 2). These grids are carefully pin-registered to ensure that each opaque element of a pattern's positive never overlaps an opaque element of that pattern's negative. The result is that Fig. 1 com- bined with grids a and c produce Fig. 3b; grids a

and d produce Fig. 3c; grids b and c produce Fig. 3e; and grids b and d produce Fig. 3f. Fig. 3a is a duplicate of Fig. 3c. Fig. 3d is a grey duplicate of Fig. 1, which is used to add a cohesive link to elements of the final photo-sculpture. Also a black mask is used to define the form of the image and to eliminate nondescript grey fields.

The new overall texture of the basic photo- sculpture images (cf. Fig. 3b, c, e, f) combines that of the original subject (cf. Fig. 1) and that of the moire composite appearance (cf. Fig. 2, Patterns A and B). Of course, other patterns could be chosen and, if desired, less or more patterns or motifs may be used. In effect, these basic images consist of the original subject randomly broken up into patterned, discrete elements that fit together without overlap, if registered together in the same plane for monocular viewing.

However, if all images (cf. Fig. 3a-f) are com- bined in spaced frontal-parallel planes and viewed with transmitted light from behind, the result is a true three-dimensional photo-sculpture. It is per- ceived as a totality and relatively planar when viewed remotely but appears to spread and dis- integrate in all spatial directions as a binocular observer approaches. A stereogram (cf. Fig. 4) illustrates just two of an infinity of different appear- ances of the photo-sculpture. When any stereoscope or geological stereoprint viewer is used, the left and right images merge into a perception of stereoscopic solidity. The wholeness of this type of photo- sculpture from a distance and the controlled diffusion of its scintillating, discrete elements throughout actual physical space when viewed close-up justify the term 3-D pointillism for the technique.

Just as color was important to the Impressionists, it can be a significant factor with 3-D pointillism. In the example shown, negatives of three of the image transparencies were etch bleached and colored dyes added; red to Fig. 3b, yellow to Fig. 3c and blue to Fig. 3e. Unfortunately, the black-and- white stereogram does not reveal the visual interaction between color hues and space, nor the vibrant nature of new colors resulting from overlapping image elements. The random or designed interplay between image form, color overlay, grid modulation, illustory cues and physical positions are fascinating to view. Parts of an image can

56



Notes: Three-Dimensional Pointillism Technique for Photo-Sculpture

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match the visual excitement of finely-cut gems, German paperweights or Persian miniatures.

Obviously, alternative colors, ordering of colors, plane separation or different arrangements of continuous/discrete image textures may be con- structed. The character of the photo-sculpture image is a function of the interaction between the original planar subject, the modulation patterns and the physical placement of the derived transparencies. Another creative variable is the physical structure embodied in the image arrangement or shape of the composite photo-sculpture; it may be worked against illusory photographic images in each picture plane or even against stereo space if anaglyphs, vectographs or holograms are used in one or more picture planes.

The technique of 3-D pointillism, as described, is limited in that the image elements of the original subject are randomized across the z-axis (depth). For example, the picture points that define a

mountain would be just as physically dispersed throughout the various frontal-parallel planes as a tree in front of the mountain. However, it should be possible to program a computer to combine patterns- and-subjects, subjects-and-subjects and patterns-and- patterns in more complex and intricately designed configurations, either transversely or obliquely. One exciting possibility is to modulate transversely the subject with a pattern along the z-axis in such a manner that the resulting texture and/or color become a function of the original subject's depth (z-axis location). The modulating image might not be a moire pattern but another subject or a change in viewpoint of the primary subject. For example, a frontal view of a human face displayed in each x-y plane could be modulated with a profile view in each y-z plane. It may be possible to develop simpler, non-computer techniques to achieve similar control over the z-axis location of image elements. A primitive example with a landscape subject is

(d)

for photo-sculpture.

57



Harold A. Layer

the use of aerial perspective, that is the transparency that registers blue objects is placed in the rear plane.

In sculpture the spatial emphasis is on shape; in photo-sculpture it is on interval. The energy of the medium shifts from intrarelation to interrelation- from object mass to environmental volume. Photo- sculpture is a merging of photographic making and subject materiality [3]. Just at the time that a clear understanding of the 'dualism' of planar perception

is being reached [2], the process of visual mediation is evolving into a new relationship with its referent The new complexities of image plasticity inherent with photo-sculpture and other stereoscopic media lead to the necessity of a visual Moog, a photon synthesizer that can store and manipulate any figurative or non-figurative, real or imaginary, discrete or continuous image in stereo space with all the ease and creative potential of its sonic counter- part.

REFERENCES

1. H. A. Layer, Exploring Stereo Images: A Changing Awareness of Space in the Fine Arts, Leonardo 4, 233 (1971).

2. J. J. Gibson, The Information Available in Pictures, Leonardo 4, 27 (1971). 3. P. C. Bunnell, Photography into Sculpture, Artscanada 21, (June 1970). 4. Haida drawing in F. Boas, Primitive Art (New York: Dover, 1955). Reprinted through

permission of the publisher.

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figurative photo-sculpture with 3-d pointillism

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