Lost in Machine Hallucinations - SI LAB

LOST IN MACHINE HALLUCINATIONS

JACK LE RICHE JEREMY BONWICK GEORGE AVRAAM ROWAN JOHNSON

S-I LAB 3D SCANNING AND VR

CONTENTS A. POINTS (P. 4–17) B. LINES (P. 18–33) C. SURFACES (P. 34–47) D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY (P. 49–63) E. INSTALLATION DESIGN (P. 66–95) P. 4

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A. POINTS (PP. 4-17)

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A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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JACK LE RICHE

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1. Joseph Reed facade 2. Entablature detail 3. Interior section of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne looking towards the narthex 4. Detail of the arcade and gallery

A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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JEREMY BONWICK

A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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1. Joseph Reed facade & concrete lawn 2. Facade detail 3. Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne looking towards the transept and apse 4. Detail of the arcade and gallery and aisle

A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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GEORGE AVRAAM

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1. Joseph Reed facade & concrete lawn 2. Facade Detail 3. Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne looking towards the transept and apse 4. Detail of the Holy Cross 5. Detail of the arcade and gallery 6. Detail of the T C Lewis Organ

A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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ROWAN JOHNSON

A. POINTS. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

ROWAN JOHNSON

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1. Interior of St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne looking towards the transept and apse 2. Detail of the apse 3.Joseph Reed facade 4. Bike detail

A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

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AUTHENTICITY ON ALBERTI & SCANLAB:

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A seemingly modern idea, the digitisation of the world plots a trajectory that can be traced back to the early Renaissance. The process is a simple concept — to capture the world in a binary manner, through digits that relate to real space.

In its earliest stage the impetuous for such a practice was accuracy. In an age where texts and imagery where warped and corrupted as being copied by hand was the only means of reproduction, the concern of Leon Battista Alberti was that of reliability and accuracy. The chief question; how to authentically represent the world and have it easily translatable through dissemination. Through his work,

Alberti began to develop what can only be described as digital techniques, centuries before the invention of the computer.

These techniques relied on the same logic as their centuries newer counterparts — reducing reality, either physical form or imagery, to integers, relationship — a grid becomes pixels, numbers become coordinates. Alberti’s schemes included a device fixed upon a statue’s head which acted as an origin from which a series of points, coordinates in space, where collected that specifically described the form of the object. Such a painstaking process now can occur in a matter of minutes through the likes of LiDAR scanning practices, such as that employed

by ScanLAB. In the context of ScanLAB’s work, accuracy now has a different meaning.

A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

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The device, the machine which performs the task of digitising the world, has its own way of seeing which influences how the environment is captured. On the one hand, the POINTS cloud — which mimics Alberti’s spreadsheet of statue SURFACES coordinates — is objectively a representation of the space, limited only by the definition which correlates to the number of points collected. Some would say a frozen moment, ScanLAB use the term “ultra survey”. The machine will objectively measure from “crumpled cushion to sofa” as opposed to a human surveyor who would subjectively measure from wall to wall. What is introduced in handing this process over to a machine is that it perceives in a different way; their interpretation of the world is prone to

producing artefacts which we would call “noise” but are actually just traces of the machine and its process and manner of reproducing. Dust, reflective surfaces and objects in motion are all prone to being misrepresented by the scan, an idea that presents itself in Error in the Noise.

Therefore, the machine is both objective and “unreliable and untrustworthy”. Digital sans are authentic to the manner by which the machine perceives but do not match with our humanly perceived version of the world and consequently no better than the errors that Alberti was trying to avoid in his centuries old work.

1. Diagram of Leon Battista Alberti’s De Statua Machine 2. Diagram of the relationship between Alberti’s digital machines and contemporary digital machines

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A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: ALBERTI’S MEDIA LAB Alberti’s media lab was an early attempt at collecting and mapping 3D geometry with a level of repeatable accuracy for architecture. His technique was generated as he did not believe that images could be fully controlled leading to confusion.

One example of Alberti’s media Lab is his effort of creating a scaled map of Rome. This was made by corresponding coordinates to a series of numbers this could then be placed into a plotter to reliably replicate the image.

Another project of His was based on the same idea but used a rotating tool that

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was nailed to the head of the model. This could accurately take measurements that could then be “digitised and exported to multiple people with a level of accuracy.

The Holy Trinity by Masaccio is an example of the technique being utilised to help bring an image to life using the same concepts as Alberti media lab utilising points in space to accurately draw the image with perspective.

Alberti’s innovations allowed him to accurately estimate the proportion of a building giving him the ability to draw scaled additions and compare them to the current building using his data logging system. This allowed him to eventually become extremely skilled at visualising a

A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

numbers and letters that he had assigned and decoding them to complete the process.

Overall while Alberti’s Ideas failed to capture a large audience for a significant amount of time first due to the confusing nature of it at the time and the introduction of other mass production products that reduce the need for data visualisation. eventually his ideas would see implementation with computers that are capable of accurately graphing other projects.

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1. Body scanner (Carpo & Lemerle, 2008) 2. The Perspectival Eye (n.d.)

3. Holy Trinity (Masaccio) (studiarapido, 2018)

A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: SCAN LAB - HORIZONTAL HUMANS Although its not pretty to look at, this format of 3D scanning grapples with a different kind of issue.

The ability to scan 3D objects allows us to envision spaces, places, people and even decaying animals overtime. The lesson learned and the opportunity is to have the ability to preserve something that is

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temporal.

It can preserve in high detail, changes which occur overtime, subtleties and the effects of natural processes.

We have never particularly experienced another time in history where we can observe changes over time in a 3D format.

Photographs have been as close as we can get to capturing the temporal, yet now

A. POINTS. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: SCAN LAB - NOISE: ERROR IN THE VOID The predisposition is to assume that technologies such as LIDAR and other methods of documenting the world in three dimensions are an accurate depiction of reality. This is a falsehood — scans of real space represented virtually are prone to the same level of distortion or fuzziness as a pointillist painting — the image is only as accurate as the data it collects.

Rather than a critique on the technology though, this inherent reality in the process can be highlighted and in a way celebrated.

ScanLAB’s Error in the Noise project begins to unpack some of these concerns — taking two unedited scans and presenting them in their raw form.

The inherent “illusion of perfection” is shattered by the unsettling soundscape as

the model unnaturally rotates, as if it is a crumbling artifact to be examined. The cracks are evident, the noise a relic of the print’s materiality.

The traces and the anomalies are as interesting here as some of their other projects that try to represent in a more verisimilitudinous fashion — such as their work for the Bartlett School of Architecture.

The grain and materiality of scan has a realism though that cannot be rivalled by these other projects — this is the reality of the medium itself, a simulacra that will never reach the fidelity of reality.

In this work, the artefacts of the medium are forefront and inherently act as a critique of our bias towards viewing these technologies, approaches and systems as accurate and millimetre perfect.

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1. Collage of images representing decaying carcasses overtime highlighting the ability to capture the temporal, ScanLAB Projects, 2015) 2. Berlin Oberbaum Bridge - The Spree, (ScanLAB Projects, 2013) 3. Fenestration burst from railings and glass, ScanLAB Projects, 2013)

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B. LINES (PP. 18-33)

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B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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East / West Cross Section

30 sections · 200mm steps · 30 mm resolution

Josef Reed Facade - WEST ELEVATION

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Column Detail - WEST ELEVATION

Column Detail - NORTH ELEVATION

Top to Bottom Cross Section

17 sections · 500mm steps · 10 mm resolution

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St. Paul’s Catherdral, Melbourne - PLAN

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East Collanade Detail - PLAN

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1. MSD West Elevation and East West Cross section 2. MSD Column Details 3. St Paul’s Plan view 4. Detail St Paul East Collanade detail

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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JEREMY BONWICK

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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1. St Paul’s Plan 2. St. Paul’s Arch Detail 3. MSD Old Facade Elevation 4. MSD Metal Section

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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GEORGE AVRAAM

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

GEORGE AVRAAM

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1. MSD Old Facade overall elevation with Lines 2. MSD section 3. St Pauls, Section 1 4. St Pauls, Section 1

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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ROWAN JOHNSON

B. LINES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

ROWAN JOHNSON

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1. St Paul’s Floor Plan 2. St Paul’s Chair 3. MSD Elevation 4. MSD Column Detail

B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

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DIGITAL RAMIFICATIONS: ON DIGITAL FABRICATIONS BY GALO CANIZARES & NEWISH MEDIA BY JOHN MAY

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What are the ramifications of the digital era on architecture? This conversation is about how we are currently undergoing an architectural paradigm where our ideas, designs and the way of representation is progressing from one of statis to that of infinity, real time data, and the “internet space”.

Within the Digital fabrications, Galo Canizares identifies observations about the current digital saturation which seemingly engulfs our daily lives. He focuses on ideas of data, software and its agency and control, and highlights that

these entities can shape us, what we see and what is communicated to us. It is the notion that software is not “impartial” but there are motivations, views and power ensued by the designer which we must frivolously interrogate how this affects us as users.

Canizares defines “internet space” as “infinitely deep three-dimensional space ‘’ similar to that of a “cosmic entity” that this space is ever expanding, abstracted and complex. He draws upon Malevich and El Lissitzky the ideas developed by those of Suprematism which sought to create infinity, de-materialisation and objectlessness in their art. The notion of negotiating space and screens within “internet space” can be compared to irrational space, giving depth and “reflecting infinity”.

B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

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Screen space to us is a new space within architecture, it is ever changing. There is a notion of architectural experience where space as an infinite entity will formulate our perception of virtual realities. Experiences of space are no longer limited to physical entities but the ever-expanding virtual will progressively become our realities.

John May, within his lecture at Harvard GSD ‘Newish Media’ tackles the technical succession highlighting that the pace that we can produce our thoughts will change the types of thoughts possible.

He identifies ‘Signalising’ as the automation of post-orthography. This idea of signalisation transcends that of orthography where several possible futures exist at once. He describes that all calculation possible futures are within the logic of modeling, which is fundamentally different to that of the orthographic

drawing which also seeks to understand the past and the future. We see a shift in the types of justifications for architectural forms, from historical precedents which were formerly used to inform designs to that of real time data, information, and efficiency. We are living in the kind of ‘dehistorical’ era where there is no longer a lineage of thoughts. We have progressed to drawing techniques which have underlaying infinite possibilities in terms of reproduction. Our discussions formulate a narrative around the idea that we are starting to control entities such as time, such that solutions are now instantaneous through categorically analysing data within real-time.

1. Diagram of the infinite picture planes created by the web browser experience 2. Diagram showing the multiplicity of design options presented by CAD software and the invention of the ‘light pen’ to interact

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B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: JOHN MAY, NEWISH MEDIA (HARVARD GSD LECTURE, 2017) ORTHOGRAPHY VS. POST ORTHOGRAPHY: Drawing, photograph or image? = Fixed, fixed, dynamic. What is written (static) vs what is detected (dynamic). Analogue vs digital. A representation of the world vs a model of the world.

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ORTHOGRAPHY: A system of geometric rules to describe the world; writing, drawing, text, music etc.

Develops the logic of the president (linear model), all architecture/drawings are developed and learned from past drawings. Traced, sketched, copied or referenced. Eg. Corb developed his first Unite building (1955) from Ginzburg’s Narkomfin (1928).

B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

POST ORTHOGRAPHY: An architect operating in the world of orthography uses text and drawing simultaneously to describe the world. An architect operating in a post orthographic world is simultaneously using an image and a model to describe the world.

Analogue vs digital type of operation.

developed by its linear relationship to other work but in its relationship with all possible futures that can be calculated in that moment, in real time. Eg. a make 2D command in rhino is endless in its possibility to capture a “drawing” but has no relationship to what has come before it. Make 2D does not draw by president, it draws endless possible futures.

In post orthography the logic of the precedent is no more, work is not

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B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: AARON BETSKY, WELCOME TO THE POSTORTHOGRAPHIC AGE (ARCHITECT MAGAZINE, 2020) The author provides a further explanation of what a postorthographic era might mean with reference to John May’s recently published book “Signal. Image.

Architecture.” and Galo Cañizares’ Digital Fabrications (Applied Research + Design Publishing). While the author helps to contextualize and explain these works and interesting point is presented as it relates to a digital or postorthographic aesthetic.

Exhibitions such as “Assorted Demo Scenes” by Office Ca at the Knowlton School of Architecture perhaps begin to legitimize this aesthetic. Or within the context of SI-LAB the aesthetic of the scanned digital error.

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B. LINES. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: JOHN MAY, NEW MASSINGS FOR NEW MASSES: COLLECTIVITY AFTER ORTHOGRAPHY (MIT, 2015) May provides a written clarification of orthography and post orthography in an essay “New Massings for New Masses”.

While the focus of this essay speculates on the future for housing/collective living, May provides a summary of his orthography argument through paragraphs 5-8, then again in paragraphs 17-19 and 32.

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C. SURFACES (PP. 34-47)

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C. SURFACES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

JACK LE RICHE

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1. St Paul’s Crossing Structure 2. Joseph Reed Façade column detail

C. SURFACES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

JACK LE RICHE

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C. SURFACES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

JEREMY BONWICK

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1. St Paul’s column eastern wall 2. MSD old facade door and entablature elevation

C. SURFACES. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

JEREMY BONWICK

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GEORGE AVRAAM

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1. St Paul’s detail 2. MSD scan tree and crowd

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1. St Paul’s organ detail 2. MSD old facade door and entableture

ROWAN JOHNSON

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A. TITLE. GROUP WORK.

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THIS IS NOT TEXT: ON EVERYTHING IS ALREADY AN IMAGE

BY JOHN MAY Images are data, and all imaging is, knowingly or not, an act of data processing. If the world of the orthographer was simultaneously a text and a drawing, the world of the postorthographer is simultaneously an image and a model - an electrical image and an electrical model, signally mapped onto one another. Pseudorthography retains dominance over a current generation of younger practitioners who have recently and emphatically declared their allegiance to an imagined “Culture of drawing.” At the same time, we blissfully immerse ourselves in the telematic ubiquity of the present, producing our “Drawings” in telematic image formats, and advertising ourselves on telematic social platforms whose technical structures bear no relation to drawing, and which want nothing more than to forget drawing, writing, and history in favor of real-time imagery.

Models are images that “Refresh” at a speed anterior to perception, and just as we no longer write but instead process words, we also no longer draw but instead process images. Images do not and cannot make drawings; they can only make more images, some of which we “Print” by electromechanically depositing material with a speed and precision unimaginable to any orthographer.

1. (left) A collage of pictorial planes accompanied by text homage to René Magritte famous slogan from ‘The Treachery of Images’ (1929) — “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”, translated to “this is not a pipe”. The quote appeared under a painting of a pipe which called into question issues of sign, signifier and signified.

Images of drawings produced in computers are not drawings. The radical difference between imaging and previous forms of simulation is that what imaging simulates is not specific ideas or thoughts but rather thinking itself. If we continue to confuse these two technical time signatures - if we continue to think of images merely as more-efficient drawings, or as technical enhancements of orthographic life - we will continue to drift unknowingly in an ocean of simulations for which we have no compass or concepts.

The longer we refuse to see our work and our screens as belonging to a larger culture of imaging, the longer we continue to confuse images with drawings, the more apolitical we become.

The central paradox of our contemporary telematic consciousness: as imaging becomes the primary way in which we give meaning to our lives, the specific content of each individual image becomes less meaningful, bending toward meaningless.

Any truly new telematic politics will no longer be a politics of the content of images but of the structure, composition, capacities, and limitations of imaging itself.

Touching, swiping, scrolling, selecting, filtering, cropping, resizing, zooming, channelizing, compressing, tagging, batching - in short, image processing these are not the minor expressions of technical systems external to thought.

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C. SURFACES. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: RENFIK ANADOL_LATENT HISTORY John May explores the idea of postorthography where imaging calculates “simulations of all possible future drawing”.

He Highlights that unlike historical time, which connects present and future to past as linear thinking. The “real-time” connects to all possible futures using data inherent in signalisation process.

This explorations within ‘Latent History’ and many works by Anadol, emphasises the idea of signalisation and imaging as data, and an act of data processing.

This art piece analyses the compilation of pixels which inherently makes up a photograph and endeavors to scale this into an assemblage which account for all the images within the city of Stockholm.

Machine learning has allowed us to work with a discretisation elements where there is a “communication among parts” within a complex network of different entities.

This project automatically aligning like images with each other, synthesising the discrete data of millions of pixels and then mapping connections between every available photo. This creating a series of all possible future outputs as May described hallucinations of Stockholm and showing the cities past complex history as well as a distorting and morphing into new histories.

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C. SURFACES. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: PINSCREEN ANIMATION May describes that the always present experience of all calculable possible futures states which is a different imaginative framework, we use “images of performance, efficiency, fidelity and control”.

Pinscreen Animations which were the first forms of animations envisions idea of post-othography prior to its development.

Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parkers ‘Pin Screens’ (1930) create the design of a screen with the combination of moveable discrete elements. The conglomeration of each discrete pin collectively creates animations and scenes by allowing light

to past through particular points based on the pin length. Although the pins have to be manually moved, it was a progression from static orthogonal representation and the first representation of animation.

This relates to signalisation through the discretised pins where each can be manipulated to form new images within “real time” albeit slowly. Similarly to postothography where images are made of discrete entities which inherently hold data, the pin length determining the light shining through can be seen as the data, yet now we have the ability to control these discrete elements through automation.

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P. 51 [left] 1. Image pool from Stockholm using Ai to organise pictures into hallucinations of images 2. Series of hallucinations which blend like pictures and form alternate possible visions 3. Immersive experience exhibition of the images [right] 4. Alexeieff and Parkers, Pinscreen animation ‘The Nose’ 1967.

5. Alexeieff and Parkers, Pinscreen animation ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ 1933,

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D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY (PP.48-63)

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D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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JACK LE RICHE

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JACK LE RICHE

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1. MSD Sclupture ‘Goddess’.

2. MSD Entrance

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JEREMY BONWICK

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1. MSD Sclupture ‘Britannia’.

2.MSD Facade Detail of Plinth

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GEORGE AVRAAM

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1. MSD Sclupture ‘Goddess’ with details 2.MSD Column with details of interpolations

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ROWAN JOHNSON

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1. MSD Sclupture ‘Britannia’.

2.MSD Plinth detail lower facade

D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP WORK.

PHOTOGRAMMETRY WORKFLOW ALEX ALEAREZ EXPLAINS To produce high quality point clouds using this process a couple of settings on your camera need to be set accordingly.

Virtual environments wizard, Alex Alearez recommends the following settings as a starting point: Making sure your subject is not lit directly, use a prime lens between 35-85mm and set your DSLR camera to manual mode. Then adjust your f-stop to 11(+), the shutter speed to 125(+), the ISO to 800(-) and your capture setting to RAW. The (+/-) gives you an idea which direction the setting can be adjusted without compromising the final model. Preferably, you’d want an image that is exposed correctly, has no bokeh, no motion blur and has as little noise as possible.

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However these settings won’t work in all environments and you might find the image is either completely under or over exposed (Figure A & B). It is particularly challenging to work with these settings indoors. In this instance I found decreasing the f-stop from 11 to be the quickest way to adjust for exposure; moving the camera closer to or further from the subject to eliminate bokeh in the image. Alternatively, mounting your

camera on a tripod, then reducing the shutter speed would be an effective way to adjust for exposure. This eliminates motion blur and gives you the freedom to set the shutter speed as low as you’d like, exposing the image even in the most dimly lit indoor environments. I would only increase the ISO from 800 as a last resort because the reduction in image quality can’t be compensated for through a change in physical shooting technique.

When shooting Alearez recommends taking an image for every 10 degrees of rotation. So for a 360 degree scan you’d take 36 images (eg. an object), or for a 180 degree scan you’d take 18 images (eg. a facade). This does not have to be precise, however it helps to pace out your steps beforehand, working out if one or two steps is equal to about 10 degrees of rotation (Figure C). Something to be aware of while shooting is when Metashape generates a model from these images the resulting surface is most accurate within the first couple of meters from the vertical plane of the camera. With data loss being more severe the further away the camera is from the subject. Shooting the subject in several horizontal rows is a good technique to compensate for this.

Moving onto the computer, apply a batch edit in Lightroom by lowering the highlights and boosting the shadows to

D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP WORK

A. DSLR settings which create optimal photos for photogrammetry

B. Different environmental conditions influence the output of photos causing under exposure like above

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C. A movement of 10 degree of rotation around an object allows it to be captured in a uniform way from each unique angle. This produces the best results in allowing the software to align each of the photos and formulate the model.

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D&E. Clipping of each photo to the desired subject matter will

F. Low-resolution point cloud generated with bounding box to highlight the subject

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G. Dense point cloud created

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artificially de-light the images. If needed, adjust for exposure by applying another batch edit. Because the images were captured in RAW there’s a lot of flexibility baked into the data to adjust for exposure so you’re able to adjust the images without affecting the quality of the model. Then export the images as a TIF to the highest quality (this data set will be quite large).

The workflow within Metashape is quite simple, however generating a dense cloud can take several hours depending on the resolution desired for the model.

First the images have to be individually masked using the intelligent scissors tool, making sure the selection is inverted otherwise the software will attempt to generate the dense cloud around the subject (Figure D & E). Next, the data set can be aligned (workflow > align photos) using the default options in the dialogue box. A low resolution point cloud is then quickly generated with a bounding box around the subject; adjust to mask out everything but the subject (Figure F).

Finally a dense cloud can be generated from the data (workflow > dense cloud).

Within the dialogue box quality settings can be specified for the final point cloud, with the difference between a low and high setting similar to the difference between a low and high resolution photo.

On a medium spec desktop it can take up to six hours to generate a point cloud with 25 million points. However, for most purposes a medium quality cloud of 1-2 million points should be sufficient; taking about an hour to generate (Figure G).

Alternatively, depending on the output of your computer or time available a high resolution point cloud can be generated which is then subsampled according to need; this option allows for the same asset to be scaled without impacting quality for various purposes (Figure H). From here, the dense point cloud can be converted into a mesh and exported as an OBJ file into Rhino or other post processing software (Figure I).

I. (above) Each of these different elements such as point clouds & 3D models can be exported out from the Workspace and brought into other H. (left) Sub-sampled point clouds can still produce high polygon models without compromising details or output

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D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: QUIXEL Photogrammetry’s uses in the digital environments sphere are widespread, one of the main advantages being that the technique capture textures along with geometry which leads to an accelerated work-flow.

There is a focus on building a library of assets for deployment in eviroments from video games, to still renders and motion pictures. In 2019 Epic Games, a video game creator, acquired Quixel, an online repository of photogrammetry which they opened up to users of their open source gaming development software Unreal Engine. The company’s ethos is focused on the democratisation of digitally created environments, in opening this library for free, CEO Tim Sweeney boasts that a newfound “level of artistry is now available to everyone from triple-A studios to indies”.

Through the companion software, Bridge, users can trawl the archive of scans and insert straight into their scene, with options to syn to similar rendering and modeling software such as 3Ds Max. The photogrammetry archive includes extremely high resolution textures which can, because of their high fidelity, can be used as ‘hero’ (front of scene and in focus) assets or in the background.

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D. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: GOOGLE EARTH Photogrammetry processes form part of the inventory of the team responsible for Google Earth. The digital replication of the Earth seeks to create the clearest and most accurate documentation of the planet through predominantly the use of satellite and plane imagery. The overall image of the globe is 800 billion pixels in size and Google Earth overall comprises tens of millions of individual photographs.

Google Earth combines 2D photography to create meshes, a process fo photogrammetry. This is achieved by a combination of satellite imagery as well as from planes which collect photography over notable cities and sites. The plane’s collect five photographs concurrently

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which can be logged to a GPS position.

Those five photos at a certain location, each facing and angled in a different direction, can be used to formulate the digital mesh which creates 3D forms. The initial photographs are then projected back onto the faces of the meshes to give the texturing of the building and landscape.

Recently Google used Yosemite in the United States as a case study for the creation of more accurate replications of natural forms, these being the hardest to capture because of their intricacy. The Yosemite project seeks to develop better techniques of image correlation, which is the primary tool of photogrammetry in simulating the 3D object in digital space,

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P. 67 [left] 1. Quixel Bridge interface showing its library of assets, materials and scans with the navigation and categories on the left and scan details for a single item on the right.

2. Example of natural rock surface from a Megascan. [right] 3. Google Earth photogrametry of The University of Melbourne including the Joseph Reed Facade of the MSD building.

4. Overview of Yosemite photogrammetry work on Google Earth

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D. AGGREGATE. INDIVIDUAL WORK.

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E. INSTALLATION DESIGN. GROUP WORK.

RESEARCH: A HISTORY OF THE UTAH TEAPOT AND ITS USE AS AN ICON. HISTORY The symbol for rendering in many 3d softwares is a tea pot, referred to as the :”Utah teapot”, “Newell teapot” or “Melitta teapot”. It became the default render symbol.

The teapot was used as a test in early 3d rendering development in the 1970’s. It was first used by a researcher Martin Newell, of the University of Utah. This is where two of the names come from (Dunietz, 2016), (the third name is the original manufacturer of the teapot). The teapot was used as as a standard rendering test as due to its simplicity allowing for quick renders, could be rendered in white and not need textured, has convex and concave curves, parts of the teapot casting a shadow on itself these features allowed early developers of render engines to quickly test multiple components of the engine at once (Dunietz, 2016).

When these engines the coordinates of the object had to be manually entered, to do this the teapot needed to be translated into a number of 2D graphs with coordinates (Computer History Museum, n.d.c). While demonstrating the ability of his engine to adaptively change properties of an object the vertical scale of the object was reduced, this resulted in a squashed teapot (‘Founders Series’, 2012), this is the image that is commonly used as a render icon.

Autodesk Revit Teapot Render Button. (2010). Www. Littledetailscount.Com. https://www.littledetailscount.com/ index.php/news/2010/03/08/autodesk-revit-teapot-renderbutton-36 Computer History Museum. (n.d.). The Utah Teapot—CHM Revolution. Retrieved 21 April 2021, from https://www. computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-graphics-musicand-art/15/206

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Creative Tools. (2021a). 3D printed teapot. https://cults3d. com/en/3d-model/home/fff-3d-printable-utah-teapot-withseparate-lid Creative Tools. (2021b). FFF 3D-printable Utah Teapot with separate lid. Cults. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/home/fff3d-printable-utah-teapot-with-separate-lid Dunietz, J. (2016, February 29). The Most Important Object In

1. Melitta teapot (Fosnez, 1989) 2.Utah Teapot 3. Original graph with coordinates. (Newell, 1975)

Computer Graphics History Is This Teapot. Nautilus. http://nautil. us/blog/the-most-important-object-incomputer-graphics-history-is-this-teapot

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CONTINUED USE AS A RENDERING SYMBOL The teapot became an essential part of 3D rendering, with many seeing the teapot as the equivalent to “hello world” in programming. Due to its widespread use it was a clear choice for the SIGGRAPH research community to use as a icon (Torrence, 2006), to day it is used in a number of 3D softwares including AutoCAD®, Revit®, Lightwave 3D®, POVRay®, OpenGL, Direct3D and Autodesk® 3ds Max® (Autodesk Revit Teapot Render Button, 2010). here the teapot earned a number cameos in animations including the Windows XP “3D Pipes Screensaver”, multiple pixar films and the Simpsons.

Due to this widespread accepted use it has reached the point where putting something that is not a teapot as the render symbol would be considered unusual.

USE IN 3D PRINTING Due to many of the challenges that it put basic rendered though it has also proven to be a good test for 3D printers (Creative Tools, 2021b; The Utah Tea Set | Emerging Objects, 2015; Utanalog, Ceramic Utah Teapot, 2009). The teapot has not seen as much widespread use as in the CGI industry, but still remains a favorite due to the overlap in the 3D printing community and 3D design community.

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Fosnez. (1989). The teapot in the Boston Computer Museum in 1989. Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melitta_teapot.png Founders Series: Industry legend Jim Blinn. (2012, July 24).

Fxguide. https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/founders-series-

CONCLUSION

industry-legend-jim-blinn/

The Utah teapot has made an important contribution to the 3D rendering community, thanks to Dr Newell. Thanks to its contribution it has been rewarded with a cult following, leading to its continued use by the community.

fxguide. (2012a). Utah_teapot_2.jpg (800×530). https://www. fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/utah_teapot_2.jpg fxguide. (2012b). Utah_teapot.jpg (1229×853). https://www. fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/utah_teapot.jpg Newell, M. (1975). Martin Newell’s drawing of the Utah Teapot— CHM Revolution. https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/ computer-graphics-music-and-art/15/206/556 The Utah Tea Set | Emerging Objects. (2015). http:// emergingobjects.com/project/the-utah-tea-set/ Torrence, A. (2006). Martin Newell’s original teapot. ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Teapot Copyright Restrictions Prevent ACM from Providing the Full Text for the Teapot Exhibits, 29-es. https:// doi.org/10.1145/1180098.1180128

1. Original (fxguide, 2012b) 2.Squat teapot (fxguide, 2012a) 3. 3D printed teapot (Creative Tools, 2021a)

Utanalog, Ceramic Utah Teapot. (2009). Unfold Design Studio. http://unfold.be/pages/utanalog

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THE POSTORTHOGRAPHIES OF MAY AND CAÑIZARES: Within Signal. Image. Architecture. (2020) John May asserts there has been a lapse in the technical translation from analogue to digital tools over the last 30 years.

May’s evaluation of this new age suggests architects are treating postorthograpic gestures performed by computers (make2D, clipping plane, visual scripting etc.) as an extension of orthographic gestures once performed by hand (plan, section, collage, perspective). At the centre of this argument, designers are being asked to re-evaluate what it means to work postorthographically (digitally) by putting centuries of orthographic thinking and precedent to one side.

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The consequences of this shift, as Galo Cañizares describes in Digital Fabrications (2019), is that software design has a direct relationship on design outcomes. The polyline tool is not simply a new method of drawing in an orthographic sense, like a new kind of pencil, but should be critically understood as a postorthograpic medium. Capable of being hacked and manipulated; its data set understood, intercepted and deployed in creative ways.

An analogy Cañizares puts forward to help translate between these orthographic gaps conceives of “screen space as an ever changing, infinitely deep orthographic space”. A key concept of this shift then is the infinite possibilities postorthographic mediums provide and wherein lies new opportunities for design.

E. INSTALLATION. GROUP WORK.

LOST IN MACHINE HALLUCINATIONS Given the state of flux the design profession finds itself in between these orthographic positions an exhibition proposal might seek to acknowledge that tension through a digital facsimile, the Utah Teapot. An object created in the orthographic age and translated into the postorthographic the exhibition would seek to present this liminal object through the lens of postorthographic analysis error, copy, variation, scale, ambiguity, authorship. Our curatorial statement as follows: The schism between the digital and the real is closing. Technologies progress and bring pixels closer to atoms. Despite this increasing verisimilitude, there is a constant and inherent discourse on authenticity in the translation of the real to the digital, reducing objects, images and experiences to digits, to ones and zeros. The machine manner of seeing the world is skewed, distorted by its nature of observation in the same way organic vision is prone to bias and distortion.

These machine hallucinations present themselves when we take objects from the real to the digital. This exhibition takes the Utah teapot, the skeuomorphic symbol of the render and presents a taxonomy of increasing denigration and corruption of the original as it is replicated digitally and in reality through digital means.

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