A series of retouched and edited photographs, based on transferring the visual characteristics of 3D computer graphics to the photographic image.
In the first part of the course, the students collected a multitude of current and historical example images from the field of 3D computer graphics, such as screenshots of 3D video games, 3D illustrations or computergenerated 3D visualisations. The task was to analyse the visual characteristics of the example images and to transfer a number of the noted features to the photographically generated image.
This was achieved by carrying over the geometrically optimised articulation of edges and contours from the found computer images and incorporating this into a series of selected photographs in a similar way via retouching (Regulated Realities), or by reducing the surface textures’ wealth of detail, or else by replicating sections of them multiple times and thus repeating them in the photographic image with a technique resembling texture mapping (Cleaned Realities).
Another interesting aspect was the selective removal of individual visual objects from photographs (Suppressed Realities), the suppression of which produced unnatural constellations of light and shadow in these images, along with abnormal reflective interactions. In other cases, the laws of gravity were suspended via removal of such objects, thus sometimes contributing to the model-like appearance of the edited photographs.
In the final part of the practical work, the focus was on Google Earth and its extensive photographic material. Here, the first step was to extract interesting graphic fragments from the aerial photographs and from their landscape context (Extracted Realities), so as to then arrange them in interesting abstract visual compositions by means of collage (Sampled Realities).
All the works presented here consist exclusively of photographic material, but due to the various realised visual interventions, they no longer correspond to reality. In addition to teaching the students various retouching and image-processing techniques, the aim was to show them unconventional visual approaches, as well as visual strategies that, despite being exclusively based on photographic material, can be essentially abstract and model-like, such that they are capable of reformulating the question of how to differentiate between reality and image.