This is an overview of the source material, methodologies, artistic influences, and conceptual decisions that inform the sculptural and the photographic means of production that characterize my art practice. Research topics include model-making, the indexical relationship of the photograph and object, and a brief phenomenology of accidents, alchemy, and ambivalence in relation to specific artworks.

This research addresses the problem of populating Building Information Model databases with information on building construction materials using a new classification method which uses multi-spectral laser scanning intensity and geometry data. Research in multi-spectral laser scanning will open up a new era in survey and mapping; the 3D surface spectral response sensitive to the transmitted wavelengths could be derived day or night in complex environments using a single sensor. At the start of this research a commercial multi-spectral sensor did not exist, but a few prototype level instruments had been developed; this work wished to get ahead of the hardware development and assess capability and develop applications from multi-spectral laser scanning. These applications could include high density topographic surveying, seamless shallow water bathymetry, environmental modelling, urban surface mapping, or vegetative classification. This was achieved by using from multiple terrestrial laser scanners, each with a different laser wavelength. The fused data provided a spectral and geometric signature of each material which was subsequently classified using a supervised neural network. The multi-spectral data was created by precise co-positioning of the scanner optical centres and sub-centimetre registration using common sphere targets. A common point cloud, with reflected laser intensity values for each laser wavelength, was created from the data. The three intensity values for each point were then used as input to the classifier; ratios of the actual intensities were used to reduce the effect of range and incidence angle differences. Analysis of five classes of data showed that they were not linearly separable; an artificial neural network classifier was the chosen classifier has been shown to separate this type of data. The classifier training dataset was manually created from a small section of the original scan; five classes of building materials were selected for training. The performance of the classification was tested against a reference point cloud of the complete scene. The classifier was able to distinguish the chosen test classes with a mean rate of 84.9% and maximum for individual classes of 100%. The classes with the highest classification rate were brick, gravel and pavement. The success rate was found to be affected by several factors, among these the most significant, inter-scan registration, limitation on available wavelengths and the number of classes of material chosen. Additionally, a method which included a measure of texture through variations in intensity was tested successfully. This research presents a new method of classifying materials using multi-spectral laser scanning, a novel method for registering dissimilar point clouds from different scanners and an insight into the part played by laser speckle interpretation of reflected intensity.

"The Bear Went Over the Mountain" is a memoir that marks the people, events, landscape, and era that shapes a women's identity as she journeys from adolescence to adulthood. The story evolves through accretion with the use of a variety of writing strategies such as third person limited omniscient narrator, auto-fiction, mosaic, and disrupted narrative. Other conventions of Creative Non-fiction are used such as dialogue, characterization and plot. Autotopography (photographs) are used to create a motif of ancestral ghosts. They haunt the lives of these characters as they act and react to plots that began long before they were born. An ancestral photograph is placed with the date of the story at the beginning of each section. The mismatching photograph and date is intended to show how these fierce personalities, long dead, have carved their presence into the lives and fates of these characters.

The following thesis describes the development and process of the responsibilities and skills necessary for a director of photography in the motion picture industry. Pre-production and production aspects pertaining to experiences as a cinematographer are covered. Furthermore, the progression of learning about the field of cinematography is explained through personal examples of logistical, technical, and artistic requirements on both short and feature student films. Storyboards are included in the appendices.

A Research Report submitted to the Department of History of Art, Wits School of the Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History of Art) (by course work and research report) June 2017 / Images of the past survive longer than the theories they were designed originally to support; they linger on in museum displays, as illustrations in archaeologically orientated books, and as part of popular culture (Smiles & Moser 2005: 6). At a time when western audiences grew excited by the news of discoveries and became vicarious armchair explorers, photographers selected subject matter, composed and constructed photographs to meet the audience appetite, document archaeological sites and satisfy their sponsors. When German explorer Leo Frobenius led his 9th expedition 1 to South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and India from 1928 to 1930, there were photographers in the team (Wintjes 2013: 171,172). On their two visits to Great Zimbabwe, the primary objective of the team’s archaeological photographs may have been to document the monumental stonewalled site, collect archaeological data and illustrate Frobenius’ publications; however, once I started to explore the layers within these photographs as more than just re-presentations of the surface subject matter, the narratives became increasingly interesting and complex. The Frobenius photographs have an immediate striking presence as visual re-presentations of the Great Zimbabwe monumental site. I will demonstrate that, through re-looking, re-seeing and re-making, their content extends beyond continued representation of western epistemological ideology to provide a valuable source of new understandings of Great Zimbabwe at the time the photographs were taken and today. Frobenius may not have planned the layers that I examine but that is not relevant. What matters is that these photographs, much like Smiles & Moser’s anticipation, were produced for an initial purpose but almost ninety years later provide new information (Smiles & Moser 2005:6). [Abbreviated introduction; No abstract] / MT2018

This PhD thesis addresses an artistic research practice based on the ontology and phenomenology of the photographic image. Part I presents a series of photographs entitled Midnight in Mumbai, and Part II considers the act of photographing by examining the phenomenological aspect of photography arising directly from my artistic practice. By looking into the prehistory of photography, foregrounding the early developments of the nascent medium, I first consider notions of photography before the medium’s actual materialisation in the 1830s; these emerged alongside the latent desire to see the world as a picture ‘true to nature’ which predominated in literary fiction and experimental scientific texts. It informs us about how the medium was initially understood, discussed and defined, and offers a valuable insight into the ontology of the illuminated image (‘Photography before Photography’). Expanding upon André Bazin’s essay ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’, I consider the discourse of the early history of the medium to be vital in informing the ontological questions developed in the thesis. Taking photography’s early history as a point of departure, my research looks into the possible manifestations of thinking photographically, and asks whether we can only photograph what we know already. This relationship of the photographic image to the world frames my enquiry into the domain of photography. I talk about my photographic work by answering the questions: Can I only see what I name? (‘Naming’) How do I learn how to look? (‘Echo’) and Where can I find the photographic picture? (‘Doubt’). The title of the thesis refers to the speculative history of the medium and to my own photographic work. Like the nineteenth-century photographers who tried to photograph the spirit of a human being, my photographs aim to allude to what might not be apparent by evoking a vision of seeing things that are invisible. The expression ‘via fotografia’ is used as a method of making phenomena visible photographically. As a medium based on reality that can reflect the world, however visible or invisible that might be, photography continuously questions our perception of such reality (‘Picturing Thoughts’). Do we photograph what we see, or what we think and imagine? This is not to suggest that the acts of photographing and thinking are the same, but rather to propose that they are not separate from each other. Photographs, in that sense, are not experienced in terms of their appearance, but in terms of their continuous appearing.

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-123). / by Nina Mennerich Frankenheim. / M.S.V.S.

In the digital age, there has been a phenomenal rise in the number of photos people capture, share, and manipulate—a trend that shows no sign of slowing. Furthermore, research shows that photos—authentic and manipulated—are powerful; they can change people’s memories for distant and recent experiences, beliefs about past actions, intentions for future actions, and judgements. Yet there is currently limited research exploring the effects of digital photography on memory, cognition, and behaviour. Part One of this thesis comprises of a program of research that examines people’s ability to discriminate between authentic and manipulated images. Advances in digital technology mean that the creation of visually compelling photographic fakes is growing at an incredible speed. Despite the prevalence of manipulated photos in our everyday lives, there is a lack of research directly investigating the applied question of people’s ability to detect photo forgeries. The research in Chapter 3 addresses this question. Across two experiments, people showed an extremely limited ability to detect and locate manipulations of real-world scenes. Chapters 4 and 5 explore ways that might help people to detect image forgeries. Specifically, the research investigates the extent to which people can identify inconsistencies in shadows and reflections. The results suggest that people are reasonably insensitive to shadow and reflection information and indicate that such image properties might not help people to distinguish between authentic images and manipulated ones. Part Two of this thesis examines how the act of taking photos can affect people’s memory. Digital technology has revolutionised the ease with which people capture photos and accordingly there has been a remarkable rise in the number of photos that people take. The results of five experiments and a mini meta-analysis suggest that taking photos has only a small, or plausibly no, effect on people’s memories.

This thesis represents the first dedicated study of the application of computational photography in marine science. It deals chiefly with the acquisition and use of photogrammetrically derived 3D organism models. The use of 3D models as 'virtual specimens' means that they may be securely archived and are accessible by anyone in any part of the world. Interactive 3D objects enhance learning by engaging the viewer in a participatory manner, and can help to clarify features that are unclear in photographs or diagrams. Measurements may be taken from these models for morphometric work, either manually or in an automated process. Digital 3D models permit the collection of novel metrics such as volume and surface area, which are very difficult to take by traditional means. These, and other metrics taken from 3D models, are a key step towards automating the species identification process. Where an organism changes over time, photogrammetry offers the ability to mathematically compare its shape before and after change. Sponge plasticity in response to stress and injury is quantified and visualised here for the first time. An array of networked underwater cameras was constructed for simultaneous capture of image sets. The philosophy of adapting simple, cheap consumer hardware is continued for the imaging and quantification of marine particulates. A restricted light field imaging system is described, together with techniques for image processing and data extraction. The techniques described are shown to be as effective as traditional instruments and methods for particulate measurement. The array cameras used a novel epoxy encapsulation technique which offers significant weight and cost advantages when compared to traditional metal pressure housings. It is also described here applied to standalone autonomous marine cameras. A fully synchronised autonomous in situ photogrammetry array is now possible. This will permit the non-invasive archiving and examination of organisms that may be damaged by recovery to the surface.

Thesis. 1976. B.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography: leaves 36-37. / B.S.