Computational Photography Seminar

Location: Piirtämö. Time: Friday 11 March, 14:00-16:30
Moderator: Markku Nousiainen

Computational photography is a term currently best known from the camera industry where many new features in digital cameras are implemented with in-camera processing and software. To a much lesser degree it is so far understood as a new artistic field. What may be the implications of this concept to photographic expression? The seminar aims to give an overview to the field and addresses the topic from the point of view of three artistic projects exhibited in Pixelache 2011 festival.

Schedule:
14.00-14.40 Jussi Ängeslevä: Computational Photography – between disciplines
14.40-15.10 Mikko Kuhna: Computational Photography Research

15.10-15.20 Break

15.20-15.40 Wolfgang Bittner , Stijn Belle: Portraits of a Machine
15.40-16.00 Ben Bogart: Outward Looking
16.00-16.20 Andreas Schmelas: Manipulations of Perception

16.20-16.30 Discussion and conclusions

Presentations:

Computational Photography – between disciplines
Jussi Ängeslevä (FI/DE)

The emerging field of computational photography, whether seen in the context of computer science, or in its creative applications, commercial products increasingly much applying such techniques, or in the transformation of how we consume images in the social, internet based photo sharing. On one hand, real time or automatic image manipulation is making it much easier to create impressive looking pictures, but at the same time, those pictures are becoming increasingly distant from the reality they attempt to depict. As much as these new algorithmic processes are changing the aesthetics of photography, it is also transforming the use of photography as a strategic, political or playful tool to represent, or distort the reality.
http://angesleva.iki.fi

Computational Photography Research
Mikko Kuhna (FI)
Aalto University, Department of Media Technology

The topic of this presentation is computational photography as an active technology research field and especially the research done in the Media Technology department of Aalto University. Some example research works deal with 3D reconstruction, video super-resolution and assisted photography.
http://media.tkk.fi/
http://mikkokuhna.com/research/

Portraits of a Machine
Wolfgang Bittner (AT), Stijn Belle (NL)

Our research focusses on expanding photography by combining old photographic principles with new imaging technologies. In our presentation we will talk about ideas and processes that led us to develop our portrait machines.”
http://www.portraitsofamachine.info/

Outward Looking
Ben Bogart (CA)

This presentation provides a compact discussion of my outward-looking works that manually and autonomously use cameras to collect images of the world that are used in generative processes. These artworks are “Context Machines” and the most recent manifestations are the “Self-Organized Landscapes” and the “Dreaming Machine” installations.
http://www.ekran.org/ben/wp/category/sol/
http://www.ekran.org/ben/wp/2009/dm2/

Manipulations of Perception
Andreas Schmelas (DE)

My research deals with the question how new imaging technologies change the way we perceive and understand ourselves and the world around us. In this presentation I will cover some inventions made in the field of computational photography that shift the meaning of the image itself, and ultimately manipulate our perception of ‘reality’.

http://artificialsmile.invertednothing.com/