Cinematogrammetry

Cinematogrammetry is a feasibility study at KISD that tests whether movement can be reproduced with photogrammetry — a procedure that presupposes immobility.

Photogrammetry reconstructs the three-dimensional shape of an object from dozens of photographs taken from many different angles; the object must not move in the process. The study therefore breaks movement down into a sequence of motionless states.

The object was a camera built from 52 Lego bricks. It stood on an evenly lit turntable and was photographed from all sides; I then removed one brick and repeated the procedure. Several thousand photographs were taken over the course of the shoot, from which one complete photogrammetric model was computed per round.

The models were aligned, meshed, and textured in Agisoft PhotoScan and assembled in Cinema 4D. Since each state exists as a closed polygon mesh rather than as a photograph, the virtual camera can be moved around the object far more freely than the real camera positions allowed. Played in sequence, the 52 models produce the illusion of a continuous movement: a movement that never took place, reconstructed from 52 states that were actually occupied.

Techniques: photography · photogrammetry · Agisoft PhotoScan · Photoshop · Cinema 4D

Supervision: Michael Eichhorn, TH Köln