Press release 2 March 2011
RETURN OF THE UNEXPECTED – COMPUTATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
11-27 March 2011
Ben Bogart , Andreas Schmelas, Stefan Stubbe, Stijn Belle, Wolfgang Bittner,
Frederic Gmeiner, Torsten Posselt, Benjamin Maus
Opening on Friday, March 10, from 6 - 8 pm. Welcome!
The exhibition features four artworks that each have their own approach to challenging photographic conventions, either
existing or arising ones. Computational photography is a new concept in digital photography, referring to the use of algorithms to retrieve, modify and select data from an imaging device in order to expand the possibilities of visual expression.
The digital camera is thus seen as a tool for programming instead of merely recording images.
In the very nature of algorithms is their ability to be easily modified, a characteristic that with some do-it-yourself spirit
opens up the concepts of image, camera, and picture-taking to redefinitions. With the creative misuse, or hacking of algorithms and camera hardware it is possible to questionalize not only our visual conventions but also the manipulation of
our visual environment and finally memories that is already taking place to an increasing extent.
The title of the exhibition states that unlike in mainstream digital photography the results of algorithmic manipulation of
camera data are often to some extent unpredictable, a reminiscence from the time of early photography and an aspect
that invites to artistic experimentation.
What results in is an interplay between artist and the medium, and often accompanied by an interactive format of presentation, that between audience and the artwork.
BEN BOGART (Canada): SELF-ORGANIZED LANDSCAPES
The 'Artificial Smile' camera plays with the notion of perfection and auto-retouch. Created as a picture apparatus, it
shows only smiling people's picture to be taken, irrespective of their former emotional state. To achieve this the camera
takes a picture but overlays it with a smiling mouth drawn from a pre-existing pool of pictures with smiling faces. To
generate a maximum level of exaggeration the replaced smiling mouth impression is matched as realistically as possible
to that of the initial portrait taken.
ANDREAS SCHMELAS and STEFAN STUBBE (Germany): ARTIFICIAL SMILE
The 'Artificial Smile' camera plays with the notion of perfection and auto-retouch. Created as a picture apparatus, it
shows only smiling people's picture to be taken, irrespective of their former emotional state. To achieve this the camera
takes a picture but overlays it with a smiling mouth drawn from a pre-existing pool of pictures with smiling faces. To
generate a maximum level of exaggeration the replaced smiling mouth impression is matched as realistically as possible
to that of the initial portrait taken.
STIJN BELLE (The Netherlands) and WOLFGANG BITTNER (Austria): PORTRAITS OF A MACHINE
In their on-going research project Belle and Bittner explore new ways of image making by combining recent technology
with old photographic principles. Their experiments expand the notion of moment and lens based photography, resulting
in work which breaks out of the two-dimensional frame. By expanding exposure times up to several minutes, the
interaction with the object photographed becomes an image shaping element. The resulting photographs are not a mere
depiction of this reality. They are product of the interplay of the individuality of the person portrayed and the specificity of
the machine.
FREDERIC GMEINER, TORSTEN POSSELT and BENJAMIN MAUS (Germany):
EXTRACTS OF LOCAL DISTANCE
Countless fragments of existing architectural photography are merged into multilayered shapes. The original pictures are
analysed and categorised according to their vanishing-points and shapes. Based on this analysis, slices are extracted
from source images and composed to form collages that introduce a third abstract point of view next to the original ones
of architect and photographer. The resulting fine-art prints are entirely unique each time.
The ”Return of the Unexpected - Computational Photography” exhibition is organised in collaboration between Pixelache,
Artists’ association MUU and Aalto University Media Factory. Curator Markku Nousiainen. Supported by Goethe-Institut
and the Austrian Embassy in Finland.
More information: MUU galleria / Timo Soppela, [email protected], +358-(0)9-625 972, http://www.muu.fi
| MUU galleria | Lönnrotinkatu 33, 00180 Helsinki, Finland | +358 9 625 972 | [email protected] | www.muu.fi |
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