video
2004

Synopsis

Birth was made using a flatbed image scanner and morphing software. During the time when this piece was made, I was thinking a lot about properties of time, perception and reality.

The Scanner

To scan is the to examine something in sequence. The image scanner, as defined in Wikipedia is "a device that analyses an image (such as a photograph, printed text, or handwriting) or an object (such as an ornament) and converts it to a digital image". In a flatbed image scanner this is done sweeping a miniature image sensor sequentially in rows over the area being scanned. In this sweeping motion the image sensor sees only a series of single point per row as defined by the scanner resolution.

The Morphing

The meaning of morphing in image or video processing is to a do a seamless transformation between two (or more) sources. This is done with special software where multiple from-to points are defined in the source images and a metamorphosis between these sources is done by mathematically creating the in between frames by moving and blending the image data from the source material.

The Process

So, a scanner does not see the world as we do. We see with one or two eyes, the scanner sees with a million eyes. Our eyes see perspective from one point of view, the scanner sees in the same direction from a million points of view. We perceive a flow of moments, the scanner sees with all its eyes in sequence over time.

I used a flatbed image scanner to make four digital source images with my face in different poses. This was made directly with my head facing the scanner, and thus creating four isometric perceptions of my face. This means that though we perceive the images as distorted, they are actually in a way more objective representations as they are built of large number of independent viewpoints where there is no perspective distortion interfering but only an increasing amount of blur linear to the distance from current viewpoint of the scanner.

These source images were then processed and imported to a morphing software where the parts of the face were identified and a transformation between them was created. Finally, the source images were removed completely from the transformation. The result is an animation of a face turning in a perfect slow gaze at the surrounding pitch black void. A realistic motion in time that has never taken place.

Conclusion

Though realistic, it is not real. It transcends the real into the super real. Real is only a negotiation of how we make sense of what we experience, what we perceive, and in this piece there is none of the real as we know it. Not in sight, not in time.