Papers by Doron Altaratz
Philosophy of Photography, 2024
Photography has always been associated with the physical activity of the human body: capturing, e... more Photography has always been associated with the physical activity of the human body: capturing, editing, and viewing photos are all activities that involve the user’s spatial interaction with the technology used. With conventional photography, one aspect of spatial relation with technology is the viewer’s ability to recognize the camera’s location in the photographic scene through visual indications, such as the relative location of objects in the frame to the camera’s point of view, combined with a basic familiarity with the functionality of conventional cameras, relating to the notions of ‘in-front’ and ‘behind’ the camera. Some instances of interactive photography, such as 360-degree imagery and three-dimensional photogrammetry, challenge the spatial connection between the photographer (represented by the camera location) and the viewer due to unique usability and innovative interactions, such as the viewer’s ability to ‘move’ freely in all directions of the three-dimensional, photographic space. The technological affordances of interactive photography create a distinct corporeal experience that challenges the traditional associations between the photographer, the viewer, and the photographic imagery, evoking with the viewers the notion of technological uncanniness and, consequently, questioning some of the traditional preconceptions regarding the prime characteristics of the photographic medium.
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Social Sciences, 2023
Digital afterlife is becoming increasingly possible due to advancements in VR, deepfake, and AI t... more Digital afterlife is becoming increasingly possible due to advancements in VR, deepfake, and AI technologies. The use of computational photography for mourning and commemoration has been re-integrated into practices of remembrance, farewell, continuity, and disengagement. Two case studies, the Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony and the TV production Meeting You, are analyzed to explore these new possibilities. We show how photography’s new affordances enable interaction while maintaining its essence as a representation of reality and argue that this socio-technological
transformation habituates contemporary practices of mourning and commemoration, adjusting images to serve the individual needs and interests of the bereaved and the community.
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photographies , 2023
How can professional photography continue to exist in an age of machine vision? As this article s... more How can professional photography continue to exist in an age of machine vision? As this article suggests, computational photography destabilizes the ideology of professional photographic distinctiveness, expertise, agency, and creativity. In an era characterized by constant instability due to technological developments, changes to photographer’s professional habitus are expected. While these changes are connected to technical modifications in professional tools, they can deeply challenge the identities of practitioners, their perception of photography’s fluctuating affordances, their own roles in image-production, and even the distinctiveness of the medium itself. Professional photography is thus a powerful signifier of the photographic medium and a key arena for understanding the social meaning of the automation of vision across the entire photographic field. Drawing upon interviews with professional photographers who use Structure from Motion, this article propose a new emerging professional identity adapted to this situation: ‘the computational photographer’. For such a photographer the automation of photographic processes necessitates a shift in the site of identity-construction and expertise, away from image-production itself and towards the sphere of distribution on professionally oriented digital platforms. I argue that the advent of the 'computational photographer' indicates that automation processes and practices of technological embodiment influence the habitus of professional photographers.
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Sustainability, 2023
Since prehistoric times, graffiti has been a way for humans to express themselves and interact wi... more Since prehistoric times, graffiti has been a way for humans to express themselves and interact with the landscape in a visual way. Graffiti is a visual record of the relationship between society, culture, and the environment over time, representing an additional layer of sociocultural value to the underground built heritage (UBH). Thanks to the application of digital technologies and a specific workflow, this paper will suggest how graffiti can be regarded as an additional and relevant element of creating connections and strengthening the site’s values, bridging the past and present communities. Through the critical discussion of two case studies—the monastery of Ayia Napa (Cyprus) and the Saint Helena chapel in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—the authors want to achieve two main goals: first, they want to highlight the sociocultural value and raise awareness about the presence and significance of historic graffiti. In the second instance, they wish to illustrate how graffiti can be an additional agent for the sustainable development, valorization, and promotion of the UBH.
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photographies, 2021
Thanks to the smartphone, photography has become pervasive in contemporary digital culture. Yet t... more Thanks to the smartphone, photography has become pervasive in contemporary digital culture. Yet the smartphone’s very ‘smartness’ profoundly alters the relations of control between humans and technologies in image-production practices. Unlike dedicated cameras, smartphones use built-in sensors for small-scale positioning to ‘sense’ user’s bodily orientations and states of motion. Combined with photographic applications, this ‘sentience’ enables devices to direct user actions and to require user compliance in order to create an image. In this paper, we analyze image-production in three smartphone applications to chart a continuum between two techno-cultural poles. At one pole smartphone photography accommodates a range of human-technological interactions, including the development of new forms of play and experimentation. At the opposite pole, it executes algorithmically-choreographed sentient photography in which ultimate decisions are made by context-aware learning software, radica...
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Proceedings of international Electronic Visualisation & the Arts conference, London, 2020
Over the past centuries, the city of Jerusalem has been a centre for social and spiritual experie... more Over the past centuries, the city of Jerusalem has been a centre for social and spiritual experiences of diverse communities separated from their homes and cultures. The crusaders notion of a 'New Jerusalem'; the physical reconstruction of the holy city of Jerusalem in Europe has been reversed and implemented through remote communities who moved to Jerusalem from overseas and reconstructed their home and places of worship. This project aims to express and enhance the dialectical relationship between diverse geographical locations, manifested through lost and reborn communities, the old and the New Jerusalem. Two very different, yet historically linked test cases are explored: The reconstructed Synagogue of the lost community of Conegliano Veneto, Italy, and the Kidane Mehret Ethiopian Church. Both located today in Jerusalem. Through the use of advanced photogrammetry, we attempt to create an emotional experience, transcending time and space and intensifying the complex experience of life in a home away from home. The two structures are recreated as 3D point clouds, enhanced by sounds of prayer and blended with historical imagery. The relationship between technology and meaning can be seen as an extension of the age-old mind-body problem. That is, how the physical and technological process may influence emotion and the subjective experience. The 'Spirit of the Cloud' attempts to bridge this gap by offering a personal encounter, which transcends the objectivity of technology and elevates the subject into a personal spiritual voyage. This is attempted by providing an immersive multi-sensory experience, combining eye, ear and physical interaction. Two integral components contribute towards this: The virtual reality headset and the point cloud audiovisual experience, These aim to create a spiritual voyage, where one may wander at will and experience the atmosphere of a twilight zone, bound neither by space nor time, yet strongly attached to both. The paper outlines the considerations, limitations, and solutions undertaken in the digital recreation of the structures. Likewise, it explores the process of fusing the technical challenge with the desired emotional impact on the user. Jerusalem. Church. Synagogue. Point cloud. Photogrammetry. Virtual reality.
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Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts, Florence, 2019
This paper describes an approach of employing a dual heritage imaging process in an attempt to ov... more This paper describes an approach of employing a dual heritage imaging process in an attempt to overcome the inherent challenges of inscription analysis and surface texture information in several different situations. In the cases presented, we have employed a hybrid approach, cross-referencing traditional archaeological research with close-range 3D Structure from Motion (SFM) imaging and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). As will be demonstrated, it is our opinion that in the circumstances such as these, there is not one dominant technology, but rather, a combination of complementing strengths, which can aid in unlocking the secrets of the engravings and inscriptions.
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This paper describes the rationale, the challenges and the imaging solutions employed in an attem... more This paper describes the rationale, the challenges and the imaging solutions employed in an attempt to uncover a centuries-old riddle. We suggest an answer to the meaning of the thousands of crosses, symbols, and texts, inscribed on the walls and behind the altar of the Chapel of Saint Helena, within the Church of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, ascribed to Crusaders of the 12th and 13th centuries. A variety of photographic and photogrammetric imaging technologies have been utilized, along with traditional archaeological research, in an intensive attempt to document as much empirical data as possible during a short period when renovations to the chapel opened up a small window of opportunity for access. Despite considerable difficulties relating to time and location, three primary goals were set: (1) to capture a 3D representation of the curvature and depth information of the walls covering an overall high-resolution grid of all the stones behind the two central apses; (2) to make a detailed RTI representation of selected stones; and (3) to analyze the chiselling technique of the crosses and decipher the many inscriptions. Three main imaging techniques were employed: 2D panoramic high-resolution Gigapan photography, 3D photogrammetry, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging. The results of the data collected are currently undergoing analysis in an attempt to establish the chronology, typology, and stratigraphy of the incisions. We hope that this will assist in confirming, correcting or rejecting the traditional explanations ascribing the graffiti crosses to the Crusader period. Analysis of the chiselled incisions on the stone reveals regular V-profile grooves. The angles are determined by using a photometric stereo ('shape from shading') image processing technique to determine the surface normal-vectors at each pixel position. Issues relating to the non-ideal 'real-world' conditions of capturing the images will be discussed, including camera movement, ambient light, and accuracy of light position coordinates from the highlights on the billiard ball.
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Conference Presentations by Doron Altaratz
This paper describes the rationale, the challenges and the imaging solutions employed in an attem... more This paper describes the rationale, the challenges and the imaging solutions employed in an attempt to uncover a centuries-old riddle. We suggest an answer to the meaning of the hundreds of crosses inscribed on the walls and behind the altar of the Chapel of Saint Helena, within the Church of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Traditionally, these crosses were ascribed to the Crusaders of the 12th and 13th centuries but our research suggest different chronology.
A variety of photographic and photogrammetric imaging technologies have been utilized, along with traditional archaeological research, in an intensive attempt to document as much empirical data as possible during a short period when renovations to the chapel opened up a small window of opportunity for access.
Despite considerable difficulties relating to time and location, three primary goals were set: (1) to capture a 3D representation of the curvature and depth information of the walls covering an overall high-resolution grid of all the stones behind the two central apses; (2) to make a detailed RTI representation of selected stones; and (3) to analyze the chiselling technique of the crosses and decipher the inscriptions and heraldic symbols found near the inscriptions.
Three main imaging techniques were employed: 2D panoramic high-resolution Gigapan photography, 3D photogrammetry, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging. The results of the data collected are currently undergoing analysis in an attempt to establish the chronology, typology, and stratigraphy of the incisions. We hope that this will assist in confirming, correcting or rejecting the traditional explanations ascribing the graffiti crosses to the Crusader period.
Analysis of the chiselled incisions on the stone reveals regular V-profile grooves. The angles are determined by using a photometric stereo ('shape from shading') image processing technique to determine the surface normal-vectors at each pixel position. Issues relating to the non-ideal 'real-world' conditions of capturing the images will be discussed, including camera movement, ambient light, and accuracy of light position coordinates from the highlights on the billiard ball.
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Papers by Doron Altaratz
transformation habituates contemporary practices of mourning and commemoration, adjusting images to serve the individual needs and interests of the bereaved and the community.
Conference Presentations by Doron Altaratz
A variety of photographic and photogrammetric imaging technologies have been utilized, along with traditional archaeological research, in an intensive attempt to document as much empirical data as possible during a short period when renovations to the chapel opened up a small window of opportunity for access.
Despite considerable difficulties relating to time and location, three primary goals were set: (1) to capture a 3D representation of the curvature and depth information of the walls covering an overall high-resolution grid of all the stones behind the two central apses; (2) to make a detailed RTI representation of selected stones; and (3) to analyze the chiselling technique of the crosses and decipher the inscriptions and heraldic symbols found near the inscriptions.
Three main imaging techniques were employed: 2D panoramic high-resolution Gigapan photography, 3D photogrammetry, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging. The results of the data collected are currently undergoing analysis in an attempt to establish the chronology, typology, and stratigraphy of the incisions. We hope that this will assist in confirming, correcting or rejecting the traditional explanations ascribing the graffiti crosses to the Crusader period.
Analysis of the chiselled incisions on the stone reveals regular V-profile grooves. The angles are determined by using a photometric stereo ('shape from shading') image processing technique to determine the surface normal-vectors at each pixel position. Issues relating to the non-ideal 'real-world' conditions of capturing the images will be discussed, including camera movement, ambient light, and accuracy of light position coordinates from the highlights on the billiard ball.
transformation habituates contemporary practices of mourning and commemoration, adjusting images to serve the individual needs and interests of the bereaved and the community.
A variety of photographic and photogrammetric imaging technologies have been utilized, along with traditional archaeological research, in an intensive attempt to document as much empirical data as possible during a short period when renovations to the chapel opened up a small window of opportunity for access.
Despite considerable difficulties relating to time and location, three primary goals were set: (1) to capture a 3D representation of the curvature and depth information of the walls covering an overall high-resolution grid of all the stones behind the two central apses; (2) to make a detailed RTI representation of selected stones; and (3) to analyze the chiselling technique of the crosses and decipher the inscriptions and heraldic symbols found near the inscriptions.
Three main imaging techniques were employed: 2D panoramic high-resolution Gigapan photography, 3D photogrammetry, and Reflectance Transformation Imaging. The results of the data collected are currently undergoing analysis in an attempt to establish the chronology, typology, and stratigraphy of the incisions. We hope that this will assist in confirming, correcting or rejecting the traditional explanations ascribing the graffiti crosses to the Crusader period.
Analysis of the chiselled incisions on the stone reveals regular V-profile grooves. The angles are determined by using a photometric stereo ('shape from shading') image processing technique to determine the surface normal-vectors at each pixel position. Issues relating to the non-ideal 'real-world' conditions of capturing the images will be discussed, including camera movement, ambient light, and accuracy of light position coordinates from the highlights on the billiard ball.