Imaging Services Blog

MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group has an interesting list of projects (#vagueUnderstanding), including ones that allow cameras to see through surfaces and around corners. Ugh.

They claim a goal of “Making the invisible visible–inside our bodies, around us, and beyond–for health, work, and connection”, but I smell military/espionage/law-enforcement applications.

[I wonder when the first museum of privacy will open, and where.]

Reading closed books: https://t.co/7rBdYwShSr

Seeing around corners: https://youtu.be/JWDocXPy-iQ

Stanford professor, Marc Levoy’s, course description:

“An introduction to the scientific, artistic, and computing aspects of digital photography. Topics include lenses and optics, light and sensors, optical effects in nature, perspective and depth of field, sampling and noise, the camera as a computing platform, image processing and editing, and computational photography. We will also survey the history of photography, look at the work of famous photographers, and talk about composing strong photographs.”

One of the most exciting and innovative groups in preservation and imaging today, Factum Arte (http://www.factum-arte.com/en/inicio), has worked with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on an upcoming exhibit of treasured manuscripts. As part of the project, it was necessary to design and build a new book scanner for these extremely fragile works.
See the press release here:
http://www.factum-arte.com/lib/kcfinder/upload/files/press_releases/PR-Illumination-Cini-08.07.pdf
and about the book scanner here:
http://www.factum-arte.com/pag/699/The-Miniature-Book-Scanner

“For the first time, you can peek inside the craft that enabled “one giant leap for mankind”

FYI: The model is build from “3D data from 6 different sensors into one 3D model. 400GB+ of data compressed into a model that will load online.”

Edgar Degas (French, 1834 – 1917 ), Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, 1878-1881, pigmented beeswax, clay, metal armature, rope, paintbrushes, human hair, silk and linen ribbon, cotton faille bodice, cotton and silk tutu, linen slippers, on wooden base, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon 1999.80.28

Photographing “Little Dancer”

Lee Ewing, National Gallery of Art photographer, explores the challenges of photographing Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The only sculpture that Degas exhibited during his lifetime,Little Dancer is one of the Gallery’s most important works. So fragile that it is rarely moved, this masterpiece is known for its unique mixed media: pigmented beeswax, a cotton bodice and tutu, linen slippers, and human hair. This video provides an inside look at the process of bringing this most human of artworks to life through photography.

Released: June 07, 2016

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/video/photographing-little-dancer.html

Thank you, Todd!

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