Sam Plagerson

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Sam Plagerson's MPhil/PhD Art research project

Spatial Capture: 3D Image Capture Technologies and their Relationship to the Photographic

This proposal stakes the claim that the photographic image is under pressure through developments in current computerised image processing technologies. This pressure comes from photogrammetry, which expands photography into the projective and interactive on the one hand and 3D printing, which expands photography into what was previously known as sculpture.

A blue 3D printed section of the human body wearing jeans from navel to upper thigh, held within a metal structure

'Rig' (2025) Matte blue 3D-Printed PLA, 30 x 30 aluminium profile, connector brackets, aluminium tube, tripod mounts, steel, socket screws, stainless steel screws

Through this project I seek to explore what the status of such three-dimensional computer generated image/object forms might be in relation to existing definitions of the photographic image. By converting photographic sources into fragmented 3D printed versions I will test the boundaries of the photographic conditions of cropping and editing, focusing on this as a threshold between the sculptural and the photographic. This research proposes new understandings of the forms of the photographic and image/object relations, through a mobilisation of photogrammetry and 3D printing. Exploring 3D printing as a materialisation of photography I will investigate how the interplay of 3D scanning, virtual rendering and additive printing affect the ontological and material status of the photographic image.

Supervisors

Primary: Edgar Schmitz
Secondary: Simon Martin

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