digital portraits, 2018-20

I have made several sculptural works based on 3D object files that were created using photogrammetry (e.g. me standing on a small stage surrounded by cameras that fire simultaneously, creating many photographs that are stitched together into what amounts to a three dimensional photograph). Because those sculptures are based on photogrammetry they retain an element of the indexical (reference to a lived moment in time) as well as an obvious iconic value (likeness to me). At the same time, in order for the sculpture to be cut out of marble, this information, which is digitized as soon as it is saved in the cameras, must be reprogrammed by additional software that recognizes the information as a model to be carved. This process, while completely data driven, does retain at least a ghost of the index. The data is reversed engineered back into a material likeness we can easily recognize. The same object file used to create the sculpture, can be placed inside Maya and photographed as if it were a model, generating a set of 2D self-portraits, whose iconic value (resemblance) remains in tact, while its function as an index (what exactly it is referring to: me in the photogrammetry rig, the physical sculpture, the data file), becomes less certain. As such, these photographic portraits straddle the line between digital photography (and an indexical component that some deny to the digital) and post-photography or simulation technology, living in an ambiguous interstitial space.