Typology
Title
Author
Text

IMAGING

Estelle Blaschke

One of the most important functions of photography is the visualization of objects and processes that cannot be perceived by the human eye: Chronophotographic experiments, for example, conducted by Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey in the second half of the twentieth century, recorded the sequence of a movement; light-sensitive emulsions made it possible to trace radioactivity; X-ray photography screened internal body parts; and microscopic photography opened up new perspectives on nature and new ways of perceiving the world. As an imaging and recording instrument, photography played an essential role in the development of science, especially the natural sciences, and contributed to the concept of objectivity.

One of the most important functions of photography is the visualization of objects and processes that cannot be perceived by the human eye: Chronophotographic experiments, for example, conducted by Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey in the second half of the twentieth century, recorded the sequence of a movement; light-sensitive emulsions made it possible to trace radioactivity; X-ray photography screened internal body parts; and microscopic photography opened up new perspectives on nature and new ways of perceiving the world. As an imaging and recording instrument, photography played an essential role in the development of science, especially the natural sciences, and contributed to the concept of objectivity.

Photography was also used to visualize, document, and reflect work processes of all kinds, making them repeatable and measurable. This was crucial for the optimization of scientific, engineering, and industrial processes as well as in the development of educational material. In this context, photographs were always dependent on empirical data and written annotations to be considered reliable information or visual evidence. Photographs were one element in a larger scheme of knowledge production in which images became operational. 

Beyond the epistemic value of a single image, photography, especially digital photography, is the medium of choice when lots of images, or visual big data, are needed to extract information and patterns—or to derive a “bigger picture,” as is the case with aerial photography and cartography or the recording and analysis of particle events in physics. Another, related use of photography’s imaging capabilities is the increasingly sophisticated and widespread practice of object-modeling and rendering, which aims to replicate cultural artifacts and the natural world with ultimate fidelity. These practices tie into the long-held dream of substituting physical objects with their visual representation and the idea of manipulating, comparing, and controlling these objects at the scale and format of a photographic print or computer screen. Architecture and design, the gaming industry, and e-commerce, have all operationalized photorealistic renderings in recent decades. Based on the whole gamut of high-tech scanning and imaging techniques and extensive, mostly commercial, 3D asset libraries, computer-aided renderings have become blueprints for the design and manufacture of physical objects. They are the building blocks of future physical and digital environments whose designers promote the transformation of the human experience. 

Eine der wichtigsten Funktionen der Fotografie ist die Visualisierung von Objekten und Abläufen, die vom menschlichen Auge nicht wahrgenommen werden können. Die von Eadweard Muybridge und Étienne-Jules Marey in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts durchgeführten chronofotografischen Experimente registrierten beispielsweise die genauen Abläufe einer Bewegung, lichtempfindliche Emulsionen ermöglichten den Nachweis von Radioaktivität. Die Röntgenfotografie durchleuchtete das Körperinnere, und die mikroskopische Fotografie eröffnete neue Perspektiven auf die Natur und ermöglichte eine andere Wahrnehmungsweise der Welt. Als bildgebendes und aufzeichnendes Instrument spielte die Fotografie eine wesentliche Rolle bei der Entwicklung der Wissenschaft, vor allem der Naturwissenschaften, und trug zum Konzept der Objektivität bei.

Mit Hilfe der Fotografie wurden Arbeitsprozesse aller Art visualisiert, dokumentiert und reflektiert und damit wiederholbar und messbar gemacht. Dies war entscheidend für die Optimierung wissenschaftlicher, technischer oder industrieller Prozesse einschließlich der Entwicklung von Lehrmitteln. In solchen Gebrauchszusammenhängen waren Fotografien stets von empirischen Daten und schriftlichen Anmerkungen abhängig, um überhaupt als zuverlässige Informationen oder visuelle Beweise zu gelten. Fotografien waren nur ein, wenn auch wichtiges, Element in einem größeren Schema der Wissensproduktion, in dem Bilder operative Funktionen übernahmen.

Über den Erkenntniswert eines einzelnen Bildes hinaus ist die Fotografie, insbesondere die Digitalfotografie, das Medium der Wahl, wenn es darum geht viele Bilder oder visuelle Big Data zu generieren, die dazu dienen visuelle Informationen und Muster zu extrahieren und daraus ein „größeres Bild” abzuleiten. Dies ist beispielweise in der Luftbild- und Satellitenfotografie der Fall sowie in der Kartografie oder aber bei der Aufzeichnung und Analyse von Teilchenereignissen in der Physik. Eine weitere, damit zusammenhängende Nutzung der Bildgebungsfähigkeit der Fotografie sind die zunehmend ausgefeilten und weit verbreiteten Praktiken der Objektmodellierung und des Renderings, die darauf abzielen, kulturelle und natürliche Artefakte möglichst originalgetreu nachzubilden. Diese Praktiken knüpfen an dem lange gehegten Traum an, physische Objekte durch ihre visuelle Darstellung zu ersetzen. Fotografien sollten dazu dienen, diese Objekte im Maßstab und Format eines fotografischen Abzugs oder eines Computerbildschirms bearbeiten, vergleichen und kon­trollieren zu können. In der Architektur und dem Produktdesign, der Gaming-Industrie und dem Online-Handel sind fotorealistische Renderings eine weitverbreitete Praxis. Basierend auf der gesamten Bandbreite von Scan- und Bildgebungsverfahren und umfangreichen, meist kommerziellen 3D Objektbibliotheken sind computergestützte Renderings zu den Blaupausen für die Gestaltung und die Herstellung physischer Objekte geworden. Sie sind die Bausteine zukünftiger digitaler Umgebungen, deren Gestalter:innen die Transformation der menschlichen Erfahrung vorantreiben.

Una delle più importanti funzioni della fotografia è la visualizzazione di oggetti e processi che non possono essere percepiti dall’occhio umano. Per esempio, gli esperimenti cronofotografici realizzati da Eadweard Muybridge e Étienne-Jules Marey nella seconda parte del XIX secolo hanno consentito di registrare le fasi successive di un movimento, le emulsioni fotosensibili hanno potuto rilevare tracce di radioattività, la radiografia ha permesso di scansionare le parti interne del corpo umano e la fotografia al microscopio ha aperto nuove prospettive allo studio della natura e cambiato il nostro modo di osservare il mondo. In quanto strumento di visualizzazione (imaging) e registrazione, la fotografia ha avuto un ruolo essenziale per lo sviluppo scientifico, particolarmente nell’ambito delle scienze naturali, e ha contribuito alla definizione del concetto stesso di obiettività. 

La fotografia è stata utilizzata per visualizzare, documentare e investigare i processi di lavoro, rendendoli ripetibili e misurabili. Questo è stato cruciale per l’ottimizzazione di processi scientifici, ingegneristici e industriali e per il conseguente sviluppo di una serie di strumenti di formazione.

In questo contesto, le fotografie sono sempre dipese da dati empirici e informazioni scritte per potere essere considerate affidabili come prove visive. Le fotografie costituivano un singolo elemento all’interno di un più largo modello di produzione di sapere, dove le immagini acquisivano una funzione operativa. Al di là del valore epistemico di una singola immagine, la fotografia, in particolare quella digitale, è lo strumento privilegiato quando sono necessarie grandi quantità di immagini, o big data visivi, per ricavare informazioni e pattern visuali, o per ottenere un’“immagine più grande”, come accade con la fotografia aerea, la cartografia e la registrazione/ analisi degli eventi che coinvolgono le particelle in fisica. Un altro utilizzo delle capacità di visualizzazione della fotografia riguarda le sempre più diffuse e sofisticate pratiche di rendering e modellazione degli oggetti, sviluppate per replicare elementi naturali o artificiali con straordinaria fedeltà. Queste pratiche si riallacciano al sogno lungamente coltivato di sostituire gli oggetti fisici con la loro rappresentazione visiva e all’idea di poterli manipolare, confrontare e controllare come si fa con una stampa fotografica o davanti allo schermo di un computer. Negli ultimi decenni l’architettura, il design, l’industria dei videogiochi e l’e-commerce sono stati dominati dall’utilizzo di rappresentazioni digitali fotorealistiche. Basati su una vasta gamma di avanzate tecniche di scansione e visualizzazione e su estese librerie di modelli 3D (principalmente commerciali), i rendering digitali sono diventati la base di partenza per la progettazione e la produzione degli oggetti reali. Questi costituiscono i mattoni con cui vengono costruiti gli ambienti virtuali del futuro, i cui designer sostengono la trasformazione dell’esperienza umana. 

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Quote

In thirty years, from a few crude experiments in the laboratory of a private chemist and artist, photography has extended its various applications and uses throughout the length and breadth of every quarter of our globe.

Albert S. Southworth, 1870

Innerhalb von dreißig Jahren hat die Fotografie, ausgehend von einigen rudimentären Experimenten im Labor eines privaten Chemikers und Künstlers, ihre verschiedenen Anwendungen und Verwendungszwecke auf alle Teile der Erde ausgedehnt.

Source: Albert S. Southwork, An Address to the National Photographic Association, 1870. Accessible through the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media / https://chnm.gmu.edu/aq/photos/texts/8pp315.htm [last accessed: 15.08.2022]

Quote

Photography proliferated, becoming reproducible and accessible in the modern sense, during the late nineteenth-century period of transition from competitive capitalism to the financially and industrially consolidated monopoly form of capitalist organization. By the turn of the century, then, photography stood ready to play a central role in the development of a culture centered on the mass marketing of mass-produced commodities. 

Allan Sekula, 1981

Verbreitet hat sich die Fotografie während des späten 19. Jahrhunderts, in der Periode des Übergangs vom Konkurrenzkapitalismus zur finanziell und industriell konsolidierten monopolistischen Organisationsform des Kapitals, als sie im modernen Sinn reproduzierbar und zugänglich wurde. Zur Jahrhunertwende stand also die Fotografie bereit, eine zentrale Rolle in der Entwicklung einer Kultur einzunehmen, in deren Zentrum die massenhafte Vermarktung massenhaft produzierter Waren stand.

Source: Allan Sekula, “The Traffic in Photographs,” Art Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, 15–25, p. 21. 

Typology
Title
Author
Artwork

DIF_000846_136

Armin Linke
CERN, Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE), model of the event sensor for public presentations, Geneva, Switzerland, 2021
In experiments such as ALICE, different types of sensors, here in form of a tilted rectangle, are positioned around the colliding event to detect and “photograph” the traces and sequences of the particle.  
Artwork

DIF_000645_87

Armin Linke
CERN, Large Hadron Collider (LHC), control room, Geneva, Switzerland, 2019
Archival

REF_000522_1

Gustav Ludwig’s reconstruction of Carpaccio’s Saint Ursula Cycle, wooden model with photomontage, ca. 1904,  Gustav Ludwig collection, Photothek of the Kunsthistorisches Institut – Max-Planck-Institute, Florence, Italy
The photomontage, functioning like a pre-digital rendering, combines photography´s richness of detail with the pictorial composition capabilities offered by drawing and painting.
Archival

REF_000847_112

Invitation card, entitled “Two neutrino reactions on the same photograph at CERN, 28 January 1971”, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
Archival

REF_000910_2

Ralph P. Shutt, Nick Samios, and Robert Palmer presenting photographic evidence of the omega minus particle discovery, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton (NY), USA, 1992 . Brookhaven Bulletin, vol 47, no. 2 (1993)
Archival

REF_000927_4

A scanning and measuring table (IEP) for bubble chamber photographs,  CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 08.03.1963
The Milady scan-table is used for taking rough measurements of bubble chamber photographs in preparation for automatic analysis.
Archival

REF_000847_98

Events of particle tracks in experiment LEBC, LExan Bubble Chamber, installed in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 09.12.1981
The photographic recordings form the very basis for the visualization and creation of evidence of the movement of particles.
Archival

REF_000847_102

Events of particle tracks in experiment LEBC, LExan Bubble Chamber, installed in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 09.12.1981
Many particles from the beam enter from the bottom (vertically, upwards). The middle of the picture shows the interaction when a jet of high- and low-energy charged particles is produced.
Archival

REF_000847_106

Events of particle tracks in experiment LEBC, LExan Bubble Chamber, installed in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 09.12.1981
Events in a particle tracks experiment installed in the North Area of the SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) accelerator.
Archival

REF_000847_109

Events of particle tracks in experiment LEBC, LExan Bubble Chamber, installed in the North Area of the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 09.12.1981
All pictures represent a partial view of the LEBC bubble chamber and have a different orientation with respect to the incoming beam direction. The beam enters from the upper left and is directed to the lower right corner. There is an interaction near the left-hand edge of the picture where a jet of high-energy charged particles is produced.
Video

Interview

Maria Fidecaro

Maria Fidecaro, experimental physicist specialized in the phenomenological aspect of particle physics, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 20.10.2021, 10 min

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Peter Jenni

Peter Jenni, physicist and former spokesperson for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider  (LHC), CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 21.10.2021, 9 min

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Estela Suarez

Jülich Supercomputing Center, DEEP Projects, Estela Suarez, Project Coordinator, Jülich, 04.11.2021, 13 min

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Rolf Heuer

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, particle-detector systematist and physics professor, who succeeded Robert Aymar as Director-General of CERN, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), Geneva, Switzerland, 20.10.2021, 9 min

Video

Silicon Graphics

Excerpt of promotional video for Silicon Graphics computer systems, ca. 1987
Published on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy-kE0dq1cE [accessed: 11-10-2021]
Computer-assisted design with Silicon Graphics, an early visualisation and simulation software that promotes the synchonisation of visual modelling and dynamic data processing.