Eadweard Muybridge: Motion Studies
Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated early on that a camera ‘sees’ more data than the human eye applying photography as a discipline to science, studying the movements of animals and humans.
The series of photos shows a woman carrying a basket on her head, Muybridge investigates how the body moves when this balancing act is in use.
Original Artwork
I have chosen the top half of the ‘Woman Walking, Holding a Basket on her Head’ series of images as they have a contrast between white and black, compared to other Muybridge photos. There is also a contrast in motion, as the top half of the person remains relatively still, and the bottom half has a broader range of motion, due to leg movement.
Motion
Muybridge’s work studies a range of motion depending on the type of subject, such as a horse or person. However, in an age where animation and motion pictures have been established and explored, what can a designer add to Muybridge’s original studies? In this case, we can use his images and craft them into objects, taking the image out of the screen and into the physical world. The designed object should incorporate themes of motion and can draw from Muybridge’s original methods of documentation.
Black and White Photograph
Black and white photography provide an ideal data set for voxel printing. Regardless if the image data is complex or simple, the use of greyscale simplifies the data, making it easier to fabricate an accurate representation. Voxel prints should look to exploit this simplified data, by adding colour to the original.
Muybridge, the Innovator
Curious to push the limitations and applications of photography Muybridge could use photos outside their typical applications. Voxel printing images can learn from Muybridge’s curiosity; although impossible to prove, any voxel print using his work can benefit by not only reflecting ‘why am I using Muybridge’s work?’ but also ‘how would Muybridge voxel print his images?’.
I have chosen the top half of the ‘Woman Walking, Holding a Basket on her Head’ series of images as they have a contrast between white and black, compared to other Muybridge photos. There is also a contrast in motion, as the top half of the person remains relatively still, and the bottom half has a broader range of motion, due to leg movement.
Motion
Muybridge’s work studies a range of motion depending on the type of subject, such as a horse or person. However, in an age where animation and motion pictures have been established and explored, what can a designer add to Muybridge’s original studies? In this case, we can use his images and craft them into objects, taking the image out of the screen and into the physical world. The designed object should incorporate themes of motion and can draw from Muybridge’s original methods of documentation.
Black and White Photograph
Black and white photography provide an ideal data set for voxel printing. Regardless if the image data is complex or simple, the use of greyscale simplifies the data, making it easier to fabricate an accurate representation. Voxel prints should look to exploit this simplified data, by adding colour to the original.
Muybridge, the Innovator
Curious to push the limitations and applications of photography Muybridge could use photos outside their typical applications. Voxel printing images can learn from Muybridge’s curiosity; although impossible to prove, any voxel print using his work can benefit by not only reflecting ‘why am I using Muybridge’s work?’ but also ‘how would Muybridge voxel print his images?’.
Process: Image Re-Construction
For this Voxel Print, I only used the top half (side profile) images.
- Separate the original image into 12 separate images, all with the backgrounds removed.
- Replace each image’s background with the VeroClear colour value. This ensures the background of the print is transparent allowing the viewer to observe the range of motion.
- Construct data-set by organizing layers. Layers are organized according to the order the photographs were taken. This ensures the proper motion is printed, as mixing the order up will not demonstrate an accurate visualization of the motion- captured through the original image.
Voxel Print
The print visually showcases this motion in a more assessable nature, as viewers can observe the depth of the image, which can visualize the sequence of images. This cannot be achieved on an overlayed image where all image opacity values are equal.
The print visually showcases this motion in a more assessable nature, as viewers can observe the depth of the image, which can visualize the sequence of images. This cannot be achieved on an overlayed image where all image opacity values are equal.
We can observe where each foot lands at the base of the voxel printed series of images. Voxel printing this image data-set allows us to see through a range of data, providing the viewer to observe the range of motion when the woman is walking. The visualization of this data is only possible via crafting an object, making voxel printing a vital tool for data representation.
