FRS 123 - Technology in Art and Cultural Heritage

Fall 2006

Assignment 1

Although linear perspective was developed extensively by renaissance painters, in addition to forming the basis of conventional photography, artists have explored ways of constructing artistic works in ways that do not simply use linear perspective. Among the reasons are:

• Avoiding perceived distortion in extreme wide-angle paintings that will be viewed from a different viewpoint than was used as the center of perspective (example: Raphael's School of Athens)
• Using different vanishing points to produce a disorienting effect (example: the work of Giorgio de Chirico)
• Depicting several sides of the same object in a single image (example: cubist work such as that of Picasso)
• Composite-photograph pop art that explores the possibilities of combining multiple photographs of the same scene (example: the work of David Hockney)

In this assignment, you will take a number of digital photographs of an object or scene, and create a "multi-perspective" photograph using digital photo editing tools:

1. Using a digital camera, take several (at least 5) pictures of a scene or object of your choosing. You may use your own camera, borrow from a friend, or we have a few you can borrow.
2. Transfer the pictures to a computer and load them in a photo editing software package. The most popular is called "Adobe Photoshop", and is available on several computers throughout campus. A free alternative that you can install on your own computer is called "The Gimp".
3. Using the selection and layer compositing tools (and possibly others such as warping), create a single image that combines the photographs you have taken. The artistic style is up to you - you may try to hide (or blend) the seams between images or make them visible, you can create realistic or cubist-inspired effects, etc.
4. Save the composite image.
5. Pick one of the original images to compare to. Write a short (2-page) essay about how you generated your composite image and the differences you were trying to emphasize between the resulting multi-perspective composite and the original linear-perspective view.
6. Submit your composite image, the one perspective image to which you're comparing, and your writeup. Please send these in an email to smr@princeton.edu or, if you know how, create a webpage and send us the URL.