Classical stereoscopy / workshop
Published
In the last few years, popular culture has been overflooded by 3D movies, 3D games and 3D images, and a mass of more or less new techniques have been introduced. The base of all these techniques is a nearly 200-year-old discovery. The English scientist and inventor Charles Wheatstone was in 1838 the first to describe Stereopsis (stereo vision), which enabled him to develop the first stereoscope. At the end of the 1800s the production and showing of stereo images was an essential part of visual culture, and since then, the stereo image has returned several times, with 3D film’s golden age in the 1950s as a highlight. The principles behind the Victorian stereoscope was the same as in the current 3D images and films – to make sure that the right and left eye sees two different pictures of the same object, from a slightly different angle. The ways to achieve this have been different, from Wheatstone intricate mirror stereoscope, to the current use of polarized light.
In the workshop we will experiment with different stereo techniques, focusing on the original technology from the mid 1800’s. During the course, you will be making your first stereo images, and build your own classic stereoscope. There will also be given an introduction to the software Sketch Up and participants must bring their own laptops. Sketch Up is a 3D modeling program and can be downloaded for free at http://sketchup.google.com /
_Ketil Nergaard is a visual artist and writer, and is currently working on an exhibition series based on stereoscopy. As a basis for the second exhibition in the series he works with Norwegian modernism, where he put together the original prints by artists as Gunnar S. Gundersen and Odd Tandberg, with manipulated copies of the same images, to create a three dimensional look.
(The image shows an excerpt of Alas, Marcel Duchamp’s Studio; Ketil Nergaard 2010)_
*For participation please mail: bek@bek.no
The workshop is free – limited places available
10-11-12 november 2011, from 10am until 16am*