Spatial Interrogations Or the Color of the Sky (38c3)

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Modern 3D capture through Gaussian Splatting and human memory reveal parallel landscapes – where precise centers fade into probabilistic smears at the edges, and gaps hold as much meaning as detail. This is about the preservation of an ephemeral present in digital amber, an interrogation of how we reconstruct both digital and remembered spaces. In July 2023, a new method of reconstructing reality was published in a paper called "3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering." Three months later, the first apps provided this technology in their pseudo social-networks. Gaussian Splatting produces a navigable, though static, 3D reconstruction of events from video footage – but also an intriguing aesthetic. Areas of sharp details are surrounded by calculated uncertainty, creating digital spaces that inadvertently mirror how human memory operates. The talk presents a video essay of the same name, exploring this resonance between technology and memory through a crafted blend of found footage, open-source media, and AI-generated elements. By developing custom tools for VR exploration and capture, the work documents these digital spaces from within, creating a choreographed journey through both technical and remembered landscapes. It is both a technical documentation and a poetic interpretation; it’s an interrogation of an emerging technology and a meditation on how we process and reconstruct our experiences, digital and remembered alike. The lecture will focus on the technical background, as well as the artistic practices used to create the video essay. From working with virtual reality and experimenting with AI-generated content, to making decisions and non-decisions – it traces the development of a work in the parallel landscapes of emergent technology and lingering memory, of imminent nostalgia and nascent futures. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/spatial-interrogations-or-the-color-of-the-sky/