ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
Location: Serramazzoni, Italy | Type: Research on Photogrammetry for Building in Existing Contexts | Year: 2018
Bob Dylan’s song ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER, released in 1967, became famous for provoking speculations on reshuffling timelines and inverting its own narrative.
This research project positions itself at the interface between new media and architectural revitalization in order to challenge the semantic tropes that are produced when dealing with historic or digital artifacts in a monolithic way.
The question we are asking is:
What do we do with all the data that comes out of a site scan?​
How can it produce new modes of drawings?​
Here, the computer’s naiveté in understanding the existing historical composition of the site is exploited to provoke unexpected outcomes.
The established, singular profile of the tower is dislodged by an image classification algorithm, whose aim is to identify pixels ‘most likely to be’ part of the characteristic stone construction of the site in order to assemble them together in a series of figure outlines.
Project supported by: Syracuse University Research Grant
Shown at: A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles for their 2018 show, 3 -Ways & Kent State University
Project Lead: Daniele Profeta / Maya Alam
with the help of: Aditya Mehta, Zexi Tang, Erick Sanchez and Akhil Arun