a singular horizon

2 digital prints. 80 x 120 cm.

‘A singular horizon’ explores the interface of digitally mediated expressions of structurally mediated environments. The prints depict a garden plot located in a concrete-covered courtyard. The garden has been reconstructed using photogrammetry, using the concrete edge as the primary environmental/spatial reference.

From a distance, the prints read as complete and cohesive, however, closer inspection reveals a distorted and broken landscape. This structural/aesthetic quality is a result of the photogrammetric software attempting to make a whole and complete object from incomplete and complex reference data that is defined by the hard edge of the concrete. The reference photographs used to produce the digital reconstruction were taken at sunset, fixing native shadows onto the 3D object’s surface, which stands emblematic of the complex relationship between the artificial and the natural, as represented by the concrete courtyard and the reconstructed garden plot.

The interplay raises questions about the ways in which human-made environments mediate and alter our perception of vegetation and our conceptions of ‘nature’, whatever that may encompass. The photogrammetric process, which attempts to create a seamless digital representation from incomplete data, mirrors the human endeavor to impose order and structure on environmental systems. The resulting distortions and fractures in the digital reconstruction highlight the inherent tension between the organic irregularities of nature and the rigid geometries of man-made structures. The fixed shadows, cast at sunset and captured in the digital object, further emphasises the temporal aspect of this relationship, suggesting that our understandings of nature are continually mediated by the constructed environments in which we inhabit.

The prints are not photographs, but renders of the digital reconstruction: simulacra of a copy without an original.