Physical Archive As Camera
The Physical Archive has a few dozen holes in the walls.
They function as crude pinhole cameras.
Each projecting a slightly different view of the parking lot onto the framing studs.
The size of the pinhole determines the resolving ability of each camera. Smaller pinholes make sharper images.
Where there are holes in front of old windows, the filthy glass forms a sort of projection screen.
From the right angle, it is gorgeous.
But I am more interested in computation than the poetics of building-scale photography. So I took a shot of the ugly sheetrock that forms the side of my living quarters.
Then, I covered the only “pinhole” in the wall across from it, and took a second picture.
Now, let’s look at the difference between those two images. Picture 1 minus Picture 2 equals:
The differences are slight. Let’s move the histogram to the right.
Now, let’s flip the image:
Talk about large-format. The red “tex” container is clearly visible in the lot.