Authors:

 Moore, Nerida.

Title:

 Presenting the Absent: Visualiastion, Post Photography and the Real

Keywords:

 Visualisation, age enhancement, post photography, graphic method.
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Abstract:

 "I am looking at an image of a child, a child called Jacob. The photograph appears to be a typical school photograph, head and shoulders against a neutral background. He smiles at the camera. The text which accompanies the image tells me the child has been missing since October 1989. He has been criminally abducted."

This paper will introduce F.A.C.E age, a software program developed Vision Control International to automatically age enhance the facial images of children who have been missing over a period of time. The resulting image is a digitally produced visualisation of the child's appearance at the present time. The program is based on measurements of skull growth resulting anatomical effects on the face, unlike "artistic" impressions currently produced by forensic artists.

Using these visualisations of missing children as a starting point, and by referring back to the history of the "graphic method" in science, this paper addresses some of the ontological and epistemological shifts occurring in image culture in what has been termed a post photographic age, a time when digital imaging technologies have again raised questions about the veracity of the image.

"The text with the photograph of Jacob says he was born in February, 1978. He was 11 years old when he went missing. It is now 1998, 9 years later. Jacob would be 19 years old now. There is another image of Jacob. He looks much older. He is in the same pose as the school photograph, but his face has matured. This image displays all the traits of photographic realism but I know it cannot be a photograph as Jacob is missing. Do I dismiss the image as not real?"

How do visualisations such as these challenge popular readings of photo realism as a means of representation? Can we talk about the indexicality of the digital image and how does the notion of the iconic fit with such arguments? What is the effect of such fluid, evolving images on spatial/temporal bonds with the real historical world?

This paper will ultimately argue that visualisations such as those created by F.A.C.E age, create an exciting new space for the consumption and production of images, a space between the poles of fact and fiction where we the viewer may better understand and experience the layers of the world around us.


The paper will also be accompanied by a demonstration of the F.A.C.E age software.
Moore, Nerida. nmoore@pip.engl.mq.edu.au Macquarie University, Australia Nerida Moore is an Associate Lecturer in the Media & Communications Dept. at Macquarie University, Australia where she is currently on a Government scholarship as a Ph.d candidate. She has a B.A., (UNSW) in Film studies and a B.A.,( M.U.) (hons) in Media and Communications. Her short documentary Fragments of Grandmother was met with great success in film festivals and screened on Australian Television earlier this year. Crossing both theoretical and artistic practice, Nerida's Ph.d research includes a thesis component titled Visualisation and the documentary Image; The Ontological Status of the Documentary Image in a Post Photographic Age as well and an hour long documentary script which attempts to incorporate visualisations into documentary story telling technique.