sdes9320t12023 - Tumblr blog

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I was thinking

I've posted about shipwrecks in South Georgia and Greece and Mauritania, but I neglected to even mention Sydney's picturesque wreck. Double shame on me.

Homebush Bay used to be used for ship-breaking. When they stopped, they simply left a number of wrecks in the water near what is now Sydney Olympic Park. Several can still be seen, but by far the most notable is the wreck of the SS Ayrfield, now sometimes referred to as the 'Floating Forest'. This was all I knew about Sydney before I came down here (other than the Opera House, of course), and going to see it was the one thing on my to-do list the first time I visited. I've been meaning to go back, actually, because I take better pictures now. (And also I have better lenses, but of course that couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.)

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New thought: An amalgam

Given the restrictions of my chosen brief (Brief 2--The Impossible. Fantastical structures), I have made a tentative decision to combine my three ideas into a single concept with elements of each. I am currently thinking I will create a digital model of a Corvin-Castle-derivation based on my purse frame sketch and thoughts, situate it on a natural arch over a river, and make it a ruin. Instead of design elements referenced directly from my photos of Corvin Castle, I was thinking I would 'Wietenberg-ize' it--I would derive all the decorative elements from my photos of Wietenberg ceramic artifacts instead. This change should make the model easier to create and render, as Wietenberg motifs tend to be simpler and more geometric than the decorations on the real Corvin Castle.

To accomplish this, I am anticipating that I will need to do considerable sculpting using a lattice, as much of the detail would be far too time-consuming to render otherwise. I will be able to import images of natural arches, of the Renaissance purse frames, and of Corvin as reference points for the model, and I have a number of images of Wietenberg sherds that I can import either as textures or to assist with the sculpting (I suspect I will need to do both, to some extent).

For the animatic, given the short duration I feel a simple fly-over will be sufficient. I will start with a long-shot of the entire model, zoom in to focus on the castle and pivot over and pan around it, and then zoom in further to show the detail and repeat the pan. This should give an accurate sense of the model I have constructed and fill the time stipulated for the animatic.

This project is likely ambitious, but successful completion should ensure that I have the competencies necessary to complete my personal projects (Thoughts 1 and 2) and therefore I feel it is a good goal.

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The ultimate urban exploring

Russia must be the most incredible place for urban exploring. I've never been (in fact, I've only been urban exploring three times), but some of these places...not impossible, obviously, but nevertheless somehow both improbable and entirely unexpected. The photos I would take...I'd love to see someone make an urban exploration program for VR, so you can do it without getting arrested or shot or poisoned or bankrupting yourself with plane tickets.

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Astonishing geology

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Favorites

Because this would definitely not be complete if I failed to share my favorite buildings in the world.

I would love to digitize this so much. Best building in the world. It's so magnificently haphazard. I swear everything you need to know about Romania you can infer from this building.

And of course this, because how could you not be over the moon about this? I see influences from this (and Bran, of course) everywhere.

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Not your usual art

This guy does incredible work.

It reminds me of the Alhambra, of course--

--but also of this (which I'd kill someone for the opportunity to photograph, but only someone I already didn't like, like maybe Donald Trump).

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I almost forgot

Shame on me.

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And more ruins (I love ruins)

The first time I saw a photo of this I thought it was a video game.

This is the Titanic's little-known sister ship. At least three people were on her when she sank, on the Titanic during her sinking, and on the oldest sister, Olympic, during her one major accident (a collision with the HMS Hawke). One of these, John Priest, not only survived a third sinking as well, but he was a member of the 'black gang', the stokers and such who worked with the boilers, and since they worked in the bowels of the ship they were less likely than most to survive a sinking. Several died when the Olympic was gored below the water line by the Hawke. Priest, however, died on dry land in the '50s. What a guy. Move aside, Shakleton.

And this. I think they drained the lake to maintain the dam in 2021. I've known about it since 2014, and I'm so sorry I missed it. Someday.

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Some real buildings are fantastic

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Thoughts on the assessment

My first idea is a reconstruction of an artifact from the Classical Bronze Age Wietenberg culture. The artifact is thought to be a votive chariot (we'll call this Chariot A). I first encountered it in 2016 at the offices of the Museum of Dacian and Roman Civilization in Deva, and I've never wanted to pocket an artifact so badly. I told my dig director about it when I returned to site and asked him if he thought they'd let me scan it. I'd never scanned anything, mind, but I knew one could. He said they'd never let me, so of course after that I had to. I arranged to spend a couple weeks at the museum doing thesis work in 2019, and of course that work was to 3D scan and photogrammetrically model three objects. Naturally, the votive chariot was one I had in mind. I was allowed to model it without question, and at the same time I was shown a second one (Chariot B). They were very similar, but Chariot A was obviously better made. Unfortunately, they were both fragments. I was told that they had come from two different sites about 10 kilometers apart, and that while other Wietenberg votive chariots had been found--some were even intact--these were the only two in this shape that had ever been found. I modeled both, of course (as well as 18 other items, as the more the museum staff watched me the more artifacts they produced for modeling). I intended to digitally reconstruct Chariot A, but unfortunately that one was even more fragmented than Chariot B and I couldn't determine anything from what was left of it to postulate about what it might have looked like intact. There was much more left of Chariot B, and when I looked at the bottom of this one I was able to identify the midpoint. I had seen images of the intact chariots, and they were symmetrical and all of a similar size, so once I had identified the midpoint a reconstruction was easy. I imported the model into Blender, copied and mirrored it, and joined the copy to the original model. The result was fairly crude, but I did present my digital reconstruction of Chariot B as part of my thesis. I did nothing with the model of Chariot A, but now that I had a better idea of what I was doing I intended to go back for a second look. I finally revisited my model of Chariot A in late 2022, and after about 10 minutes I was able to identify the midpoint--as well as some smaller details I had previously missed. I did a mental reconstruction immediately, and proceeded to work on a two-dimensional one in GIMP. As there was much less of Chariot A, though, I knew I would also need some 3D modeling skills to do a full reconstruction. I would very much like to finally do a digital reconstruction of Chariot A.

My second idea is a castle purse frame, in the style of those from the Renaissance that the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the V & A have in their collections. I've been building chain mail purses onto vintage or antique frames since 2016, and when I first saw these I naturally coveted them. Given their age and rarity, however, I am unlikely ever to get my hands on one. Furthermore, if I did I would doubtlessly be unable to sell the result--a problem I have had with all the purses I have made thus far--and so it would behoove me to make my own instead. Naturally my first thought was to create a series of castle purse frames based off Romanian castles (Corvin, Fagaras, Poenari, Neamts, Cetatea de Colt, and of course Bran). I went so far as to do a rough sketch of a frame in this style based on the architecture of Corvin. I do not remotely have the skill to fabricate one, as the artisans in the Renaissance did, but it would be theoretically possible for me to create one in a 3D modeling program and have it printed in resin for casting. Unfortunately, as I currently have no 3D modeling skills this idea has been put on the back burner. It would be very nice to realize it at some point.

The second idea led me to a third, which is the one most consistent with the assessment brief. Those castle purse frames (links in a previous post) look an awful lot like they're suspended on an arch. In Garth Nix's Lirael he describes the town of High Bridge, which looks much like London Bridge must have looked during the period when those purse frames were made. However, the town of High Bridge is constructed, not on a man-made bridge, but on a massive natural rock arch between two cliffs over a river gorge. Given my interest in abandoned places and improbable architecture, an abandoned High Bridge (or a town like it) seems a natural direction for the final assessment. In thinking about this I was reminded of Meteora, the Swallow's Nest, and Tatev Monastery in Armenia (I posted previously on all of these). I was also reminded, of course, of Arches National Park in the United States--and other national parks in the American Southwest. None of this is truly fantastic, but the idea does take improbable but real architecture and extends it one step farther into something that theoretically could, but does not actually exist. (At least, as far as I am aware.)

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Right out of Miyazaki

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On a completely unrelated note

...well. I would cheerfully do something extremely inadvisable to get my hands on one of these. And someone found one mudlarking on the Thames. Why does that never happen to me? (Probably because I've never been to the UK, I suspect.)

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Actually real.

I'll take 'Things that should be fantasy' for 1000 points.

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Amazing digitization

There's this guy who's doing a lot of what I'd like to be able to do with digitizing artifacts. I'd love to see things like this be more mainstream.

I wonder if he's done Windover? He is kinda right there.

Of course, there's also this. *drools*

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Real places

I swear.

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Hardly impossible, but way cool

https://www.loveexploring.com/gallerylist/122367/abandoned-hotels

This list is a bit outdated; I know the Hotel de Salto in Colombia has since been renovated and is currently functioning as an art gallery. Grossinger's Catskills Resort has been demolished.

Demolished now, too. I'm so sorry I was never able to go.

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First Impressions: Assessment 1

Of the two themes, 'Fantastical Architecture' is preferred.

Thoughts:

-Music video of Rammstein's 'Amerika' filmed in an abandoned asylum with a women who looks like a homeless domestic abuse victim wearing a mask, heels, and fancy jewelry w/fancy grunge hairstyle (probably too complicated)

-Music video set to Nightwish's 'Last Ride of the Day' with a black carousel flying over a landscape, four animals on it, a goat melting like the final sculpture in 'Butter' as one, and maybe a dragon?

-Possibly a re-imagining of Densus with reconstructed frescoes and interior walls like a miniature cave (like those awesome marble architecture sculptures)

-Re-creation of an archaeological site? Racos or Rapolt are obvious

-Finally get on that Corvin Castle purse frame I've been ideating--would that count?

-Of course an artifact reconstruction would be ideal