4D Imaging

Title: 4D Imaging: From Image Theory to Imaging Practice
Time: 2023–2026
Budget: 231.000€
Partners: Prof. Dr. Moritz Queisner (Digital Surgery Lab), Prof. Dr. Kathrin Friedrich (Universität Bonn)

Abstract: Digital images increasingly influence how people interact with each other and with their envi- ronment. Not least the current debate about the „metaverse“ draws attention to changing technological conditions that fundamentally question the status of the image. 4D imaging in particular currently seems to define a new form of digital visuality in which image, action, and space are inextricably intertwined. 4D technologies capture, process and transmit information about physical space and make it computable in real time. Changes caused by movements and actions also become calculable here, so that 4D images gain importance especially in aesthetic and operational contexts in which they re-conceptualise various forms of human- computer interactions. From a theoretical perspective, this phenomenon has been studied by the applicants in the previous SPP project Adaptive Images. Technology and Aesthetics of Situative Digital Imaging. The new SPP project 4D Imaging responds to the growing need in science and culture to understand, use and design complex imaging technologies. It transfers critical-reflexive competences of image and media theory into practical application contexts in order to empower users to design and use 4D imaging. Especially in cultural production and medicine, 4D imaging promises computing, visualisation and accessibility of spatially complex situations, such as a performance or the moving body. The project consists of the case studies „Live Performance in 4D“ and „Learning to see the body“ in order to investigate the socio-historical conditions of each application context, to systematise the necessary image and media competences and to develop guidelines for the design and application of specific 4D technologies. In addition to its application-related use, the project as a whole contributes to a more equal cooperation between image theory and image practice in order to address the overall societal challenges of innovative 4D imaging technologies.