enhanced reality, art, extranoise, photography, top

The Mysterious Factory Where the First Sentient Robots Were Made

Extranoise creates what he calls "enhanced reality" photographs, shots of real-life places that he turns into strange, CGI-looking hyperreality. How does he make an abandoned factory look like one of the glowing set pieces from video game Portal? He uses tone mapping to make their colors pop and glow surrealistically. Want to see more of his reality-based dreamscapes?

Here are some of my favorites. This looks like an abandoned factory that's become a dimensional portal to another world. And this one looks like a robot train (actually, one of the new superfast trains in Paris) that might take you deep into the heart of a planet where slaves wait for Riddick to rescue them. And what is this? An abandoned hyperdrive engine?

7:00 AM on Wed Jan 30 2008
By Annalee Newitz
3,162 views
21 comments

Comments

blakeley at 07:12 AM on 01/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 66

There is a penis joke in that first one... I just don't know what it is...
Spoonman at 07:15 AM on 01/30/08
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Agreed....the word "stubby" comes to mind, but I'm not sure where it fits into the joke.
Gyrus at 07:26 AM on 01/30/08
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That train is clearly a Cylon.
Dybbuk at 07:36 AM on 01/30/08
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@Spoonman: personally id like girth over length any day. unfortunately i have......

that train looks like the grandma of the cylon raiders.

Riddick cares not for the slaves after all he did say "There's gonna be one speed... mine. If you can't keep up, don't step up. You'll just die."
Erzengel at 07:54 AM on 01/30/08
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Looks like HDR photography to me.
Basically, you take several pictures of the same subject at diferent exposure settings, and then you can use Photoshop or other proggies to combine the higligths and dark tones into one single image. Im still learning how to do that, but you can find some really pretty made by a fellow mexican here:
[flickr.com]
strider_mt2k at 08:03 AM on 01/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 717

That's some cool stuff.
Might be wallpaper-worthy.
Jeff-Minor at 08:03 AM on 01/30/08
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Erzengel, I agree. I saw some of this HDR stuff over on BoingBoing about a week ago. Some of it hits me as dream-like and catches my attention. But then the look starts to bother me. It's as if the color settings are messed up on your TV.
laughingacademy at 08:10 AM on 01/30/08
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The headline made me think there were going to be some Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles spoilers...
Eric Aitala at 08:43 AM on 01/30/08
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There is a nice plug in for Macs which makes creating HDR images really easy - [www.hdrsoft.com]

I have not tried it yet, but will when I get a digital SLR.

Eric
Annalee Newitz at 09:32 AM on 01/30/08
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@blakeley: Maybe all scifi imagery has penises in it? Tomorrow I promise an image that will envelop you with its vadgey goodness.
ghost at 10:04 AM on 01/30/08
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Great. I also love the art Jan Wöllert, wo amazingly doesn't tinker with the photographs (some of them, see this one, I didn't believe hgim at first that it wasn't digitally enhanced: [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]) but uses low exposure settings and all sorts of lights to create objects within the photographs, at the center it's usually him
see here [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]
here [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]
here [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]
here [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]
or here [www.gruppe-vier-w.org]

sorry. I'm a fan.
ghost at 10:10 AM on 01/30/08
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@ghost: that should have been "the art OF Jan Wöllert" and "(WITH some of them, see FOR INSTANCE WITH this one, I didn't believe HIM..."

dammit.
enveno1 at 10:23 AM on 01/30/08
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i think your art is lovely..
byes for now
92BuickLeSabre at 10:56 AM on 01/30/08
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@blakeley: Well, it is apparently where the first sentient robot's were made. I'm guessing they traveled from there to a warm, dark cave where they were stored, polished, and programmed, until ready to be unleashed on the world.
automaton at 12:11 PM on 01/30/08
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That train is actually a rather old TGV model. The newer (rounder) one is in the background. It's sentient.
7Zark7 Iz In Ur Internetz at 01:58 PM on 01/30/08
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For a guy who couldn't photoshop his own high school senior photo, I'm not all that impressed by this dood's work. The colors do seem really, really off.

That train made me think of KITT. Then I thought about the conductors' quotes I read on Overheard in the City. Now I imagine them in William Daniels' voice.
cde at 02:00 PM on 01/30/08
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Seriously, why is the first one so phallic looking?
ghost at 06:03 PM on 01/30/08
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@cde: that's your dirty fantasy. what's phallic about a big erect, er, vertical tower and two balls, er, round outbuildings? Please.
Yatta! at 10:32 PM on 01/30/08
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Wow, HDR photography. Novel.
Jonn at 07:11 PM on 01/31/08
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"And this one looks like a robot train (actually, one of the new superfast trains in Paris) that might take you deep into the heart of a planet where slaves wait for Riddick to rescue them."

They were prisoners, Newitz, prisoners!
Kendra at 01:53 PM on 02/04/08
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It IS HDR Photography, along with other photoshop effects.

Hey, If you want real science fictiony with no other filters, check me:
[kendravixie.deviantart.com]