Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

This joint paper discusses the idea of ‘waking’ abandoned historic structures by employing 3D photogrammetry as both a process of drawing and a means of visualisation, with the modern metaphysics of Graham Harman’s OOO (object-oriented ontology) used as a guide. The structure in question is a dami: a type of abandoned farmhouse situated on the North Aegean island of Gökçeada, formerly known as Imbros. Like its indigenous population – the Imbrian Rums (Asia Minor Greeks from Imbros) – the story of the dami is one of slow removal over time. Visible remains are found strewn across the island, roofs gone, walls collapsed, gardens no more than traces in the soil. Yet despite being cut off from their historical function by the condition into which they have fallen, these structures still engage with both the encroaching landscape and those members of the Imbrian Rum diaspora who seek them out. Treating the dami as a ‘dormant object’ in line with Harman’s OOO – meaning an entity with a slumbering psyche – 3D photogrammetric data is used to query these sites, helping us uncover further possible lives beyond the digitised surfaces they present by looking into what lies quiet, sleeping, or simply unobserved. Psyche infers life, soul and spirit, but it also implies communication: a level of interest directed towards each dami site based on its history, but with a focus on discovering novel sets of relations in response. These relations are teased out through drawing: new elements are found, and new uses imagined.