OB_029_Oscillatory_Luminance_Sweep
Status
Status:: Under review
1. Operation data
Internal number: OB_029
Operational regime: Translation Between Representation Systems
Source image: Digital photograph
Operational description:
A raster digital photograph is converted into a single linear path that moves across the frame in a serpentine pattern. The luminance of each area is no longer expressed as a tone, instead controlling the local amplitude and frequency of the oscillation.
Although the procedure is executed through an algorithm, the main regime is translation: the two-dimensional pixel matrix becomes a continuous graphic signal. The image is no longer composed of color surfaces, but by the behavior of a line.
2. Tools
Tools / medium:
- Python
- Pillow
- Luminance sampling
- Raster path drawing
Script: OB029 barrido oscilatorio luminancia.py
Dependencies: requirements.txt
Test note: OB029 NOTA.md
Parameters by result: OB029 PARAMETROS RESULTADOS.txt
3. Procedure and variables
Procedure:
- Read the photograph respecting its technical EXIF orientation.
- Temporarily reduce it to a lower-resolution luminance matrix.
- Traverse the matrix row by row, alternating directions to build a continuous serpentine pattern.
- Convert the darkness of each sample into the amplitude and frequency of the oscillation.
- Draw all points as a single line on a uniform background.
- Maintain the original image dimensions in the result.
Controlled variables:
- Horizontal sampling resolution
- Maximum oscillation amplitude
- Base frequency
- Additional frequency produced by darkness
- Line thickness and color
- Background color
Uncontrolled / accidental variables:
- Crossings between adjacent rows
- Local accumulation of line
- Appearance and disappearance of silhouettes
- Ambiguous reading between signal, raster, and photograph
- Shapes produced by the global continuity of the path
4. Visual sequence
This file uses exclusively the historical results made with the ball image. The tree tests are kept inside 029_PROCESO/resultados, but do not form part of this sequence.
Step 01

Step 02

Step 03

Step 04

Step 05

Step 06

Step 07

Step 08

Step 09

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17

Step 18

5. Visual selection
Crisis / threshold according to AI-assisted reading / ChatGPT
Pending selection within the ball sequence.
Crisis / threshold according to my perception
Pending selection.
6. Crisis and formal-perceptual reading
The operation affects the surface, tone, contour, figure-ground, legibility, and support of the image:
The photograph remains recoverable through densities, amplitude changes, and line crossings, but it disappears as a continuous tonal surface. The crisis occurs when the ball still emerges as a volume or silhouette while, at the same time, the gaze first recognizes an autonomous oscillatory signal.
The visual support shifts from a pixel matrix to a single path: each point depends on the previous one, and the complete image is subordinated to the temporal continuity of the sweep.
7. Final evaluation and artistic reference
Operation notes / what I learned:
Luminance can retain figurative information without being represented as gray. When translated into linear movement, the image simultaneously approximates a graph, a signal, and a continuous drawing.
Final_status:
Works:: YES
How it destroys the image:
Works_on:: Formal
Level and richness of crisis:
Crisis:: Pending
Decision:
Selection:: Review
Possible artistic reference
Reference:: Pending