Blossom Spheres

BACKGROUND Post-photography considers the evolving affordances of photographic practices. Contributors include Hito Steyerl, Daniel Rubinstein, Claudia Hart, Rosa Menkman, and Martina Menegon. Coupled with photography, the internet as the site for the networked image is also expanding from a 2D medium to a spatialised encounter. WebXR platforms offer shared spatialised encounters. In 2020 WebXR gained relevance in the context of the global COVID pandemic, embraced by artists such as Menegon and Hart and adopted by major festivals. CONTRIBUTION This work contributes to practices at the intersection of expanded photography and webXR. It is an early example of photogrammetry to extend the photographic into webXR and the use of the point cloud file format from photogrammetry. A technique for building 3D models from photographs, photogrammetry is poor at rendering the complex organic shape of plants. This solution resolved a technological barrier and offered a satisfying metaphorical experience of plants as celestial objects. The work reflects the context of the COVID pandemic. During lockdown, the work was created with branches of blossoms collected during walks. The ephemeral springtime blossoming of street trees were amplified by the constraints of lockdown. Conversely, the webXR platform allowed for international reach of this liminal sensation of shared isolation. SIGNIFICANCE ‘Blossom Spheres’ was curated into FastLab Biomes Performance Experiment as part of Ars Electronica Kepler’s Garden exhibition by Rewa Wright. Horst Hörtner, Ars Electronica Futurelab, indicated that it was the second most visited work with 37,736 visits. Claudia Hart invited Bennett to give a lecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Curator Miriam Arbus invited Bennett to exhibit at Synthesis Gallery in Berlin. In 2021, the work was included in ‘A Strange Space’ (Melbourne), curated by Edwina Bartlem and Jacob Tolo for the Centre for Projection Art and the 2021 Midsumma Festival.