From Pixel to Model
ScanLAB Projects
Will Trossell of London-based ScanLAB Projects will discuss a series of recent projects involving designers, architects and scientists from across the globe. From their forensic analysis of Arctic ice floes with Cambridge sea ice scientists to photo shoots with Vivian Westwood, the series of works are unified by the use of a specific tool: large-scale terrestrial laser scanning. In this lecture, ScanLAB critically analyses what it means to see the world through the eyes of this emerging technology and speculates on its use as a design tool of the future.
ScanLAB Projects is a pioneering creative practice. They digitize the world, transforming temporary moments and spaces into compelling experiences, images and film. They design online environments, immersive installations and objects. They use their craft as a way to bear witness to the world—collaborating with musicians, dancers, researchers and scientists on evocative and meaningful stories.
Their primary medium is 3D scanning, a form of machine vision that they believe is the future of photography. As the electronic eyes for billions of mobile phones and driverless vehicles 3D scanners are the cartographers of the future. By critically observing places and events through the eyes of these machines, their work hopes to glance at the future we will all inhabit.
ScanLAB’s award-winning work has featured on the BBC, Arte, National Geographic, The Guardian and The New York Times. It has been exhibited internationally at LACMA, The Louisianna, The New Museum NYC, SXSW, CPH:DOX, STRP, the Royal Academy, and The Barbican.
The Berlage Sessions, a seven-part seminar series entitled “Architecture’s Transpositions,” examines the mediatic disciplinary transfers, from sixteenth-century abstracted geometries to twenty-first-century augmented realities. Topics will include the digitization of maps, the creation of digital replicas of landscapes, the modelling of multisensory extended reality experiences, the framing and photographing of buildings, and the imagined histories of architectural drawings and models.