Voeed Chao Wang

Three-dimensional scanning technique is one of the few visual media that has not yet acquired its own hegemonic attributes. Its primary application remains in the field of archaeology and paleontology. This may be one reason why the visual images it produces by this technology transform the dynamic urban experience into a record of something that has passed, akin to a post-apocalyptic documentation. A 3D scanner was used to recorded numerous fragmented 3D models of the urban landscape surrounding The Bomb Factory Art Foundation. These were then shattered into two-dimensional images, and subsequently reconstituted into Artificial Intelligence image generation models through Stable Diffusion, from which videos of an indiscriminate length were generated. In this context, he regards this illusion as fragments of the Gestalt school of cognitive psychology, which aims to emphasize the importance of different parts when exploring the whole in the study of urban cognitive experiences. The length of the video generation, the fragmentation of its content, and the degree of disdain expressed by artists towards AI-generated images notwithstanding, the original data for this project is derived from his own experiences. Consequently, the resulting images retain a sense of authenticity, evoking a sense of strolling around the Bomb Factory Art Foundation and encountering the words depicted. As Walter Benjamin said, this is ‘a crystallization of the totality of events glimpsed in independent moments of time’ (Benjamin, 1983, p.1575). In the context of the current exponential growth of visual technology, this represents a reclamation of the ‘aura’ of art, which was previously obliterated by the technology of mechanical reproduction, as understood by Benjamin. It is also a pursuit of compassion for the cognitive being and solace for humanity amidst the torrent of technology.