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 Thames riverside. These were then shattered into two-dimensional images, and subsequently reconstituted into a labyrinth of spatial illusions reminiscent of M. C. Escher’s style. In this context, artist 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. 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.