Urban Fractals: a point cloud documentary of Hong Kong living spaces
As a metropolis with one of the highest population densities, Hong Kong is characterized by not only the extreme cases of minimum living but also the megastructures which individual units compose, displaying a wide spectrum of dwelling spaces across scales. Highlighting the imagery and the experiential aspects, this project uses 3D scanning to document diverse living conditions at various scales, and narrates them into a point cloud film. Through the immersive cinematic experience, this project subverts the spatial hierarchy by recomposing the scanned scenes into a nested fractal structure, represented as a journey traversing the big and the small reciprocally.
As a metropolis with one of the highest population densities, Hong Kong is characterized by not only the extreme cases of minimum living but also the megastructures which individual units compose, displaying a wide spectrum of dwelling spaces across scales. Highlighting the imagery and the experiential aspects, this project uses 3D scanning to document diverse living conditions at various scales, and narrates them into a point cloud film. Through the immersive cinematic experience, this project subverts the spatial hierarchy by recomposing the scanned scenes into a nested fractal structure, represented as a journey traversing the big and the small reciprocally.
The use of 3D scanning helps to achieve the balance between familiarity and boundless imagination. Despite used as a powerful tool that documents reality in unprecedented detail, 3D scanning’s representational potential remains unexplored. This research is also an experiment with novel working methods in search of the visual provocations specific to this medium. We exploit its documentary capacity to capture the unique richness of Hong Kong’s living spaces, and embrace it’s malleability in the digital environment to re-imagine a virtual city that is yet unseen.
This project documents the process and findings of the multi-layered engagement framework experimented by designers and practitioners locally and globally, to embark in a comprehensive discourse about placemaking through playground, play and design, and the power of public engagement.
- 2022
- Grantee: Haotian Zhang, Qian Guo, and Tianying Li
Haotian Zhang and Tianying Li are two Hong Kong based designers. They are currently Assistant Lectures at the School of Architecture, the University of Hong Kong. Their teaching and research revolve around (sur)realistic digital representation and material culture in the age of mass production. Their works have been presented at DigitalFUTURES, SEA (India), and Tsinghua University (China), and exhibited at Carnegie Museum of Art, National Building Museum (US), Beijing Design Week, PMQ (HK), and Kong Lab (China), in addition to multiple other institutes. They work collaboratively and independently under the authorship of FrankanLisa.
Qian Guo is an artist currently based in Beijing, China. She is interested in the techno-artistic approach to the culturally constructed body. She enjoys building tools, devices and instruments that interfere with the intersubjective space through a critical application of media technology.