CGWorld ran an interesting article called “Extreme 3D“, which reviewed many different ways that artists can now convert real 3D objects into virtual 3D objects (often called digitising or scanning), and inversely convert virtual 3D objects into real 3D objects (often called 3D printing or rapid prototyping).

While this is not directly related to MindSpace Art, I thought it would be of interest to people, and I have used some of the 3D Laser Scanning techniques in the past, but more for education than art.

It pleasantly surprised me that there are so many ways to do this now, that service everything from molecules to galaxies, and that so much of the data is either affordable to acquire or already available on the internet.

Bear in mind that for completeness’s sake, you should also be aware that just as it is possible to convert a Real 3D object into another Real 3D object (plaster cast etc), it is also possible to convert Virtual 3D objects into other Virtual 3D objects. It is also possible to convert both real and digital data, events and media into both Real and Virtual Objects.

For example, I saw a great kinetic sculpture in the Minneapolis Science Centre where real seismic events (earthquakes) are digitised as they happen, then the real, kinetic sculpture takes this live digital data and makes a series of hammers hit pipes to make an intriguing sound-scape based on seismic events from around the world.

I added in analogue components (which interestingly, seemed to lack events and objects – at least I couldn’t think of any) and came up with the following illustration: