“Macao Pointcloud Garden” is an artwork by Clement Valla, composed of 3D scanned gardens of Macao presented as raw point data. To create this site-specific installation, Valla researched the botanical history of Macao and identified unique and significant plants and gardens, which he recreated using algorithms, software, and data. The resulting mythical and shimmering landscapes spark human imagination, emotions, and reactions, reminding viewers of the natural legacy of the city.
Valla’s process involved capturing numerous photos using a photographic camera, slowly moving around the gardens and taking sequences of photos very close in time and space. The software analyzed these photos, found points across multiple photos, and used triangulation to place these points in space, producing spatial (XYZ) coordinates and color (RGB) information in the form of data points that form a point cloud, giving an impression of the gardens.
These moving images are self-consciously pixelated and low-resolution, creating an ambiguous sense of scale and space that allows the viewers to use their imagination, rather than being overloaded with information. The images are also intended to be slow, calm, quiet, something that solicits the same kind of attention as a campfire or a brook, offering a change of pace from online video chat and social media. By creating these screen-based pictures of nature, the artist invites the audience to reflect on our intensified screen life and contemplate the emotional experiences of being on a screen versus being in nature.
Working from within the systems he plays with, Valla’s practice focuses on human’s relationship to technologies, how they work on us, make us see, feel and apprehend the world differently. By bridging the gap between human’s subjectivity and that of the machine, his work suggests new ways of reconsidering our relationship to the world around us, and of decentering ourselves to the benefit of the planet as a whole.
Clement Valla Clement Valla is a New York based artist whose work considers the way computer vision systems apprehend the world, and the way in which automated image production entangles people and things in increasingly complex ways. Valla’s work has been exhibited at The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Museum of the Moving Image, New York; Thommassen Galleri, Gothenburg; bitforms gallery, New York; Mulherin + Pollard Projects, New York; DAAP Galleries, University of Cincinnati; 319 Scholes, New York; and the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee. His work has been cited in The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Rhizome, Wired, The Brooklyn Rail, and on BBC television. Valla received a BA in Architecture from Columbia University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Digital+Media. He is currently an assistant professor at RISD.
Curator: Lam Sio Man Born and raised in Macao and having lived and worked in New York, Lam Sio Man has a curatorial vision that is informed by the vibrant cultural scenes and artistic communities in the two cities, with an interest in contemporary practices and cultural production. With a double bachelor’s degree in Chinese and Art from Peking University, as well as a master’s degree in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, Lam worked at the Department for Promoting Cultural and Creative Industries of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao SAR Government, and then at the Public Art unit of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2019, she was appointed as the Curator of the Macao Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Her curatorial projects have been covered in the New York Times, the Art Newspaper, and the South China Morning Post, to name a few.
Photo credit: Clement Valla Opening Hours: Everyday 6:00 - 19:00, including public holidays Closed at 15:00 on Wednesdays