This pointcloud animation journeys down the Merced River taking in the exact POV of many of the most famous historic images that have defined Yosemite and the idea of the America wilderness for nearly 150 years. Seen through the eyes of the terrestrial laser scanner the entire landscape is perpetually on view; a single frame taken from a Muybridge perspective contains every Watkins and Weed that preceded it and every Adams or iPhone selfie to follow it.

ScanLAB Projects is a pioneering creative practice: half art studio, half research laboratory. It is led by artists/architects/technologists Matthew Shaw and William Trossell. Shaw and Trossell share the common passion for highly crafted making and storytelling that manifests itself in their digital and physical works.

The artists’ studio is filled with a diverse team who juggle groundbreaking tech development and creativity on a daily basis. ScanLAB’s primary medium is 3D scanning, a form of machine vision that they argue is the future of photography and spatial representation. As the electronic eyes for billions of mobile phones and driverless vehicles, 3D laser scanners are the cartographers of the future. By critically observing places and events through the eyes of these machines ScanLAB’s work hopes to glance at the future we will all inhabit.