//digital_artwork_2024
Type: Digital artwork — animated point clouds (NFT edition)
Role(s): Developer and multimedia designer — point-cloud conversion, animation, typographic instancing
Artwork: Collected Memory – A diary of the world, by Mille Kalsmose
Shown at: Republic of Cameroon Pavilion, 59th Venice Biennale, 2022
Source material: 3D scans of the physical sculptures; participatory message archive (physical + online)
Content: Animated point clouds carrying 4M+ typographic texture instances drawn from the message archive
Software: 3ds Max, TouchDesigner, XenoDream (parametric point-cloud generation)
Credits:
Mille Kalsmose — artwork & concept
Martin Stebbing — 3D scans & CG consultant
Overview
Collected Memory – A diary of the world is the digital edition of artist Mille Kalsmose's long-running Collected Memory project, made for the Republic of Cameroon's pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale. The physical work is a network of participatory brass-and-paper sculptures that collect written memories from the public; the digital edition remediates that archive as animated point clouds. I worked as the developer and multimedia designer for the digital version.
Process
I converted 3D scans of the physical sculptures into animated point clouds, then populated them with over four million typographic texture instances — each one drawn from the participatory messages gathered in the physical work and online. The text becomes the material the forms are made of: writing, the recurring element across the whole Collected Memory series, rebuilt here as the literal substance of the image. The pieces were produced with a combination of 3ds Max, TouchDesigner, and the parametric point-cloud generator XenoDream.