Spatial models and affects: Scanlab’s Frozen Relics / Arctic Works & Framerate / Pulse of the Earth

• Main Author: Rabourdin, Caroline
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: N Visual arts (General) For photography; see TR; NC Drawing Design Illustration; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/45163/; http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/45163/2/45163_RABOURDIN_Spatial_models_and_affects_Scanlabs_Frozen_Relics_CONFERENCE%20PROGRAM.pdf; https://philevents.org/event/show/107514

Matthew Shaw and William Trossell founded Scanlab Project in 2010; trained as architects they have been scanning objects, cities and landscapes for over a decade. Ranging from historical artefacts for museums such as the National Maritime Museum or the Sir John Soane Museum, to the exploration of underground Rome or the Arctic icecap, the precision of the data collected has been used for scientific research, yet their work also takes 3D modelling and the architectural model to a new level. With their command of new technologies and spatial understanding, Scanlab’s work is at the crossroads between scientific research and art practice. In this presentation I will undertake a comparison between two of their projects that raise awareness of climate change and will examine them through the lenses of Posthuman theory. In particular I will refer to Jane Bennet’s definition of Vibrant Matter (2010) in which she explains that all things, human and non-human, living and non-living, should be understood as actants with political agency. I will compare Scanlab’s recent project Framerate: Pulse of the Earth (2022), an immersive experience shown at the Biennale Venice International Film Festival, to their earlier project Frozen Relic: Arctic Works (2013), a scale model of the arctic icecap shown at the AA School of Architecture in London, and ask whether the scale model can create the same affect than a more immersive experience.