Point clouds are functional. As you most likely know, a point cloud is a large collection of points in 3D space, organized on x, y, and z axes. It is a measurement of the real world—an accurate representation of an object, or number of objects, or a space, or a building, or anything, really.
Point clouds are also beautiful. Almost by accident, they can be art. At least that’s what the publishers of a forthcoming book think.
The Art of the Point Cloud is currently accepting submissions for a hardcover “celebration of some of the most beautiful and striking point cloud datasets from around the world.”
Alistair Rawlinson, one of the publishers of the book, talked to SPAR 3D about the genesis of the idea.
He said the project is a joint publication of the School of Simulation and Visualization at the Glasgow School of Art, and Historic Environment Scotland. The two organizations have been working together for eight years on various heritage documentation projects, including Scotland’s world heritage sites. All of these projects involved point cloud data.
“Throughout this partnership, we have had the opportunity to work on some incredible sites across the world,” Rawlinson said, “the images we have created from the point clouds have generated a lot of interest.”
It seems that people like looking at point clouds (and who can blame them?). With the completion of some big recent projects, Rawlinson tells me, the group decided it was “the perfect time to create a book showcasing these projects as well as the best work from industry and academia.”
All entries will be reviewed by experts, and winners will be selected “on the basis of artistic content and originality of the scan.”
The submission deadline is January 31st, 2017, and the hardback book will be available for purchase by July 1st, 2017.
