Synthentic Spaces

Synthetic Spaces: The Digital Exploration of Three Sites in Huddersfield is an exhibition by Professor Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park on show at Market Gallery in Queensgate Market from 31 January - 4 March. The exhibition launch will be held on 12 February 2.00 pm -5.00 pm.

The development of 3D laser scanning technology offers an important opportunity to capture and represent the built environment in new and innovative ways.

The 3D laser scanning produces digital data that can be used to create a detailed spatial model, but it does so in the form of an evocative ‘point-cloud’ model of the space (where the space is literally represented by a series of digital points).

For this exhibition Nic Clear and Hyun Jun Park have selected and scanned three iconic sites in Huddersfield: Castle Hill, Queensgate Market and the Railway Station. They have used the scan data to represent and explore these familiar spaces in unique ways through the production of images, animations and drawings, and in doing so expand the possibilities of contemporary spatial representation.

The information produced by the scans is highly technical and yet the images themselves evoke a much more speculative response to the sites, and when used in combination with other techniques it facilitates both an extremely precise mapping of the spaces as well as the opportunity to develop narratives around the spaces that engage with a wider set of ideas and values. The ability to manipulate the ‘point-cloud’ data allows Clear and Park to
create synthetic spatial models that exists between the virtual and the actual and combine the ‘measured, the ‘experienced’ and even the ‘practiced’ in a way that no other form of spatial mapping is capable of.

The exhibition is an opportunity to showcase this technology as part of a wider area of research being undertaken in the Department of Architecture and 3D Design at the
University of Huddersfield, particularly exploring scanning technology as a form of art practice and represents the first stage of a longer project that will culminate with the 50th anniversary of the Queensgate Market in 2020.

Professor Nic Clear January 2019

For more information visit https://bit.ly/2HgyYn7