Pacific Northwest Sculptors

Sculptors share knowledge and resources

August 2021 Newsletter

Help Shape the Future of Portland’s Public Monuments

The Portland Monuments & Memorials Project, organized by Convergr45 is coordinating the “Prototypes” show. The project is managing conversations around proposed sculptures to replace many of those removed in the past year. A group of about 30 will be on display from August 25 through October 9th at 1010 NW Flanders Street, Portland. These existing and proposed sculptures will be available for public comment. The feedback received will influence how the City replaces many public sculptures. This is an opportunity for everyone to voice an opinion and help shape how public art is selected.

eXtended Reality

Possibilities and trends of 3D visualization for Sculpture

Presenter: Miguel Arias, Founder and CEO of Prefixa,
Miguel Arias is an innovator in photorealistic, augmented reality, and virtual reality imaging. Prefixa has operations in Silicon Valley, Mexico, and France.

XR (eXtended Reality) encompasses all the 3D visualization technologies like Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, and other 3D techniques that can display artworks, products and objects inside immersive 3D environments.

This presentation gives an overview of the existing technologies and how art pieces, specially Sculptures, can be scanned and integrated into interactive 3D showrooms, virtual reality exhibits, or augmented reality visualizations. The first step is to convert the art piece into a 3D representation, either with 3D scanning, photogrammetry techniques, or 3D modeling. Once the artwork is converted into 3D, it opens the opportunity to exhibit, experience, and share it with the world in a variety of virtual ways. Artists can host exhibits in 3D worldwide, museums can document and create 3D catalogs of their collections and new digital tools and workflows help to showcase and sell art online. Some trends will be discussed, from Augmented Reality, VR-eCommerce, and 3D NFTs.

Finally, some alternatives to 3D scanning were introduced, including Prefixa’s photogrammetry from video conversion, the XR-ROOM platform to host 3D exhibits for artists and custom apps for AR, digital catalogs or VR exhibits. The presentation shows web 3D interactive and virtual reality examples created by xr-room.com

Art Saves Lives

Culture could save the Planet

Detail from, We are Still Here, Kayin Talton Davis with Cleo Davis, 2020. Lizzie Weeks Room, Portland Building.
Detail from, We are Still Here, Kayin Talton Davis with Cleo Davis, 2020. Lizzie Weeks Room, Portland Building.

I have posted here previously about broadening Culture, the challenge of racism and the concept of “de-colonization”. That writing has been adjacent to ongoing discussions offline about the almost entire whiteness of PNWS. It’s a tricky thing to bring up, people can get defensive. There’s dysfunctional conditioning that can lead to self-blame, distraction and numbness when bringing up topics of global abuse. Here’s a simple idea put forward by Roslyn Hill that can be a handle to hold, a point of traction when wheels are spinning.

Put yourself on the RACC mailing list (https://racc.org/about/newsletter/)
The Regional Arts & Culture Council and PNWS have a lot in common. The above link will take you to their newsletter sign up, which is part of their ABOUT page with their Mission statement. Please, peruse the rest of the site to see how they’re manifesting those ideals. I believe they can offer PNWS Members guidance for honoring many Cultural traditions with an understanding that some people’s voices have been systematically marginalized, but that there are also many pathways to reconcile abuses.

One simple step we can all take is sign up for the RACC newsletter. And I look forward to all the other steps, the discussions, the art, along with the grief, shame and joy of expanding possibilities, shared resources and multiple Cultural outlooks. I look forward to all these steps and more.

Andy Kennedy, Board member of PNWS
Andything.com