Post Pointillism
Presentation for the PUNCTUM Conference: Photography 2025 VIRTUAL VS. REAL
What is a point cloud?
A point cloud is a 3D dataset that records the geometry of a scene as a collection of spatial points, each with x, y, z coordinates and, in some cases, color values. It can be generated through various methods, including LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, or newer techniques like Gaussian splatting. This data structure forms the basis of what we see as a spatial image.
LiDAR: from Aerospace into Architecture, Industry and Art
Originally developed in the 1960s for space exploration, LiDAR was used by NASA to scan the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission in the 1970s.
Today, point cloud technology is central to computer vision and widely applied across architecture, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, mapping, and media art.
LiDAR on the iPhone Pro has low resolution and a range of 4–6 meters. This makes the process of shooting more intimate: one has to move closer, walk around the object, scan it from all sides.
Professional 3D scanners capture space from long distances with high accuracy.
At the core of the scan is a dataset made of points-each with coordinates and color.
This resembles pointillism, but in three dimensions.
My archive currently contains 759 scans, totaling 154 GB.Most were made within the last six months. The first scan dates to April 2023.
Beyond the Surface
To describe my experimental practice, I use the terms: Post Pointillism Point Cloud Photography Cloudism
The composition of a final image happens in two phases:
- During the scan: when the decision is made about what will be captured.
- When choosing the point of view: the camera can move freely within the scene
New Visuality: Digital Realism
Objects from the physical world appear clear and solid, belonging to reality.
Living beings are blurred, dispersed, distorted-losing their contours, becoming ghostlike, unstable, almost ephemeral.
These images are fragmentary, prone to data loss, yet they retain an indexical connection to the object.
Point clouds create a hybrid visuality that merges documentation and abstraction.
To me, this appears as a blend of virtual and real space-a wide range of viewpoints available within a single captured scene.
Roland Barthes wrote about punctum-a detail in a photograph that unexpectedly "pierces" the viewer
In point cloud photography, this effect can emerge through loss, noise, and imperfection-making the image feel more alive.
The emptiness typical of LiDAR scans results from the technical inability to capture certain zones, like the sky or the background. This limitation of perception creates a theatrical isolation effect:the object appears extracted from its environment, shown as an autonomous visual unit, disconnected from real-world context
Due to LiDAR’s low resolution, small elements disappear. Everything is generalized. What remains is not documentation but abstraction. Not an image of a person, but a trace of their presence.
Motion Trails
Point clouds can record movement as motion trails, without the motion blur typical of classical photography.
This allows the artist to study or draw with movement-creating dynamic, volumetric images.
Final questions
Point cloud photography blurs the lines between documentary and abstraction, between stillness and motion.
Could this become a new kind of photography? A new media practice? A new medium?
Are these images an embodiment of the dynamics, virtuality, and hybridity of the contemporary world?
Can a technology born and mainly use in industry become a space for emotion and personal experience?
If you’re interested in where this might go, follow along:
instagram.com/post.pointillism