Field Recordings
Field Recordings is an expressive and documentary project by the XYZ Collective – an art and design collective recording spatial imaginaries of the American South. This project aims to preserve digital traces of Louisiana’s disappearing landscapes through 3D scanning and 3D printing. By scanning heritage sites across the state – including ancient trees and burial grounds – we captured spatial and aural characters of these landscapes in high fidelity. Our data is archived online so that future generations can learn about these landscapes. Field Recordings explores how machine vision sees and unsees our cultural landscapes, rendering material traces immaterial. We experimented with how these immaterial virtual artifacts can be rematerialized through digital fabrication. This project investigates the authoritative, yet imperfect nature of data captured through the lens of machine vision, asking how algorithms mediate meaning.
Contents
Process
We use remote sensing techniques including drone lidar, terrestrial laser scanning, and neural rendering to record the spatial character of these landscapes. We also record spatial audio to capture their soundscapes. Then we use point cloud processing, volumetric modeling, and selective laser sintering 3D printing to reconstruct elements of the landscape. Tactile transducers embedded in the 3D prints transform them into speakers, immersing the audience in soundscape recordings from each. We also use the soundscapes to animate their point clouds.
Exhibitions
Harmon, Brendan and XYZ Collective (2025). Field Recordings. LSU Museum of Art. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. April 24 – August 3, 2025.
Harmon, Brendan and XYZ Collective (2025). Field Recordings. LSU College of Art & Design Boyce Gallery. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. September 4 – October 3, 2025.
Harmon, Brendan and XYZ Collective (2025). Field Recordings: African American Burial Grounds in the River Parishes. American Anthropological Association 2025 Annual Meeting. Treme Market, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. November 19 – 23, 2025.
Harmon, Brendan and XYZ Collective (2025). The Atlas of Heritage Trees. Spectral Remix. Merchant House Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. November 19 – 22, 2025.
Nam, Hye Yeon and Brendan Harmon (2025). Heritage Trees. SIGGRAPH Art Gallery ’25. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. August 10 – 14, 2025.
Nam, Hye Yeon and Brendan Harmon (2025). Particle Forest. 404 International Festival of Art & Technology. Gallery MC & The Players Club, New York City, New York, USA. October 7 – 9, 2025.
Nam, Hye Yeon and Brendan Harmon (2025). Particle Forest. Sympoiesis. Fort Hayes Tower Shot Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, USA. October 24 – December 11, 2025.
Team
Team Leads: Brendan Harmon, Hye Yeon Nam, Annicia Streete, & Nicholas Serrano
Sound Artists: Carlos Roman & Joseph Brooks
Field Team: Josef Horacek, Cecil Chapman, Caroline Robertson, Graham Hargis, Christos Baos, Javier Zamora, Huan Guo, William Reinhardt, Julie Whitbeck, Kaiti Fink, & Jeff Boucher
Funding
- National Park Service Preservation Technology and Training Grant
- Architecture Research Centers Consortium
- LSU Arts & Humanities Support Fund
- LSU Big Idea Research Grant