How Does Technology Change The Way We See Nature?

Valla travels extensively through Google Earth and Google Maps, drawn to moments when the software renders familiar landscapes in unexpected ways

In A Google Tree (Mountain View), Valla was particularly fascinated by how 3D mapping tools represent trees, often flattening them into what he describes as “shrink wrapped photographs.”

To produce it, he selected a specific oak tree that he saw in Google Maps on Gradient Canopy’s campus. He used custom AI software to translate the tree’s digital geometries into a blueprint that could be fabricated from steel.

By giving this digital artifact a physical form, Valla highlights the uncanny ways in which machine vision processes the world around us.

For Valla, the fascination lies in the contrast between human and machine perception. As he explains, “Looking at nature through the lens of technology allows me to see nature in completely new ways and to see humanity in completely new ways.”

The work prompts us to consider how tools shape our vision and the interpretations of the world around us.

Valla also created a second artwork: gradient.pointcloud.garden is generative artwork that creatively interprets a 3D point cloud model of the Gradient Canopy gardens in the San Francisco area.

In the artwork, variants of Conway’s Game of Life periodically take over the digital landscape.