Lisa Niedermeyer

Lisa Niedermeyer is a San Francisco artist and tech educator. She makes portraits and custom sculptures by 3D scanning people in the dark.

Niedermeyer’s work draws on a love of inherited objects as source materials, making things with her hands, and her ongoing study of computer vision. She first tried 3D scanning at an MIT Media Lab hackathon 10 years ago.

While others explored the default uses of the scanner Niedermeyer created her first volumetric portraits in total darkness, working in the only room without motion-sensor lights: a lactation booth. MIT invited her back the next year as a judge. She has scanned in the dark ever since.

Niedermeyer is a teacher at Apple and a resident artist at Queer Arts Featured in the Castro, where she offers one-on-one volumetric portrait sessions after hours.