Aenaon is a CAVE based collaborative networked art piece. Inspired by Greek Pythagorean theology, ancients called Goddess Rhea -"The Ever-Flowing" – To Aenaon, the Mother of the Gods and connected her name with Rheo (to Flow) and Rhoe (Flux, Flow, Stream). This is because Primary Matter is fluid, for it has no determinate boundaries, within or without; Matter is ever changing, always in flux. Rhea – To Aenaon transforms measureless Eternity intro determinate Time. Therefore by creating Time, She (Rhea) also creates Space. Aenaon in Modern Greek language signifies continuity, flow, eternity, an ethereal existence.
The main concept of the project is to create a new type of universe, to generate space, and new forms of space based on user’s presence, actions and behavior within virtual reality and with remote participants. Users end up in an abstract environment composed by their physical and virtual bodily movements. The amount of interactivity in each instance of the environment matters and the environment changes with the pass of time, like everything in real life. Shapes, color combinations, density and composition of forms will depend proportionally on the amount of interactivity. The more you act, the more you create. The more users act by themselves and with others, the more layers, shapes and complexity they add together into the abstract world. Aenaon is a non-linear piece.

Our goal is real time generation through intuitive exploration, which doesn't require any guidance or prior experience for navigating in virtual reality. This environment will create a virtual portrait of everyday routine actions in our physical world. It will embody communications, motions and emotions, relationships, conversations, and other regular things, which can not be recorded and experienced in any other way. For example, trails – memory metaphors are left behind while users navigate in virtual space, sculptural forms are generated while remote participants greet each other and floating bubbles are formulated while users communicate with remote participants.

Besides remote participants, the space will be inhabited by participant duplicates; the agents. Each participant will have several identical avatars, agents that will be replicating his motions and duplicating his actions. However there will be a difference in the interaction between the personal avatars and the agents. For example touching the "real" avatar will generate different shapes than touching the agent. We will explore how the user affects, changes, transforms the environment, and how his interactive behavior breeds space. Once the space is generated we can analyze each participant’s identity, their current emotions, mood, background, feelings, energy level, and character.

download the IGRID proposal