Thesis Work

My thesis work at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) culminated in a presentation which was a part of "Virtual Spaces", EVL's exhibit for ISEA '97. My contribution consisted of a video installation and a multi-media event which combined virtual reality with video and live performance. I intend to describe here some of both the aesthetic and the technical aspects of creating the work as well as the outcome of these efforts.

waterlogged

What started out as an exercise in portraiture turned into an examination of struggle. I was initially intrigued by the idea of doing a study of faces under water. I was interested in not only the forms and images created by the faces themselves and the water as it moved over them, but also in the technical challenge that capturing these images proposed. One particular challenge was that I also wanted to be able to rotate the final images. This meant that the camera would need to be rotated while it was recording.

To record the footage I filled a bathtub with water and had each of the subjects lie on their backs with their face just above the surface of the water. In order to get the rotation that I wanted, I constructed a support for the camera which allowed it to be rotated around the camera's axis. For the shots in which the rotation was used I would start slowly turning the camera once the subject submerged their head all the way under the water.

It was during this filming that I realized what a struggle it really was for most people to stay under the water for any length of time. It was particularly difficult since they were flat on their backs and the water would flow straight up their nose.

Seeing the varying degrees to which each of the nine individuals who participated physically struggled made me think about other ways in which they may be struggling. There were times when their physical distress was less obvious than at others. This too seems to reflect the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and any number of other types of conflicts that each of us may face on a daily basis.

This piece was displayed as a large-scale projection onto the floor. The final image was approximately 8.5' x 6', reflected off of a mirror on the ceiling and down onto a screen made of white backdrop paper which was affixed to the floor. The remainder of the unused paper was left on the roll attached to the bottom edge of the screen. This roll was echoed in the black paper which was hung from the ceiling to the floor to the right of the screen. Its purpose was to help keep the ambiant light from the rest of the gallery from spilling onto the image. This installation was positioned in the back left corner of the gallery.

I would like to acknowledge the eight individuals who, in addition to myself, took the plunge for the sake of my art: Mike Heuvelman, Karen Huntington, Kim Insley, Kirsten Simmons, Mike Papka, Andy Vorderer, Matt Vorderer, and Sarah Vorderer.

lucifer lounge

Overview

For me, the most important aspect of this piece was the interaction. I didn't want the viewers to take a passive roll; I wanted them to be an active part of the overall experience. I chose virtual reality as the primary medium for the piece because it inherently involes the user. I also chose to incorporate the use of live performers to enhance the piece because I felt that they could bring the interaction to a greater level, which would have been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve with the graphics alone. I wanted to create an experience which integrated the physical environment with the virtual one. I also wanted to create a remote physical space where a group of actors could interact with the users in the virtual space and would also have control over various aspects that virtual space.

In the gallery the actors appeared to the users on a pair of monitors, one on either side of the I-Desk. Both of these monitors displayed the same image. Up on the third floor the actors had a set of three monitors. One of these contained the video of the users at the I-Desk. Another showed the same video of the actors that was being displayed on the monitors in the gallery. The last one contained the graphics that the users were seeing on the I-Desk. A keyboard was also extended from the computer in the gallery to the remote space. This is what the actors used to control the graphics.


Within the graphics the users found themselves in a labyrinth. The labyrinth was laid out in such a way that there were four inner rooms and sixteen outer rooms, eight on each of two floors. The rooms were interconnected by large suspended walkways and a platform at the center of the entire structure. This center platform, the inner rooms, and all of the walkways were suspended over a giant pool of lava. To ensure that the experience lasted more than a few seconds, navigation was set up so that the users could not fall off of the walkways into the lava below. Also, to help the users find their way within the labyrinth, a trail of "thread" marked their path as they moved throughout the space.

Each new group of participants started out on the center platform. As they traveled through the labyrinth they could see the devil, one of the remote actors, and his entourage in the video monitors celebrating and having a good time at a party that the devil was hosting. This party was located somewhere else within the same labyrinth. The users' goal was to find the "correct" path, the one that led to the party. All the while that the users were in persuit of this path, the remote actors would be interacting with them, helping or hindering them as they so desired. This could be achieved by giving them either true or false information about how to find the party, or by taking control over the graphics.

If the users were able to find the path that lead to the virtual party within the graphics, then they got to physically go to the real party in the remote location, and meet lucifer in person. This allowed the users to play a truly active roll in the experience, for once a user arrived in the remote space, he or she could then in turn interact with the next group of participants back at the I-Desk.

In order to make the remote space more interesting and increase the likelihood that it was some place that the users would want to go, it was turned into a lounge, complete with a night club act. It was where all the excitement was, so everyone wanted to get to go there. Plus, getting there meant that you got to be on t.v.

The Outer Rooms

As mentioned, there were sixteen outer rooms, each fundamentally the same. They all contained a closed door, behind which could potentially be the path to the party. The users had to perform some task in order to get the door to open. Each room also contained a number of different objects that the users could pick up and a shelf on the wall next to the closed door. The users had to decide which object could be used as a "key" to unlock the door and place it on the shelf. The actors ultimately had control over whether or not the participants at the I-Desk made it to the party, but the participants didn't know this.

Initially, placing an object on the shelf brought one of two results, either the door opened but it lead to a dead-end, or it didn't open at all and a buzzer sounded. There was a total of 25 different objects to pick from. Of these, nine would successfully open the door but lead to the dead-end. Each room contained a different sub-set of ten of these 25 objects, two of which would open the door, the rest would just sound the buzzer.

When the users pointed at an object with the wand, it would highlight. If they then pressed the middle wand button, the object would be attached to the wand. They could then place the object back on the floor anywhere in the room, or they could place it on the shelf, again by highlighting where they wanted to place it and pressing the middle wand button. The users only had one chance to pick the right object in each room. They could pick up and move around as many objects as they liked, one at a time, but could only place one object on the shelf. Once an object was placed on the shelf all the objects became inactive and the user would have to move on to another room. All objects also had to stay in the rooms in which they were found; users were also not allowed to leave the room with an object. To prevent this, whenever the user picked up an object, the walkways would move away from all of the exits. This trapped the user in that room until they put down whatever object they were holding. Once they did so, the walkways would return.

When selecting the objects that worked, I tried to choose things that would help guide the user or help them to find their way, while also keeping in mind that they were dealing with the devil.

Here are some of the objects and why they did or didn't work:

WORKED		DIDN'T WORK
Apple: the forbidden fruit which gave knowledge.		Banana: was in contrast to the apple.
		Orange: was in contrast to the apple.
Glasses: from a short story called "The Sandman," by E.T.A. Hoffmann, where the glasses represented the "eyes of truth"
		Key: I thought that this would be too obvious.
Lantern: used to light your path, to see the way.
Spool of Thread: echoed the thread trail that the user leaves, inspired by "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco.
Holy Grail: the cup of a carpenter, "You have chosen wisely."		Golden Cup: contrasted the Holy Grail, "You have chosen poorly."
"The Ninety-two Conceits of the Minotaur": one of Prospero's books from Shakespeare's, "The Tempest." Helped to guide Prospero to his island.		"The Lives of the Saints": you're not going to make any points with the devil by studying the saints.
Compass: helps you find direction.
Pen & Ink: the pen is mightier than the sword.		Sword: was in contrast to the pen (for the same reason).

These objects had these functionalities for the majority of the time, but as mentioned, the remote actors ultimately controlled whether or not the objects would reveal the correct path. Once lucifer and his crew decided that a group should be allowed to win and come to the party, they would press a key on the keyboard. Once this key was pressed, all objects became active again, so that even an object that was already on the shelf could once again be picked up. The next object that was placed on the shelf, regardless of whether it normally worked or not, would open the door. This time instead of leading to the dead-end, the door opened into a hallway. At the end of the hallway there were steps leading to a door, behind which the sounds of the party could be heard. The steps were roped off so that the users couldn't actually reach the door, and there was a sign which read, "welcome to lucifer lounge please wait here for an escort." At this point, one of the actors that had been hanging out around the I-Desk would bring a couple of people from that group upstairs to lucifer lounge.

On the other hand, if lucifer and friends decided that this group had run out of time and didn't get to come to the party, they would press a different key on the keyboard. When this happened the users would immediately become engulfed in flames, lose control of navigation, and would be dragged from where ever they were back to the center of the labyrinth. Here they would float high above the center platform and could see lucifer within the graphics shaking his head and laughing as they were denied entrance to the party. They could also see lucifer and the others at the party in the video monitors reacting to the users fate.

Either of these two events signaled the end of the experience. The actors could then, again using the keyboard, reset the graphics. This would place the users back on the center platform, put all of the objects back in their original positions, close any open doors, and remove the path left by the previous group.

The Inner Rooms

There were also four inner rooms which the users occasionally had to travel through in order to get to the outer rooms, and potentially the party. They were primarily a distraction from the task at hand.

The Creature Room

The creature room contained some of lucifer's pets. There was the scytodes thoricica, a giant spider, which had escaped from its cage and now roamed free about the room. One never knew if or when it might attack with its snapping fangs. There was also a group of bats which flew just above the heads of the users. The majority of the time they just flew in a circular path around the center of the room. As these were lucifer's pets, he had some amount of control over them. Using the keyboard in the remote space, the point around which the bats flocked could be moved from the center of the room to the users' heads. If one wasn't careful, one could end up in a dangerous situation, as was evidence from the pile of bones in the corner of the room.

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Virtual Lounge

This room was a reflection of the real lounge in the remote space, except that the users got here too late. The party has already moved on to its new location. The room has been deserted. All that remains are the empty chairs and tables with their half filled beer cups, and the abandoned stage with a forgotten guitar. The music of our guest performer can still be heard, and a poster on the wall advertises his appearance at tonight's gathering.

The Water Room

Another of the inner rooms was an extension of the waterlogged video. In each of the four corners of the room was a video monitor which was attached to a four-foot pole that was sticking out of the ground. Three of the monitors displayed a few seconds of one of the faces in the video. The users were confronted by the people in the video as these monitors followed them around the room. A spring that attached the monitor to its base would expand out toward the users, putting the users face to face with the struggling individuals in the monitors. The floor of the room was covered with several inches of water. The distress of the users echoed that of those in the monitors when lucifer took control of the level of the water, raising it to nearly their heads. The deeper the water became, the less control the users had over navigation, causing them even more frustration. The fourth monitor appeared to be broken. Rather than footage from the video, it displayed only static. Instead of following the users about the room, it merely extended out and back while it turned in a circle.

The Fire Room

The ImmersaDesk was in approximately the middle of the gallery, against the wall on the right side. There was a 19" monitor on a pedestal on either side of the I-Desk. Because of the fact that the video from the graphics and the video on the monitors were being displayed at different rates, if you looked at the monitors with the stereo shutter glasses on there was a big black line right in the middle of the screen. This made placement of the monitors an important consideration. They ended up being placed a bit further forward, away from the I-Desk, than I had initially intended. This resulted in the users having to turn their heads away from the graphics in order to see the remote actors in the monitors. But, by doing this the glasses would lose the sync signal from the stereo emmiter, and turn themselves off. This allowed the user to look back and forth between stereo on the I-Desk and mono on the video monitors without any jarring effect, and without seeing the thick black line.

As it turned out, it seems that the monitors ended up being more for the crowd that had gathered around the I-Desk to watch what was going on than they were for the person or group actually doing the navigating and interacting. The people participating might glance over at the monitors from time to time, but they primarily interacted with those in the remote space verbally.

One of the more interesting aspects of the interaction was how the remote actors were able to guide and instruct the participants without taking their focus away from the graphics. Someone who was in the same physical space as the user might have difficulty doing this, as the user's focus would shift from the virtual environment to the person giving them instructions, then back to the graphics. Lucifer had the advantage of being part of the graphics, yet was still able to see both what the participant was doing physically with the wand, and what they were seeing and doing within the graphics. Because of this he was able to provide them with pertinent information about how they should go about trying to perform a particular task, and it became part of the experience, rather than separate from it.

For instance, lucifer could see when the person navigating was trying to move forward, but was having trouble doing so because he or she was headed off the walkways. He could tell them, "You seem to be stuck there. Why don't you move back a bit? Ok, there, now turn to your left... more ...more, ok stop. Now come forward." Or, he could see that they were holding the wand incorrectly, and could let them know that they needed to turn it around, or which was the correct button that they should be pressing.

Another interesting thing happened with the interaction between the two spaces. Although there was a primary figure in each location, the person doing the navigating at the I-Desk and lucifer in the remote space, it seemed to be somewhat of a group activity in both locations. At the I-Desk, in addition to the navigator other people in the group would ask questions and interact with lucifer and crew in the remote space. There was usually no shortage of people willing to give the person with the controls their opinion about what object they should pick or where they should go next. In lucifer lounge, once it started filling up, there were plenty of people, including those who had newly arrived from the I-Desk, to respond to user inquiries and to feed lucifer with information about the people currently at the I-Desk so that he could ask them very personalized questions.

Those who were lucky enough to find the "correct" path, as advertised, were invited to join the party in lucifer lounge. Escorted by one of lucifer's crew who had been hanging out near the I-Desk, they were led through the back of the gallery to a darkened stairway. The only light came from the candles that had been placed every couple of steps. As the guests climbed the three flights of stairs that led to the lounge, they could see the grungy, graffiti covered walls in the flickering light of the candles. If they looked close enough they could see that some of the larger candles had messages printed on them. They ironically warned, "Run Devil Run," and "Cast off Evil," which it was too late to do now as they were about to come face to face with lucifer. When they reached the top of the stairs they could see a crowded room at the end of a short corridor. The newcomers were welcomed by the cheers and congratulations from those already present. After being offered a drink from the bar they were invited to either join in the activities with the group currently at the I-Desk or simply relax and join the party.

The Gallery: Show and Reception

The "Virtual Spaces" show was exhibited in Gallery 400, 400 South Peoria, from Monday September 15, 1997 through Saturday September 27, 1997. It included two video installations, a perspective string art installation, a Port-a-Desk which was used as a display for a Worldwide Web browser, an ImmersaDesk which displayed several virtual reality (VR) applications throughout the two week period, and a series of large Digiprint images representating the VR applications. There was also an exhibit of VR applications in the CAVE (Cave Automoted Virtual Environment) in the Science and Engeneering Laboratories building, 950 South Halsted, during several evenings of the show. My MFA reception, shared with Maria Roussos, was held Friday September 19, 1997 from 5:00-9:00 p.m. While waterlogged, my video installation, exhibited in the gallery for the entire duration of "Virtual Spaces," lucifer lounge, because of the large number of people involved, showed for only two performances, the evening of the reception and from 1:00-5:00 p.m. the following afternoon, Saturday September 20, 1997.

Special thanks to Mike Papka, who on Saturday, Oct. 2, 1993 (on our way to my wedding) asked, "What are you doing with your life? Get back in school." He then pointed me at EVL, and I am eternally grateful. Thanks to my committee members for their support and guidance: Dan Sandin, Dana Plepys, Gary Minnix, and especially Andy Johnson, whose technical and aesthetic advice and manual labor extended far beyond the call of duty. Thank you to Dave Pape, Alan Millman, and Terry Franguiadakis for their extensive programming assistance over the past three years, which has saved my life far too many times to mention here. Thanks to Jim Costigan, without whose technical A/V support, lucifer lounge could not have happened. Thanks to Sean Keenan and Paul Kotheimer whose outstanding performances made lucifer lounge a success. Thanks to Mike Heuvelman for making sure the show ran smoothly. Thank you Rick Stevens and Argonne National Labs for renting a video projector while they let me borrow theirs. Thanks to Maria Roussos for all of her help, especially in organinzing the publicity and the reception. Thanks to Eric Butkus and Clark Hayes for their invaluable help with the audio for both the video and the vr application. Thanks to Joseph Alexander for his help with the models, technical setup, and physical labor, among other things. Thanks also to Jeff Brooks, Misha Caylor, Ralph De Stefano, and all other EVLers, both past and present, who made this all so probable.

This show and all of the work that went into it is dedicated to my wife Kim, whose patience, understanding, and encouragement gave me the strength to endure the many 18-20 hours days that were required to make it all happen. And to our beautiful daughter, Chloe, who arrived a month early so that she could come to the reception.