EVL Assistant Professor, Daria Tsoupikova participated int the SVR 2007 IX International Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality, Petrpolis, Brazil with the exhibition of EVL VR works “UNFOLDING SPACE” (J. Aguilera, A. Johnson) and “Rutopia2” (D. Tsoupikova).

The projects were created 2005-2006, addressing research and development of VR artwork, aesthetics, unconventional methods of interaction and multimedia produced at EVL. EVL also participated in SVR 2004 showcasing collaborative (networked) CAVE environments with colleagues in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Rutopia 2 | Virtual Reality Art Project
Rutopia2 is a virtual reality (VR) art project built for the CAVE and C-Wall VR systems. It explores the aesthetics of virtual art in relation to traditional Russian folk arts and crafts such as wood sculpture, toys and the decorative painting styles of Palekh, Khokhloma, and Dymkovo.

Rutopia2 aesthetics is based on the generalized outlines, principles of composition, bright colors and simplified shapes inspired by these styles. The project describes a magic garden with interactive sculptural trees.

It was conceived as a virtual environment linked to a matrix of several other unique virtual environments that together create a shared network community. A series of 3D modular sculptural trees, each consisting of dozens of rectangular screens, appear in the main environment and serve as portals to the other linked environments.

The animation of these dynamic tiled trees is an attempt to break through the static flatness of the contemporary tiled-display grids, architectural facades, and surfaces into the perpetually changing 3D sculptural forms of the ubiquitous public network.

Users can ‘grow’ three trees in the island world by moving within the proximity of each tree. Each tree appears as a rapid sequence of flipping and rotating rectangular screens expanding out and upward. Once all the trees are fully grown, their screens turn into windows and the island changes from monochrome to color.

Each window shows the view of the remote environment connected to it. Just as we can look through a window and see the outside, the user can look through each of the screens to see remote worlds consisting of imagery found in traditional Russian fairytales and folk art. By moving his or her head completely through one of the virtual screens, the user enters the connected environments.

The project was built using Ygdrasil advanced rendering techniques, Bergen spatialized sound server, OpenGL Performer and the CAVE library. It runs on an Intel Linux PC and connected to an Ascension Flock of Birds tracker.

UNFOLDING SPACE
UNFOLDING SPACE is an environment that is determined by the posture and motion of the body that interacts with it, as if you were wearing the space you inhabit.

The structure is the tridimensional shadow of a grid of tesseracts (4x4x4x4 cubes in for dimensions). One hand rotates the structure in three dimensions, and the other hand rotates the structure in four dimensions.

Four dimensional rotation projected to three dimensions resembles a sock being turned inside out.

The project is inspired bY the idea of creating a maze where we cannot get lost, but can open up with the motion of the body, so the space reflects our movement through life. The notion of knots in the navigation of polyhedra, and quipus, the knot based inca written system.

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