This paper frames issues of trans-scalar perception in visualization, reflecting on the limits of the human senses,
particularly those which are related to space, and describe planetarium shows, presentations, and exhibit experiences of
spatial immersion and interaction in real time.
This paper presents several immersion and interaction related visualizations that engage visitors in the context of an
astronomy museum in order to help them build a mental model of the building as a whole, corresponding to the body of
a spacecraft, and its parts considered individually, corresponding to the knowledge articulated from different scales in
the Universe. Aspects of embodiment are utilized to find parallels with current trans-disciplinary theoretical
developments in media arts.
This panel and dialog-paper explores the potentials at the intersection of art, science, immersion and highly dimensional, “big” data to create new forms of engagement, insight and cultural forms. We will address questions such as: “What kinds of research questions can be identified at the intersection of art + science + immersive environments that can’t be expressed otherwise?” “How is art+science+immersion distinct from state-of-the art visualization?” “What does working with immersive environments and visualization offer that other approaches don’t or can’t?” “Where does immersion fall short?” We will also explore current trends in the application of immersion for gaming, scientific data, entertainment, simulation, social media and other new forms of big data. We ask what expressive, arts-based approaches can contribute to these forms in the broad cultural landscape of immersive technologies.
This paper describes the teaching of an immersive environments class on the Spring of 2011. The class had students
from undergraduate as well as graduate art related majors. Their digital background and interests were also diverse.
These variables were channeled as different approaches throughout the semester. Class components included
fundamentals of stereoscopic computer graphics to explore spatial depth, 3D modeling and skeleton animation to in turn
explore presence, exposure to formats like a stereo projection wall and dome environments to compare field of view
across devices, and finally, interaction and tracking to explore issues of embodiment. All these components were
supported by theoretical readings discussed in class. Guest artists presented their work in Virtual Reality, Dome
Environments and other immersive formats. Museum professionals also introduced students to space science
visualizations, which utilize immersive formats. Here I present the assignments and their outcome, together with insights
as to how the creation of immersive environments can be learned through constraints that expose students to situations of
embodied cognition.
Voluble is a dynamic space-time diagram of the solar system. Voluble is designed to help users understand the
relationship between space and time in the motion of the planets around the sun. Voluble is set in virtual reality to relate
these movements to our experience of immediate space. Beyond just the visual, understanding dynamic systems is
naturally associated to the articulation of our bodies as we perform a number of complex calculations, albeit
unconsciously, to deal with simple tasks. Such capabilities encompass spatial perception and memory. Voluble
investigates the balance between the visually abstract and the spatially figurative in immersive development to help
illuminate phenomena that are beyond the reach of human scale and time. While most diagrams, even computer-based
interactive ones, are flat, three-dimensional real-time virtual reality representations are closer to our experience of space.
The representation can be seen as if it was "really there," engaging a larger number of cues pertaining to our everyday
spatial experience.
As virtual/augmented reality evolves, the need for spaces that are responsive to structures independent from three dimensional spatial constraints, become apparent. The visual medium of computer graphics may also challenge these self imposed constraints. If one can get used to how projections affect 3D objects in two dimensions, it may also be possible to compose a situation in which to get used to the variations that occur while moving through higher dimensions. The presented application is an enveloping landscape of concave and convex forms, which are determined by the orientation and displacement of the user in relation to a grid made of tesseracts (cubes in four dimensions). The interface accepts input from tridimensional and four-dimensional transformations, and smoothly displays such interactions in real-time. The motion of the user becomes the graphic element whereas the higher dimensional grid references to his/her position relative to it. The user learns how motion inputs affect the grid, recognizing a correlation between the input and the transformations. Mapping information to complex grids in virtual reality is valuable for engineers, artists and users in general because navigation can be internalized like a dance pattern, and further engage us to maneuver space in order to know and experience.
This panel presentation will exhibit artwork developed in CAVEs and discuss how art methodologies enhance the science of VR through collaboration, interaction and aesthetics. Artists and scientists work alongside one another to expand scientific research and artistic expression and are motivated by exhibiting collaborative virtual environments. Looking towards the arts, such as painting and sculpture, computer graphics captures a visual tradition. Virtual reality expands this tradition to not only what we face, but to what surrounds us and even what responds to our body and its gestures. Art making that once was isolated to the static frame and an optimal point of view is now out and about, in fully immersive mode within CAVEs. Art knowledge is a guide to how the aesthetics of 2D and 3D worlds affect, transform, and influence the social, intellectual and physical condition of the human body through attention to psychology, spiritual thinking, education, and cognition. The psychological interacts with the physical in the virtual in such a way that each facilitates, enhances and extends the other, culminating in a 'go together' world. Attention to sharing art experience across high-speed networks introduces a dimension of liveliness and aliveness when we 'become virtual' in real time with others.
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