Concept
Augmented Reality Project
part 1: situations for augmented relationships
It is through the body´s organs that we sense and act. In this way our
being interprets the presence of people and things and brings a certain
reality to that presence. Augmented Reality involves the body through the
installations presented here, and in doing so, proposes ³conversations² at
the edge of our normal means of sensing and communicating.
In this project, visitors will come into contact with a series of staged
and coreographed, high technology installations that can sense their
presence. These ³sensitive² sculptures are likened to pieces of furniture in
a room.
But the installations, each in its own way, don´t only sense, they also
react. Thus they promote relationships through experiences that may take
place at the edge of the senses.
In this way, the visitor also becomes involved in an augmenting of what
is able to be sensed and is likewise brought to an augmented state of
interpreting that experience.
In fact, the basic function of the installations often requires that two
visitors enter into a relationship and investigate an interpretation of the
contents of that relationship. These installations then are situations for
augmented relationships.
The Augmented Reality Project part 1 is organized in four complex, spatial
constructions:
³Smiles in Motion²
³Mirrechophone² (Mirror+Echo+Phone)
³I think You ‹ You think Me²
³The Different Stories of a Bride and Groom²
Each construction has a clear and active presense and function in the room,
and the more time a visitor spends in the room, the deeper the involvement
becomes.
The Augmented Reality Project part 1 was shown for the first time at the
Museum for Contempory Art in Roskilde, Denmark January 13th ‹ March 15th
2000.
Authors:
Karin Søndergaard
Kjell Yngve Petersen
Software design:
Åke Parmerud
3D design:
Tine Nikali
Electronics:
Poul Vestergaard
Support:
Boxiganga - DK
Museet for Samtidskunst - DK
Kulturministeriets Udviklingsfond - DK
©boxiganga 2000
³Smiles in Motion².
Smiles in Motion is an interactive pieces of furniture designed for
augmented relationships between two people.Two chairs link two visitors that
enable them to converse with each other in a very special manner.
This construction might be called a ³relation apparatus² and is able to
transform speech into movement. Speech and sounds produced in the audible
spectrum by the two visitors are converted into vibrations, through motors
placed in the seats of the chairs. As a visitor is percieving what is spoken
in the form of vibrations, he is also show the mouth of the other visitor on
a monitor fixed in a globe.
The visitors ³hear² each other through vibrations, synchronised with the
images of the movements of their mouths. And so may converse through
vibrations and smiles.
³Mirrechophone²
Mirrechophone is an interactive piece of furniture designed for augmented
relationships between two people. It is a forum for the exchange of faces
and words. Using complex light settings and a two-way mirror, the visual
function of the installation morphs the faces of two visitors, as they look
at each other, into a single face, with constantly changing expressions.
The audio part takes words and sentences from each visitor, cuts them into
monosyllabic words and sounds and then replays this mix back as a piece of
sound poetry. What is said is re-composed into new meanings creating a
single conversation through the blending together of what each visitor is
saying: augmented relationships through morphing faces and speech.
³I think You ‹ You think Me².
I think You ‹ You think Me permits visitors to create relationships between
real and virtual personalities.
Two virtual beings, Robert and Roberta, are having a conversation. They are
virtual in the sense that they are only present in the room through their
faces which appear on two computer screens while their voices emanate from
loudspeakers. One might say that the ³real² life of these virtual beings
then exists as bit-streams in the inner organs of the computers. Sensors
permit Robert and Roberta to become aware of the movement and presence of
real human beings in the room. When this happens, they speak directly to the
visitors. However when no one is in the room, they fall asleep and snore
loudly.
Through this set-up, visitors can join in and thereby extend Robert´s and
Roberta´s relationship to themselves through a series of questions and
demands that are addressed to them. In doing so they enter into the ongoing
discussion between Robert and Roberta and become involved in their world.
One might ask:³Have we thought them up or have they thought us up?²
³The Different Stories of a Bride and Groom².
The Different Stories of a Bride and Groom is an interactive piece designed
for augmented relationships between a visitor and video, music and an
object.The installation consists of a soundtrack, and a short video film of
two small plastic figures, representing a bride and a groom, that revolve
around a central axis. The video is a film loop, so that it shows the couple
spinning round and round endlessly.
The rate of the spinning is controlled by a small pillar in the center of
the room with a built in magnetic field sensor, on wich the two figures have
been placed. If a visitor approaches the pillar, the playback speed of the
music and video increases.And if a visitor move or play with the couple the
video image and music changes speed.
Therefore in the context of the inter-relationships of video, sound and
object, moving the figures may result in fanciful stories.
Karin Søndergaard & Kjell Yngve Petersen
Bjørnsonsvej 85 - 2500 Valby - Danmark fon: +45 3630 1691 - fax: +45 3630
1692
email: kjell.yngve@teliamail.dk
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