we’ve been invited by » time’s up to implement new virtual environments for spin that has been booked to be part of the » crashtestdummy project.

» sebastian gregor, » michael höpfel and i created 3 labyrinths that are connected with each other. you start in one of the 3 mazes. if you find the exit you only find yourself trapped in the next. after 10 minutes you are released and find yourself back in your personal real-life labyrith.

before entering spin you’re being equipped with the crash jacket which meassures your pulse, and breath and transmits it to the render machines. further the jacket has a built in microphone to keep you in contact with the guides in case you need an exit (fast!) and has builtin loudspeakers that let you hear the worlds sounds.

since walking around with spin takes some exercise the participant is first welcomed in a simple test environment.

3 glowing spheres mark exits to the labyriths. always only one of the spheres can be reached.

paper world is a rather unstable construct floating in space. every breath lets the papers wave in the wind making it even more difficult for you to find your way out.

relative world offers you two ways to find your exit. follow the arrows, or follow the architecture..

tube world is the straightest of the labyrinths. simply follow the tubes. go fast, the way is long, but not too fast, for the spinning tubes may really make you feel sick when you’re out of breath.

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the mazes have been exhibited in budapest (may 05-13, 2006) and munich (july 21-29, 2006)

photos
video timelapse of spin-setup 0m44s | 12mb

first off thanks go to my team:
» sebastian gregor for additional programming, » michael höpfel for modelling and » lars oeschler for the initial visualisations.

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egosoccer lets the viewer/player slip into the role of the ball and experience or even influence a soccer game from its perspective.

the view of a ball comprises of 360° in all directions. during a game a ball experiences perspectives never seen by man before.

i’ve been thinking of two ways to implement egosoccer:

• egosoccer passive
• egosoccer active

egosoccer passive

several people are standing on a large platform inside an even larger sphere that is being projected onto from the outside.

a real soccer game could be tracked and a simulation of it as seen by the ball could be projected in realtime on the sphere. think of the platform as a hydraulic platform and the spectators could even feel the forces experienced by the ball when hit by feed, bouncing of the grass or being trapped in the net.

egosoccer aktive

a computer game for up to 23 players. only one person can be the ball though, and take place in a sphere 3 meters in diameter.

» spin the spherical projection interface was developed back in 2000 by » time’s up. it is basically a physical interface that allows a user to walk around in virtual environments that are being projected onto the spheres surface from the outside.

the player inside spin thus sees the game from the balls perspective and can influence it by walking and running in all directions. well, the role of a ball that has its own will is historically not yet understood and thus allows a wider range of interpretations. whether the ball favours one of the teams, or tries to run in whatever door just as often as possible or if it tries to hit the referee is still to be defined.

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we submitted egosoccer to the » playaward 2006 and won » 1st prize. thankyouverymuch.

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stills
video 2m50s | 16.4mb

no big words here. a making of, additional photos and videos of the performance are available on a dedicated » imago website.

for some time now » eno had this 5mx1m (bright as hell) led-wall he was touring around with doing visuals in different locations. people of the wmf in berlin quite liked the wall and asked him to leave it there as a permanent installation from june to october.

we took this opportunity to realize an idea eno and i have been talking about for some time. we built a custom hard- and software interface for generating visuals dubbed “trafo”.

designed as an open system trafo can be used by any vj by just plugging in his videosignal to the back of the box. this allows for any video-signal being viewable on the wall while applying some of trafos built in video effects. otherwise it can easily be extended by adding some » vvvv patches.

photos
video 7m08s | 76mb

» Achim Wollscheid was finally able to realize his long-term idea of a grid of mirrors being able to move on two axes each. sadly this great sculpture has been built as a “kunst am bau” project for kids-cure-center at a place not so many people will likely ever visit in their life. watching the video is therefore a good idea.

the mirrors only start moving as people are walking by it on the way to the main entrance of the building. two video cameras sense movement and let the sculpture react by waving with its mirrors and in turn deforming the peoples and their surroundings image. the mirrors reflections of the sunlight cause some additional interesting patterns on the floor.

here » vvvv did the image analysis and controlling the 64 motors that drive the mirrors.

photos
video 1m19s | 5mb

an homage to a phenomenon i am sure you have already experienced yourself some time when you couldn’t sleep. cars going by on the street below your windows projecting wonderfull structures of light onto the ceiling of your room.

developed together with » eno and based on the elegant mathematics of » gregsn once again patched together vvith » vvvv. “fake light” (since it is calculated within a 3d model) is being projected on real inner architecture as if it was moving by outside of a window. the visual was only hardly being recognized as fake which probably lead to a rather subconscious experience of the work for many of the visitors.

first set up as part of a » larger exhibition during the “nacht der museen” in the » frankfurter kunstverein.

an old idea finally realized as part of a » larger exhibition during the “nacht der museen” in the » frankfurter kunstverein.

a “mirror” reflecting time in a chaotic way. going back and forth in variable speeds. every unconscious micromovement of your body is being repeated in front of your and the other visitors eyes thus confronting you with your own posture. kind of intimidating and fascinating at the same time and kept people standing there and watching themselves for quite a while.

the room was dark and people were lit by an infrared spot which resulted in a partly strange black and white aesthetics since some materials reflect differently under infrared light then our eyes would expect.

realized with » vvvv.

photos
video 1m07s | 4.1mb

following an invitation by » projektionsareal i chose the audio track “triko” by daniel vujanic and made this video for it.

actually the result is rather thought to be a video installation than just a linear video. only after i chose the track i noticed three things about it:

• it works nearly as loop. start and ending have a similar drumpattern.
• there is an outstanding break in the middle that totally contrasts to the rest of the rather uniform song.
• it has this part near the end that sounds like rewinding a tape.

this loop-and-rewind nature of the song brought me to the basic idea for the video: build something. destroy it. learn nothing. rewind. build something. destroy it…

here and on the dvd you can sadly only see one loop. since the video is completely rendered in realtime i made some of the parameters (where the towers grow, where the camera moves,…) random which means that every loop looks different than the others (when watched on a pc), which together with the monotonous music turns out to be kind of hypnotic.

i know its boring. the software behind triko is again » vvvv. triko finally gave me the opportunity to play around with pixelshaders again and to test out our new physics engine. if this wasn’t my job i’d be tempted to say that i enjoyed it.

stills
video 3m54s | 8.5mb

as part of the ‘catch the light’ program accompanying the olympic games in athens we’ve been invited to realize one of the 9 interactive installations throughout the city.

this bank building that was our target. below the balcony we mounted a white screen on which people saw their shadows and the image of a projected ball.

with his shadow everybody was able to play the ball. besides that playful part the ball was also representing a virtual light-source that illuminated the upper half of the building causing some strangly realistic looking shadows moving over the facade.

based on an initial idea by meso’s » michael höpfel » gregsn and i did the patching in » vvvv. together we spent a very relaxed month with lots of good food and nice people in the city of athens.

a more detailed documentation of the whole thing is still….in the making.

stills
video 1m29s | 8mb

the second edition of the » stopspot festival for electronic music took place in the groundfloor rooms of the » ok-centrum in linz.

windows where projected upon from the outside with a seamless image created by a » vvvv boygroup. providing an abstract virtual panoramic view for the festival visitors. hard to photograph since the images where always in motion.

very thankyou for your support » michael.

more photos of the evening.