| Each station
consists of a dark room with a giant rear-projection
screen on the ceiling, a side monitor, four robot-lamps
hanging from the ceiling and ten speakers distributed
around the room. Upon entering the station, each
participant is given a small wireless sensor that
monitors his or her exact three-dimensional position.
THE TRACE transfers the sensors' coordinates between the remote stations so that
each sensor controls audiovisual elements in both stations. The piece has four
ways of insinuating the presence of the remote participant in the local station: 1)
3D GRAPHICS. Presented on the giant screen on the ceiling are interactive animations
of a ring and a disc which make low drones as they float around the
screen. The ring follows the movement of the local participant, wherever s/he
goes. Conversely, the disc follows the sensor in the remote station, so that
the local participant can infer the displacements of the other participant
through the movement of the disc.
2) ROBOT-LAMPS.
There are four mechanized lamps hanging from the
ceiling each of which emit a very narrow light
beam: two have a yellow beam and two have
a blue one. The blue beams point to the local participant, while the yellow
beams
point to the position of the remote participant. The point of intersection
of the yellow beams corresponds to the exact position of the sensor in the
remote
station. Fog machines accentuate the light beams.
3) POSITIONAL SOUND.
Ten speakers distributed around each station broadcast sounds that seem to
originate
from the relative position of the remote participant.
For instance, if a participant moves to the right, the other participant
hears the sound also moving in that direction. Similarly, the sound becomes
louder
as one approaches the other participant. Among the sounds used are those
that indicate the distance between participants in meters ("one point
five, "three", "four
point five", etc.).
4) STATISTICS SCREEN.
Each station has a giant monitor that presents statistics, messages and graphics
designed to give
the participants quantitative information
about their movements.
The presence of the remote participant is ghostly and mysterious since
one knows nothing about him of her, except for his or her three-dimensional
movement. "Telembodyment" happens
when both participants occupy the same relational space, that is, when they share
the same telematic coordinates. During telembodyment: i) the four light beams
intersect forming an interference pattern; ii) the ring (the local participant)
and the disc (the remote participant) merge and launch an animation of a mechanism
in motion, including appropriate sounds; iii) the stations are flooded with sound.
Of course participants may choose not to "telembody" and instead try
to avoid sharing the same space -thus producing a telematic hide-and-seek game.
One of the motivating reasons to do this piece was to find out whether the "lebensraum",
the physical distance we are expected to keep from other people, is upheld within
telematic systems. |
