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Seen through stereoscopic goggles, a shiny silver approximation
of the Starship Enterprise suggests to the viewer that cyberspace might be
the true final frontier.
High-performance computing experts and artists from throughout New
England have recently been giving tours of that new territory. The
Enterprise look-alike is one of more than a dozen virtual gizmos that make
up ArtWorld, a
demonstration developed by the High Performance Computing in the Arts
consortium, which was created in Boston University's (BU) Office of
Information Technology by the Scientific Computing and Visualization Group
(SCV). Through the consortium, this Alliance partner is uniting computer
specialists and artists from Boston-area colleges, universities, and
businesses in creative endeavors.
ArtWorld allows visitors to tour a "16th-century Martian toy
store." The giant screen at SCV's ImmersaDesk,
housed in a small blacklit room lined with speakers, makes for a
convincing virtual setting. Navigating with an electronic wand and a
special pair of 3D goggles that communicate the wearer's position to the
computer, visitors move through a cavernous environment activating various
graphics models -- wind-up toys, hobbyhorses, and dancing dolls -- each
with a particular action and sound. One of the toy store's curious-looking
denizens, a winged creature resembling a dragonfly, begins flapping around
the room when visitors touch it with the wand. Its flapping sound follows
it through surround speakers as it circles the visitors.
Erik Brisson, manager of graphics programming for SCV, says
ArtWorld's architects chose the unusual theme to give contributors
creative freedom while ensuring a modicum of cohesion.
"First of all, it's whimsical," says Brisson, "and we wanted the
exhibition to be fun. But we also wanted an idea that would not have
stereotypes attached to it. With the 16th-century Martian toy store, we
could basically do anything we wanted, but it was still a unified theme."
"We wanted to give the people some kind of context in which to work,"
adds Glenn Bresnahan, director of scientific computing and visualization,
"but a context so strange that it wouldn't really limit them in any way: a
Martian toy store, and let's say it's 16th-century because who knows what
that means? Something to take a little bit of the science-fiction edge off
it."
The virtual world created by Bresnahan and his colleagues
extends beyond a toy-populated cave into two other settings: the planet's
surface, re-created from photos of Mars taken by the Sojourner Rover, and
a room containing a large, abstract painting. Produced by Deborah Cornell,
BU assistant professor of visual arts, the painting contains several
regions that emit music when touched with the wand. The compositions were
contributed by Cornell's husband, Richard, a BU associate professor of
music.
In addition to BU, the exhibition's participating artists and
developers come from institutions like the Rhode Island School of Design,
Massachusetts College of Art, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
The opportunity to utilize BU's high-performance equipment, Bresnahan
says, is a rare and important one for these artists.
"When these new technologies
arrive, they're typically only in the high-end research labs, available
only to small groups of engineers and scientists," he says. "We're trying
to bring those technologies out to other communities that are
underrepresented -- specifically, the art community."
As a partner in the Alliance, Boston University is committed to
expanding the traditional parameters of computing with such
interdisciplinary collaborations.
"The purpose of the Alliance is to prototype the computer
infrastructure of the next century," says Roscoe Giles, associate
professor of electrical and computer engineering at BU and a member of the
Alliance's Executive Committee as well as coordinator for its education
and outreach program. "Its original formulation had it first supporting
science, engineering, and mathematics -- research areas within the usual
purview of the National Science Foundation, which funds the Alliance. What
one looks forward to seeing, and ArtWorld is a terrific example, is more
and more use of these advanced systems in the arts, the humanities, and
the social sciences -- in all areas of scholarship and human activity.
ArtWorld exemplifies a transition that needs naturally to happen if
Alliance is to be a success."
Such a transition pays dividends in the science and art
communities. Brisson says that putting their work in the service of an
artistic goal helps the computer experts realize, and test, the limits of
their technology.
"People use what we create, so we aren't working in a vacuum," says
Brisson. "We get input and fresh ideas that make our work more
interesting. We have the artists' needs and demands driving our work. We
get to interact with them -- cross-boundary communication. And it forces
us to deal with computing environments that we otherwise wouldn't, like
graphics on PCs and Macs. That's what people are using out in the real
world."
Access Online | Posted 10-6-1998
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