Eery, Beautiful and Compelling
This is an article I wrote on a former blog after seeing a unique artist exposition, in May of 2002. I’ve referenced the “CAVE” once or twice before on IMR. I first experienced the CAVE, as an intern, in the preparations for SIGGRAPH 1992. Despite the nearly 20 years since its creation – it remains one of the coolest technological creations I’ve ever seen.
CAVE = Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
Friday, May 10, 2002
Those are the words I would use to describe my experience at the CAVE tonight at UIC. The virtual reality show tonight at the CAVE was essentially the artist’s interpretation of her own psychological and emotional journey to adulthood. Before I describe the show itself, I should set the stage for those who are unfamiliar with the CAVE. The CAVE is a cube, about 10 feet square. Each of 3 walls are made of a semi-translucent plastic film that is used as a projector screen. The floor is semi-reflective as well. From behind each of the three screens computer-generated virtual reality images are projected, and similarly from above for the floor. The images are synchronized such that they paint a smooth and consistent picture across every surface. The active participant, or leader, wears special LCD goggles that also have a spatial sensor so that the computer system knows where he/she is looking. The computers update the screen accordingly to track movement, etc. The leader also has a Nintendo-like controller to manipulate digital objects, move around, etc. Others may participate in the experience as well by wearing lightweight LCD shutter glasses, though the viewpoint will be that of the leader. I believe all of this is powered by a series of big SGI boxes. This whole system was invented back in 1992 or so at The University of Illinois at Chicago, at their Electronic Visualization Laboratory. There are now more than 100 at various universities around the world (though most seem to conveniently “forget” it was invented at ol’ UIC when they are quoted in the press.) I saw it back then and it has matured wonderfully. Anyway, back to the show itself….
Yalu (the artist) starts us off in a giant shrub maze, which sort of reminded me of the one in The Shining, only nothing near as menacing. The detail in the maze walls is incredible, showing individual leaves, and their placement. The overall scene was somewhat as though being viewed through a light fog – there was a touch of a haziness to the environment she created that lent it a certain dream-like quality. After a few seconds we are greeted by a young girl, perhaps 5 years old, in a colorful kimono. She is our guide through the maze. The maze represents the artist’s early childhood, and is populated by her imaginary friends, such as giant ants and a giant deer. Our little guide is mischevious at times, and will duck around a corner of the maze, only to have a new wall appear in a very Doom-like fashion. Soon, we find ourselves riding a giant bee to another part of her little world. Here we see representations of places where the artist used to play as a child, we see a favorite rocking horse from her childhood, and we see eery textured mannequins representing herself and her family when she was a child. One by one, they each fade, leaving only herself, who then leads us on further into this little dream world. The journey takes us on through various phases of her life, confusion, discovery, etc. Her time of confusion is interpreted as a long tunnel filled with thorns and spindly bramble covering every surface. There is a particularly cool scene where we enter a giant MC Escher-like space. A big, empty void, with white staircases going every which direction against a stark black emptiness. Here and there hanging in the void are various images of the artist’s childhood, into which we can peer and gain some insight into her background. The artist treats us to more passages before we come to the last transformation of the show, although we are promised that the journey is not over and that the show will evolve in the future as the artist does.
I strongly encourage anyone who’s in the Chicago area this weekend, to make a stop by the EVL at UIC (get directions here). It is an amazing experience, both for the technological feat of putting the CAVE together, and especially for the virtual reality show itself. It has an ethereal, dream-like quality and it will get your mind working about other things that could be done with this technology. A great show!
Someday, hopefully, we can turn our offices and family rooms into giant CAVEs.
Cheers,
Eric
Technorati Tags: Collaboration, Virtual Reality
