6
Leonardo Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy Author(s): Richard D. Brown Source: Leonardo, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2000), pp. 21-25 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576757 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 06:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

Leonardo

Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and EnergyAuthor(s): Richard D. BrownSource: Leonardo, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2000), pp. 21-25Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576757 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 06:03

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLeonardo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

ARTIST'S ARTICLE

Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form:

An Exploration of Space, Time and

Energy

Richard D. Brown

A s a child I was nicknamed "fire and water" by my parents. Later I became interested in chemistry and elec-

tricity, which led to the construction of a primitive 4-bit com-

puter, which I built from telephone relays when I was 12 years of age. With all my experiments I saw science as a medium that allowed me to create playful devices and artistic fireworks. At school I wanted to continue my creative mix of science and art but the educational system dictated a choice between them, and I was unable for some years to continue my experimental mix. So first I gained a degree in computers and cybernetics before turning to art studies. My art is influenced by my science

background; however, in my artworks I challenge the conven- tional. For me, art is, above all, about communication, accessi-

bility and the power to move a person beyond the rational. In 1990, when I began to concentrate myself to creating

artworks, I found that the electronic art scene tended to focus more on electronics than on art and that, for me, working with computers full-time seemed to constrain the business of

producing new ideas. Abandoning computers, I began to ex-

periment with combining technology and organic materials, mixing high-voltage electricity, water, earth and moss. My early art had a sense of naivete; with no formal art education I experimented in a playful and unconstrained manner.

It was not until I went back to school to gain a degree in fine art that I began to contextualize and refine my practice, examining representations of space-time and its subjective perception. I found great inspiration from Linda D. Henderson's The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art [1]. I wondered what a four-dimensional (4D) object might look like in our three-dimensional (3D) space.

My experiments involved creating ephemeral experiences, using light, sound, shadows, reflections and kinetics. How- ever, I found that the very three-dimensionality of physical materials were inherently restricting my ability to express no- tions of a fourth dimension. I became interested in virtual

reality (VR), a medium unrestrained by physical and dimen- sional constraints. At this time, VR was used mainly for real- ism and representation-the synthesis of a perspectival, 3D

space complete with accepted laws of physics. My project was to challenge these dominant paradigms and move towards abstraction-to synthesize a "virtual unreality."

DYNAMIC FORM AND THE FOURTH

DIMENSION

Popular thinking considers time as the fourth dimension; there is, however, a viewpoint that conceptualizes a fourth di-

mension that is perpendicular to the acknowledged three spatial dimensions and that is the basis of such ideas as the hypercube and curved space.

A wonderful analogy that may help visualize this extra dimen- sion is described in Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott [2]. In this

parable the reader is given the

viewpoint of a square creature liv- ing in a 2D world. The square

ABSTRACT

Early twentieth-century art, including the works of Duchamp and the Cubists, attempted to por- tray aspects of a reality that were beyond sensory perception, such as multiple perspectives, the fourth dimension and curved space. Virtual reality (VR) now of- fers artists a soft medium for cre- ating artificial experiences of space, time and energy through mathematical models. In this ar- ticle the author outlines his artistic explorations leading to the cre- ation of Alembic, an alchemical VR installation that challenges the representational simulation of real- ity often associated with the me- dium of VR.

cannot conceive of a third, higher dimension and, when vis- ited by a 3D sphere, sees only a point changing to a growing, then diminishing and finally disappearing circle.

I have tried to picture a 4D manifestation by imagining the 3D rules that might be broken by a 4D form: for example, an

object that changes form, materiality or motion dependent upon the unique viewpoint of each perceiver. I coined the term "Dynamic Form" for this type of manifestation, only to discover this term had already been used by Umberto Boccioni in reference to his sculpture entitled Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Boccioni suggests that dynamic form is a

"species of the fourth dimension" and suggests that his sculp- ture represents "the sum of the potential unfolding of the three known dimensions" [3].

I use the term to describe the interrelated concepts of

space, time and energy-form as a manifestation in 3D space, time as representing a change in form, energy as a means of

influencing change and form.

EXPLORATIONS OF SPACE, TIME AND ENERGY All of my work attempts to highlight phenomena that our senses are not well adapted to register and interpret-the slow metamorphosis of matter over time, the apparent mate-

riality of energy in the form of raw electricity. I created works that focus on the idea of "opposition," a con-

cept inherent in our way of thinking and apparently manifest in the world of science. I combined opposing elements, such as alkaline and acidic materials and positive and negative charges, in order to reveal a theoretical neutral zone, a place that is nei- ther one nor the other, a place of tension and flux. In these experiments, I identified with an ideology present in alchemy,

Richard D. Brown (artist, research fellow), Computer Related Design, Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU, United Kingdom. E-mail: <[email protected]>.

LEONARDO, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 21-25, 2000 21 ? 2000 ISAST

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

July 1994 Apnl 1Y99 Fig. 1. Time Mirror, time-based sculptural work of metals, glass and other materials, 6 x 4 x 1/4 inches, 1994-1998. Time Mirror utilized the electro-chemical reaction between copper, aluminum, iron and a silvered mirror placed in an acidic solution and sandwiched in cotton wool between glass plates. (? Richard D. Brown)

where the perceiver is integral to the ex-

periment. The aim of alchemists was to transform themselves internally by enact-

ing change upon the material world

through a series of external processes. Considering the perceiver as integral to the experience, I saw my works using combinations of opposites as objects that

suggested transformations in the viewer

through demonstrating and embodying the processes of change over time.

Time Mirror Time Mirror (Fig. 1) exhibits electro- chemical reactions between metals-

copper, iron, aluminum and a silvered mirror-held in a conductive fluid and sandwiched between glass. This work is a changing form that undergoes trans- formations of matter through time. The copper migrates to the iron, while the aluminum dissolves to produce lay- ers of white strata. At the edges of the

piece, mold forms. Watching the pro- cess on a daily basis, catching sight of oneself in the mirror within the piece, prompts a sense of self-awareness, re-

flection on present and past, external and internal.

Time Mirror was part of a series of ex- periments involving transmutations of substances, both organic and inorganic, over time. The viewer's fundamental role, as the person who perceives and re- members the changes, is as important in

giving "life" to the work as are the chemi- cal reactions occurring in the object.

De Lux De Lux (Fig. 2) concerns the representa- tion, transformation and manifestation of energy from both scientific and eso- teric viewpoints. The Hermetic notion "As above, so below" [4] suggests the idea of an invisible dimension from which our world is made manifest; while

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle [5] conceptualizes the idea that viewers af- fect what they observe. In De Lux, these two ideologies are synthesized as follows.

When no one is present, the upper cube of light pulsates, suggesting the purity and otherworldliness of Platonic form. When a viewer approaches the

work, its upper part de-activates, and the lower portion of the work, a steel sine wave construction, lights up while rotat- ing slowly, pivoting on a steel plate em- bedded in earth. This action suggests the transformation of energy in re- sponse to the viewer, from an invisible

higher form of energy to a lower, physi- cally base manifestation.

De Lux is a diagrammatic construction

alluding to ideas of forms and forces not

quite visible or conceivable, as if they existed in a dimension outside of our accepted three. I have made use of illu- sion and apparent magic-the rapid flickering of the light cube makes it ap- pear to jump in space, while the steel

cage rotates and is illuminated without

any visible source of power. De Lux ac-

knowledges the esoteric: invisible elec- tricity flows from above to below, passing through its steel cage and terminating at the electrically earthed steel plate.

Infinite Resonance I intended Infinite Resonance (Fig. 3) to

provide an experience for the viewer

22 Brown, Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 4: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

where space may be perceived as fluid, and time as static. In this piece, the viewer enters the installation and sees what appear to be two polished steel cones suspended in space. One cone

slowly becomes transparent, as if made of glass, suggesting an apparent change in materiality. Each cone alternately metamorphoses from the appearance of steel to glass and back again. Accompa- nying these transitions, the cones emit a low tone tuned to the resonant fre-

quency of the space. The sound appears to change in response to the movements of the viewer, when actually the viewers are moving through a static sound sculp- ture. The sound space has physical form, as if the immateriality and fluidness of sound could be solidified. The changing appearance of the cones and the subjec- tive quality of the sound are intended to allude to the idea of space in flux, while their slow rhythmic oscillations and con- stant tone suggest a form of time that is

cyclic yet without progression. This work, alongside several other in-

stallations, investigated ways by which 4D attributes might manifest in 3D

space. Feeling constrained by working with physical media in a world of immu-

Fig. 3. Infinite Resonance, site-specific installation of 3-ft long cones and 2-ft diameter steel cage construction covered in silver Mylar, 1995. The cones housed loudspeakers and light sources. An external passive infrared sensor activated dual oscillating dimmer electronics (on 10-second cycles) and a tuned oscillator that drove the loudspeakers at the resonant frequency of the installation space. (? Richard D. Brown)

table laws, I wanted to investigate the

perception and manipulation of form via mathematics and programming, us-

ing technology associated with VR.

Fig. 2. De Lux, elec- _ lc .y tronic sculpture,

S :'4;

. q is1993. This sus-

:! ~~ ~pended structure : i *: ! consisted of a cube

* .'.'':'Ilil . of light constructed

of 12 4-ft fluorescent

. tubes powered by high-voltage electron-

^i ics and a 9-x-3-ft sine wave steel structure with low-voltage fan and lights, and an in-

.... teractive sensor. This work concerns the representation, trans- formation and mani- festation of energy. (? Richard D. Brown)

The idea of abandoning materiality in favor of a virtual medium was expressed in the "Manifeste Dimensioniste," pub- lished in 1936 and signed by a number of artists including Duchamp, Moholy- Nagy and Kandinsky: "Then must come the creation of an absolutely new art: cosmic art (vaporisation of sculpture), syno-sense theatre. The total conquest of the art of 4d space (a Vacuum artis until now). Rigid material is abolished and replaced by gaseous materials" [6].

VIRTUAL REALITY VR creates the illusion of three-dimen-

sionality without any of the constructive restraints found in physical reality. Via

programming, I set out to develop the idea of Dynamic Form-to create inter- active virtual forms that encapsulated the interrelated concepts of space, time and energy. I created a website [7] to chart my research at the Royal College of Art in London.

VR has a number of associations: head sets and data gloves, flight simulators and gaming. VR assumes a Euclidean universe, where objects retain their ge- ometry over space and time. Renais- sance perspective is simulated by the camera viewpoint. Animation occurs

along a time line where the camera and a hierarchic list of objects move in rela- tion to each other. A pseudo-realistic modeling of perceived reality is achieved through rendering, lighting and texture maps. These assumptions

Brown, Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form 23

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 5: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

Fig. 4. Alembic, computer installation of rubber flooring, white sand, aerials, computer, MIT Fish device, speakers and projector, 12 x 12 ft, 1997. (? Richard D. Brown. Photo: ?

Douglas Cape, 1997.) By moving around the circular projection, viewers can influence the blue, purple and red crystalline forms that melt into rushing particles, which may then con- dense into cloud and liquid-like forms. Alembic refers to the qualities of the elements in flux through motion and interaction rather than photographic representation.

are appropriate for the use of VR in "real-world" design and architecture; however, as an artistic medium for the

expression of Dynamic Form, these as-

sumptions prove to be inherently restric- tive.

Alembic Alembic is an alchemical term for the dis- tillation vessel that was used in the pro- cessing of matter in the quest for the

philosopher's stone. The notion of an

incubating vessel, the alembic, with its alchemical connotations of the transfor- mation of the viewer as well as matter, emphasized the interdependence of the

subjective and the objective. I saw this as an analogy to a 4D form manifesting it- self in 3D space, changing shape and material in response to the viewer's pres- ence. The viewer in the installation takes

on the role of the alchemist, the creator of his or her own reality.

Alembic (Figs 4, 5) is a site-specific geo- metrical installation to be viewed with 3D glasses. Imagery is projected onto a circle of white sand, appearing to the viewer as a sphere that cuts through the floor. This effect parallels the analogies in Flatland [8] and juxtaposes the illu- sion of 3D against a material 2D plane. Viewers often reach into the virtual

sphere to be surprised by tactile contact with the sand. The alembic state

changes according to the position of the viewer, each corner of the square being associated with an alchemical element: fire, air, water or earth. By moving around the circular projection, viewers are able to influence the contents of the alembic; blue, purple and red crystalline forms melt into rushing particles, which

may then condense into cloud- and liq- uid-like forms. These changes are re- flected in the dynamism of the 3D forms and are accompanied by filtered white noise designed to evoke elemental asso- ciations.

Alembic runs on a Pentium Pro with 3D graphics acceleration and uses the Sense 8 Worldtoolkit 3D library. I pro- grammed the work in the "C" program- ming language. The position of the viewer(s) is sensed by an MIT Fish [9]. Under the rubber mat, a layer of alumi- num foil acts as a transmission surface.

People walking on the mat become mov-

ing transmitters, their position and movement being detected by the four corner aerials.

The Alembic program synthesizes form from the basic mathematical idea of a zero dimensional (OD) point, which may be developed in space as a 1D vector, a 2D plane and, finally, a 3D form. In Alembic this is both a continuous and a

two-way process dependent upon user interaction. The perception of time and

change is produced by describing en-

ergy relationships between points in

space. These relationships define the relative velocity and acceleration of the

points, giving rise to the perception of material-like qualities, e.g. elasticity. The movement and position of the viewer control both the energy relationships between points and the two-way transi- tion between OD points and 3D form. The combination of these two processes results in the experience of dynamic form, which has a fluidity of transforma- tion and materiality.

Work in Development Biotica developed from the principles of Alembic and is inspired by organic mate- rials. This work is abstracted from the

principles of chemistry, cellular biology, genetics and neurology. Notions of mor-

Fig. 5. Alembic, computer installation, 1997. Computer graphics showing the transformation of dynamic form in response to user inter- actions. The imagery is projected onto a 6-ft diameter circle of white silica sand on the floor. When viewed through Chromadepth? glasses the imagery appears to move within a 3D sphere. The installation offers the viewer a fluid and responsive experience, a space of both contemplation and action, referencing alchemical ideologies of transformation within and without. (C Richard D. Brown)

24 Brown, Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 6: Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form: An Exploration of Space, Time and Energy

phogenesis, dynamic form and growth are realized by mathematical, geometric and computational simulations. In Biotica I wish to question our perception of living entities by immersing the viewer in a visceral, responsive yet ab- stract experience through which they fly using their arms to navigate. Rather than trying to create Artificial Life

through engineered and rendered mim-

icry, Biotica challenges our understand-

ing and cognition of "aliveness" through the emergence of simple dynamic forms with complex "life-like" behavior [10].

In another work in progress, Stasis [ 11 ], I explore the imaginative power of the mind to create the illusion of a per- ceived reality. My aim is to create the ex-

perience of subjective realities through hypnosis and psychosynthesis [12] using interactive digital audio technology. Sta- sis is intended to represent an ultimate vision of virtual reality, where the imagi- nation may conjure up experiences that

appear to be real, including emotive, tactile and olfactory sensations as well as visual imagery.

SUMMARY

My recent work explores notions of ob-

jective and subjective realities, drawing on art as a means of expression, and sci- ence as a basis for abstraction. Alembic

encapsulated this ideology in the form of a responsive experience, synthesizing art, science and the esoteric, encourag- ing subjectivity and questioning the no- tion of an objective reality. The VR illu- sion of a perceived reality is created by a 3D mathematical program translated into perspectival vision. This program may be used to simulate physical phe- nomena such as a bouncing ball. We

may assume that if we have access to the

knowledge that creates this illusion, we

will gain a greater comprehension of the

perceived phenomena. This is true for the bouncing ball program: we can pre- dict its future path. Programs that simu- late complex behavior, either through particle systems or models of morpho- genesis, are often non-deterministic- the outcome of the simulation cannot be predicted until computed.

VR may thus offer a means of creating surprising phenomena of incomprehen- sible origination, while also suggesting that we may never be able to fully com-

prehend that which we perceive even if we did have access to the underlying rule set.

Can a VR simulation inform our cog- nition of space, time and energy? Using VR to create "virtual unrealities" I seek to challenge our perceptual and concep- tual mechanisms with the hope of

throwing light on our assumed and per- haps innate interpretations of space and time.

I suggest that a post-millennium con- sciousness must not only synthesize the art-science divide, but also take into ac- count the role of the perceiver as an ac- tive constructor of reality, intimately bound to that which is perceived, an ide-

ology long recognized in the esoteric.

According to Ouspensky:

The idea of time has not arisen from the observation of motion existing in nature, but that very sensation and idea of motion has arisen from a "time- sense" existing in ourselves, which is an imperfect sense of space: the fringe, or limit of our "space-sense" [13].

Acknowledgments Alembic was premiered at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, March 1997, and has since been ex- hibited at the International Symposium of Elec- tronic Arts (ISEA), Chicago, September 1997, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, November 1997 and April 1998. I am grateful for

the support from Interval Research and the Royal College of Art for making this work possible. The Biotica project has been made possible through a Wellcome Trust Sci-Art award, a grant from the British Arts Council and long-term research fund- ing from Intel Corporation towards the develop- ment of interactive real-time 3D artworks.

References and Notes

1. Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983) chapter 1.

2. Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by a Square (London: Seely & Co., 1884).

3. Henderson [1] p. 110.

4. From item 2 of the translation of "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes," twelfth century A.D. See <http:// www.levity.com/alchemy/emerald.html>.

5. Karl Heisenberg proposed the uncertainty prin- ciple in 1927. It states that both the position and the momentum of a small particle cannot be known at the same time, resulting in the idea that only a probability can be given to the exact location of a particle.

6. Charles Sirato, "The Manifeste Dimensioniste," Revue N+l (1936). Quoted in Henderson [1] p. 343.

7. My website documenting Alembic and my re- search activities can be accessed at: <http:// www.crd.rca.ac.uk/~richardb>.

8. See Abbott [2].

9. Details of the MIT Fish apparatus can be found at: <http://www.crd.rca.ac.uk/-richardb/ MIT Fish_links.html>.

10. Since I wrote this article, Biotica was exhibited at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, September 1999. For more details see website <http://www.crd.rca.ac.uk/~richardb/biotica/>.

11. R.D. Brown, "Stasis: The Creation and Explora- tion of Subjective Realities through Hypnosis, Psy- chosynthesis and Interactive Digital Technology," Concsciousness Reframed II (Newport, Wales: Univ. of Wales College, 1998). This paper presented was at the CAiiA Research Conference: Art and Con- sciousness in the Post-Biological Era, Newport, Gwent, August 1998.

12. Roberto Assagioli, Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques (London: Turnstone, 1975).

13. P.D. Ouspensky, Tertium Organum (U.K.: Kegan Paul, Random House, 1923, 1982) p. 100.

Manuscript received 16January 1997.

Brown, Virtual Unreality and Dynamic Form 25

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.174 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:03:56 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions