> The idea is centred around virtual worlds which exist in terms of
> mathematic constructs , algorithms and other mathematical theory.
> The multiple actors and agents who exist in this world are not
> defined as geometric representations of any form , but exist as
> variable mathematical entities which through their changes affect
> and influence the mathematical whole.
>
> The way in which agents ( either autonomous or user controlled )
> would influence this state affairs would be theoretically unlimited and
> controlled by the client application . An agent might carry out operations
> with reference to some external data source - a data file , a
> communications stream , an audio data stream or even another
> mathematical agent.
> Has anyone else been thinking about this sort of thing in this way , and if so
> are there any mailing lists setup ?
This sounds a lot like what Nate Pagel and Marcos Novak are
working on down here in Austin TX. Marcos is a professor
in the school of architecture here at UT, Nate is president
of local VRASP society. Contact [email protected]
--linas
An excerpt of a bygone event below:
>There will be an interactive VR performance in Austin, Texas AND Santa
>Monica, California - February 3rd and 4th at 8:30pm (Central). These will
>be performances that I am organizing in conjuction with Marcos Novak, The
>Electronic Cafe (TM), VRASP (the Virtual Reality Alliance of Students and
>Professionals), The University of Texas, the VRSIG of the LA chapter of
>IICS (International Interactive Communications Society), Silicon Graphics
>Inc., Polhemus, Inc. and Virtual Research.=20
>
>Individuals can be immersed in Novak's 'liquid architectures,' virtual
>worlds of incredible beauty and complexity, by using a head-mounted
>display, magnetic position trackers and an extremely capable computer.=20
>
>The immersed person in Austin can 'meet' the immersed individual in Santa=
>Monica in the same virtual space. From this virtual world, they can both=
>see windows to the real world (which is live video from cameras in each=20
>place). The combination of these two accomplishments at once within a=20
>cultural context has never before been experienced.
>
>There will be a live video-teleconference at the same time between=20
>California and Texas. A live dance performance in Austin will enhance=20
>the program.
>
>In Austin: The event, entitled TransTerraFirma, will be held at the
>University of Texas, RLM (Robert Lee Morris/Physics) Building, Room 4.102
>- Ground Floor Auditorium. Call Nate Pagel at 512 370-4624 or email
>[email protected] to rsvp. Room assignment may change. $5 donation requested.=
>
>In Santa Monica: The event will be held at the Electronic Cafe
>International, 1649 18th St. Call 310 828-8732 or email [email protected].=
>
>The Virtual Reality
>
>The algorithmically composed architecture of these worlds spans the
>continuum between the solid and the ethereal. Each manifestation has been
>chosen to be unbuildable in the physical world. Spaces exist whose
>boundaries are solid and whose forms are constant; farther along the
>continuum are forms that have been mathematically 'grown;' beyond these
>are forms, still static, that are sculpturally considered mathematical
>functions. All these architectures challenge what we understand as
>architeture, and how we proceed in conceiving and making spaces, but they
>are just the beginning. Beyond these are architectonic manifestations that
>are no longer static, but that move interactively or autonomously. Here
>the architecture becomes a field of elements. Everywhere there is parallax
>and drift, spatial and otherwise, adding depth to the reality of the
>worlds. The entire performance demands a fracture in not only how we think
>of architecture but of the future, Art and reality itself.=20
>
>Some Worlds:
>A world in which there is a small heart within the center of an
>architectural maze. The heart is an eye and a portal. The whole sky is
>filled with a constellation of hundreds of indecipherable smiles. The
>smiles are calm as long as you stay near the heart, but they spin ever
>more wildly the farther you get from it.=20
>
>A world in which an impossibly slender floating city - formed using
>algorithms that simulate the growth of plants - is found within another,
>vast heart made of bones. If one gets lost in the chambers of that heart,
>one may never find the way out.=20
>
>A world that is cavernous, crystalline, made of mystic patterns within
>which arrays of shapes alternate between algorithmic dances and the
>swimming patterns of schools of artificial subaquatic life.=20
>
>A world that constitutes the first immersive experience of the fourth
>spatial dimension. A series of four-dimensional structures rotate (in the
>fourth dimension, of course) around a vestige of the cartesian coordinate
>system. Their shadows are three-dimensional architectures that enjoy a
>complex but graceful transformational dance. Walls advance gently toward
>the viewer, pass right through, and continue. This world is in constant
>motion.=20
>
>These worlds are connected by portals floating in space, that disappear
>once you fly through them, as if the doors you walk through could vanish
>behind you and reemerge elsewhere.=20
>
>Some Elements:
>A constellation of hundreds of rotating octahedra remains calm when the
>viewer is near the center of the world, within the eye of the storm, but
>rotates increasingly rapidly as the viewer loses touch with that center. A
>series of 'dancers,' these shapes flock, cluster, and scatter near, around
>and through the viewer.=20
>
>An intelligent fog that changes color and density according to the
>viewer's orientation.=20
>
>A set of 'pulsars,' consisting of a cubic grid of diagonal lines whose
>lengths grow and diminish, coming in and out of existence, giving the
>spaces a slow heartbeat.=20
>
>'Memory screens' of advertisement eyes, talking heads of torture victims,
>mystic geometries and clues into the construction of the world.=20
>The Music
>
>The music is an effort at 'navigable music,' conceived as a slowly
>evolving soundscape, composed as a multidimensional surface across which
>the viewer travels. What is heard at any given time is the outcome of the
>viewer=D5s trajectory, fast or slow, interesting or uninteresting in direct
>proportion to the energy and curiosity invested in exploring the various
>chambers. All aspects of the sound are contingent upon the actions of the
>viewer, his or her position, velocity, attitude, trajectory, history.
>Moreover, the music is not passive, but actively alters the turns of
>events within the chambers: as the composition tracks the viewer and makes
>decisions about the sonic events, it also triggers visual events in the
>form of semi-autonomous dancing forms within the environment.=20
>
>TransTerraFirma Project Description
>
>For the 'message' of any medium or technology is the change of scale or
>pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.=20
[...snip ...]