The Museum of Colliding Dimensions

Back to the Future of Hybrid Worlds

Today Wade and I are re-working the VR component of our Rift World... and going back to my original 'hybrid reality' concept:

Start in a our familiar reality (virtually)

move into a ‘hybrid zone’ where this reality and another begin to merge

find yourself in a total alternate reality - the Platonic Dimension

When first conceiving this project, I collected an initial inventory of things that Wade and I referred to throughout the production process:

Crystal Caves at Naica, Mexico 

Anything by Anish Kapoor

2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, Crystal World by JD Ballard, Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke and Annihilation by Jeff VanDermeer

Play Testing 1, 2, 3...

The Encounter: Top 4 images are of the Platonic Rift... a large projection that is strangely effected by people as they move in and out of light and sound zones in the space

Museum Didactics

One of a few Didactics at the first presentation of The Museum of Colliding Dimensions a the QUT CreateX Festival

Experimenting with VR and Floor Tracking

Here Nathan is wearing our new HTC Vive and can see a virtual version of the very room we are in. Nathan can see Ryan walking in the space in real time... as a platonic shape.

Ryan is being tracked by the SICK sensors we have installed in the space... the sensors send data to Unity which renders a view to the VR headsets.

Projection Mapping Experiments

Starting to get this whole projection mapping stuff sorted...

So far we have fabricated the large shards for the installation ... then placed in in the space... and mapped imagery using a single projector (and an image of goats!? #ProgrammerHumour) The coverage from the one projector wrapped all around this shard... very happy with these initial results.

Play Test: Synching the Floor Tracking Scanners, Sound Samples and Lighting Controls

We have set up SICK laser scanners to track when visitors move into certain marked zones in the space... that trigger lights to brighten and sound samples to play.

Here is our first test ... with all of the elements synchronising. So great to see it working!

You can also here a draft version of the installation sound work inspired by early 90s trance and SciFi soundtracks (Orb, Orbital, Future Sounds of London, Vangelis etc Here is our team Spotify Playlist https://open.spotify.com/user/1278075743/playlist/1QczyUyN0h0VLhSMJhiXMq )

How this works:

Nathan creates sounds in Fruity Loops (FL Studio) and ProTools

Imports audio samples into Ableton - to add logic (interactive functions) to the sounds to be triggered in the installation zone.

Ableton then listens to trigger events (zone events) from Unity which is receiving floor tracking data from the SICK laser scanners 

Unity simultaneously sends DMX lighting data to hardware dimmers running in the room.... resulting in the actual lights to brighten and sounds to play through an 8 channel speaker system...

In the next Play Test, we will also see how the Projection Mapping responds to the movement of visitors into the trigger zones!!! 

Final Play Test will be how all of this is experienced in the Virtual Dimension - As the visitors enter the HTC Vive zone!!

The Virtual Dimension

My first descent into our gorgeous World in an Oculus Rift... Pure Yumminess

Ryan managed to get it working in no time using an older version of the Oculus DK2 and a iMac with very low frame rate!!

Later Wade added his floating glowing particles and it got even better.

Just another wonderful project moment...

Can’t wait to get delivery of the HTC Vives to see it in its’ full glory and share it with friends!

Our Rift World will be presented in a number of ways for the full Hybrid installation:

Projection mapped across 2 walls and a floor (large corner display)

VR Experience

Wade's latest experiments visualising the Rift World... 

Today the team visited GOMA to see some of the works that give a visitor a unique experience that somehow relates to our project.

Most exciting was getting to experience a work by Anish Kapoor who has been a major inspiration for me that I have shared with the team since we started…

We also saw Timo Nasseri’s ‘Epistrophy VI’ 2012 that was on display as part of the Tim Fairfax collection.

It was important for me to share some of my favourite works currently on display locally in order to share

my aesthetic preference/inclination for this project

the visitor experience with particular works of scale and physical depth

Laser Tracking Sensors as Main Input Devices

Thanks to Adam Siliato, Ryan has the SICK Laser Scanning System (3 sensor devices in 3 corners of a defined area of the room) set up in the Studio to start working on the interaction model. The foot tracking system provides the main input data reporting the position and movement of visitors to control various sonic and visual components of the Fluid Dimensions installation.

We are specifically using the SICK LMS100 model

Adam Siliato has created a custom interface for combining data from multiple sensors into a single feed that Ryan then brings into Unity to provide the positional data of visitors in the installation ‘Active Zone’. Depending on the position, direction and distribution of visitors, various audio visual components react.

Moments of User Agency Recognition

Fluid Dimensions and Hybrid Worlds Playlist

https://open.spotify.com/user/1278075743/playlist/1QczyUyN0h0VLhSMJhiXMq

In creating a playlist for this project I have collected a bunch of tracks from my past days… and some new indulgences… but the list is not intended as a direct reference or indication of the final sounds for the installation… but merely a kind of sonic ‘tone’ or collection of abstract inventory to share with the team… in particular Nathan (sound designer)

In searching for sounds and samples… I have come across event more spooky similarities in aesthetic designs in the cover art… akin to our visual brief.

oh… and I tossed in a few favourite SciFi soundtracks… as I was considering including a bit of sampling?!? Orbital and Orb use SciFi samples in many of their tracks… but of dialogue rather than of the soundtracks themselves… 

An obvious one is Orbital’s ‘Time Becomes’ which is a sample from Star Trek Next Generation (the fact that I know this must remain forever more our secret). Another of their tracks, ‘Walk Now’ has a Bladerunner sample mixed in with street crossing sounds and didgeridoo samples…

Orb’s album ‘Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld’ samples  Flash Gordon, Dr. Strangelove and a documentary of the NASA Apollo missions … 

(SPNN)

Sonic Adventures

Hybrid Space for an Augmented Reality

This morning the team finally got to see the space we are designing for!

This is the new R&D Lab for the Creative Industries Faculty in the new high tech performance precinct in Brisbane: http://fluiddimensions.tumblr.com/hybridspace

We met with Andy Arthurs who is Directing the big launch event for this precinct on August 28, 2016... and the technical staff that will be involved with the space and event. 

Kayne Humman (centre of top left image) will become a critical part of our team as we start to test the limits and opportunities of this space and the technologies we have planned to use in our project. Kayne is a guru of music and sound... but will also be managing the installation and testing of the work as it develops... helping us to refine the scope, aesthetic treatment and mechanical interactions etc

This space is scheduled to be painted entirely black later this week. The walls are ‘sacrificial’ and the rig above is impressive. We will get to play with projectors, lighting and sound effects in ways we had not imagined before this visit. Our first challenge is how to resolve the black rigging poles along the walls... but we have some ideas and will get to test the projection quality as soon as NEXT WEEK!!!

Hybrid Forms from Mixed Realities

In keeping with the theme of ‘Hybrid Worlds’… real/imaginary, physical/virtual, fantasy/history… 

We are now also considering the 3D Printed Artefacts to be made up of a mixture of the forms from the Rift World (virtual projection) and from the Physical World (CIP) … a kind of Mutant Form of the real and the imaginary… these forms are intended to be positioned on plinths in front of the Rift World projection… and have sensors installed so they can be used to control different aspects of the virtual Rift World… such as the density of shapes, emanating sounds, changing colours, navigation through the space etc

Above images:

Susy Oliveira’s ‘Bird on a Log’  http://susyoliveira.ca/ and http://www.artandsciencejournal.com/post/25725498542/susy-oliveira-susy-oliveira-a-toronto-based 

Deb’s ‘Covert Abstractions’ - images from actual gallery spaces, abstracted and re-formed into virtual shapes (password: coverts)