Test_Lab: Immersive Mixed Reality Environments
Test_Lab: Immersive Mixed Reality Environments is the product of a unique collaboration between the Erasmus Medical Centre and V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media with the aim of opening the dialogue between scientists and artists that apply Virtual Reality in their research and art practice.
The event consists of demonstrations by Virtual Reality artists and scientists providing hands-on experiences with Immersive Mixed Reality Environments, and presentations by renowned international speakers presenting the latest in Virtual Reality in science and art. See below for the program details, a description of the projects that will be demonstrated, and the invited speakers that will present their work in the seminar.
Demonstrations
11.00-12.30, Erasmus MC Bio-informatics dept., Faculty building 15th floor:
Artist Sonia Cillari will demonstrate a project called GATC / life, which she realised as an artist-in-residence at V2_ and in collaboration with Erasmus Medical Centre’s Bio-informatics department.
GATC / life is an immersive experience inside unities of life. The liquid multi-colored breathing membrane (the 'inside') contains flocks of cells and smallest particles/molecules having disordered human-like noisy behaviours. Our presence and actions can influence their configurations and growth within the space and around/near us. This work explores our perception in a condition of extended body dimensions and lack of control.
Biomedical research
Anton Koning will demonstrate applications for clinical and fundamental research.
Developer Artem Baguinski will demonstrate an art project by artist Pierre Proske called Deep Limb Sensation. The project is the result of an artist-in-residence period at V2_ funded by the Pauwhof Fonds and developed in collaboration with Erasmus Medical Centre’s Bio-informatics department.
In augmented- and virtual-reality environments one is often represented by avatars or virtual bodies/limbs. Deep Limb Sensation exploits this disconnection between our physical bodies and our bodies as we conceive them by having a person use their real arm to activate a "phantom" limb in a virtual world. The context in which this game-play takes place is a deep sea immersive underwater environment, in which a limb is controlled with the aim of touching another creature to accomplish a gentle act of virtual invertebrate love-making.
Presentations
12.30-18.00, Sophia Children's Hospital, Cinema 3rd floor:
Peter van der Spek is professor at Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam and head of the Department of Bioinformatics. In a world awash with data there is an increasing need for effective methods of gaining insight into associated and underlying information. We need methods for visualizing information to support rapid learning and accurate decision making. The talk will emphasize on various aspects of information visualization using real world examples besides lifesciences and medical applications of computer generated interactive information visualization methods. Information visualization deals with the representation and presentation of concepts and data in a meaningful way. Depending on the medium used, information can be visualized in either traditional static form or more recent and powerful interactive and dynamic using virtual reality technology.
Derek Hales is Research Leader for the Department of Creative Technologies at the University of Huddersfield School of Art & Design, where he also leads the Multimedia subject area. He is a chartered Architect and a regional councillor of the Royal Institute of British Architects, chairing their Digital Futures Group. In the Immersive Mixed Reality Environments seminar, Derek Hales will present his current research on exploring virtual environments and the impact of such environments on contemporary practice.
Yike Guo is professor at Imperial College, University of London and head of the Data Mining Group at Imperial College. He is a world leading expert in large scale data mining and Grid computing. He will introduce DiscoveryNet, an e-science pilot project, aiming to provide a uniform framework for enabling a global collaboration for scientists in their data-driven scientific research. This project achieved its goal and has been successfully commercialized by InforSense limited, an Imperial College spin-out company. One key impact of the DiscoveryNet technology is that it establishes a new model for scientific collaboration as well as knowledge dissemination.
Maurice Benayoun is a media artist whose work explores the potentiality of various media from video to virtual reality, Web and wireless art, public space large scale art installations and interactive exhibitions. Benayoun's work has been widely exhibited all over the world and received numerous international awards and prizes. For the Immersive Mixed Reality Environments seminar he will focus on the concept of ‘situation’ applied to art. Based on his 15 years experience in creating VR-based works, Maurice Benayoun will address topics such as: Experiencing representation through VR in metaphorical environments (Does this introduce the metaphysics of games or the mechanics of human dialogue?), semantic spaces as information to live in, the bible of the VR World: something to read by visiting, virtual architecture as being-prints, the foot prints of our experience in the symbolic world, and much more.
Anne Nigten is the manager of V2_Lab, the aRt&D department of V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She lectures on research and development in interdisciplinary fields from an art perspective and is advisor for several media art and science initiatives in Europe. Anne will moderate the Immersive Mixed Reality Environments seminar and will use her experience in interdisciplinary debates to provoke a dialogue between the presenting scientists and artists, and the audience.
