East by West
"East by West" is a networked telepresence environment by Johannes Birringer, Orm Finnendhal, and Sher Doruff. It was part of the DEAF03 exhibition.
Birringer/Doruff/Finnendahl: East by West
East by West consists of two separate rooms, one with an orange grove and one with boccia balls on a sand beach. These two interactive environments are connected live by audio-visual streaming media. Both environments invite the visitors to play with the objects they find there. In both rooms there is one object (a hanging orange in the West room and a fluorescent ball in the East room) which are tracked as their positions change. Any changes are mirrored on a video screen with black, grey and sometimes red circles. The position of the fluorescent ball in the East room is visually represented on the display by a grey circle. The other black circles on the display represent sounds. Their position and size is determined by the tracked orange in the West room. Whenever the grey circle intersects with a black circle, the black circle turns red and the according sound can be heard through the loudspeakers in both rooms. Spatiality, volume and other sound qualities depend on the speed and location of the tracked objects. The installation invites the visitor to try out different interactive games between the remote locations. One objective could be to try to hit or avoid triggering of samples: the faster the orange swings, the harder it gets to hit circles with the fluorescent ball. The video representation allows for imaginative, user-defined playing and communication between the spaces. It requires some creativity of the visitors, because not every movement is immediately visible or audible in the rooms and it is not always clear what effect a movement has. The visitors¡¦ behaviour not only causes changes in the spatial and acoustic properties of the installation, but also in the way time and spatiality are experienced.
European Culture 2000 project in collaboration with Cynet and Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau from Dresden (D) KeyWorx plug-in: Fokke de Jong, Waag Society (NL); Simon de Bakker (programmer).
More: http://www.aliennationcompany.com/gallery/realtime.htm
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East by West bestaat uit een sinaasappelboomgaard en een zandstrand met bocciaballen twee interactieve omgevingen die live verbonden zijn via audiovisuele streaming-media. Beide omgevingen nodigen de bezoeker uit te spelen met de daar aanwezige objecten. Door het gedrag van het publiek veranderen de ruimtelijke en akoestische aspecten van de installatie, evenals de beleving van tijd.
