The Shared Spaces project is a collaborative virtual reality experience on a VR Portal installation system. The space is designed to be a community meeting area where participants from varied backgrounds can come together in a tele-immersive environment and cooperate to create a mutually meaningful convergence. These participants will be able to join into the virtual world through the VR Portal at the MCA and from other physically remote VR systems. Through the passage of time, the space evolves into a collective expression of the participants intentions. The virtual objects and activities in the space begin as pre-determined constructs by the artists and gradually develop based on user-input.

The virtual environment is sub-divided into three seperate areas accessible from a main entranceway. Participants are first confronted with "Confluxus", an architectural portal that reacts to the positions and movements of the users within it by revealing only the parts of the structure that are within users' proximity. Within this space, the participants can see each others' avatars leaving trails from their wake in the 3D architectural grid. From here, participants are encouraged to move to one of the three virtual project rooms(Infinite Studio, Super Spectacular and Syn.aesthetic).

Project Descriptions

Infinite Studio

by Todd Margolis

Infinite Studio is a new paradigm of "art-making," that allow users to create, in real-time, interactive virtual reality artwork from inside a virtual environment. Using a color palette and several drawing and modeling tools, participants can create and modify virtual objects for any effect desired.

Super Spectacular

by Tim Portlock

My intention when I started this project was to begin a long term exploration of certain issues particular to the process of creating art within the medium of virtual reality - specifically what types of creative processes could be developed that would allow the most direct way of going from concept to realization. This exploration in turn effected the how I approached the subject matter, content and narrative structure of the project.

Syn.aesthetic

by Geoffrey Baum and Keith Miller

Syn.aesthetic is an environment where the sonic input/traces of participants are used to create a three dimensional score/recording of all sound created in the space. Each sound manifests itself as a virtual object as though the sound had been made visible at its point of creation. Parameters gathered and interpreted from the sonic input are used to create the objects.

System Description

The VR Portal is a configurable virtual reality installation system. The compelling experience is derived from its immersive screen, head-tracked 3D computer graphics and real-time interactivity. The large screen ensures the participants' feeling of total immersion while the tracking system allows the computer to know where and how people move so that the virtual world adjusts its display in a corresponding manner. Our input device, the Wanda(TM), enables participants with the ability to interact and affect the virtual spaces. The microphone gives users the ability to control the experience through speech. Two speakers fill the local physical space with the virtual sounds.

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory(EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago first prototyped this system in 2001. Applied Interactives, N.F.P. has since been invited to show this system at the Stray Show(Chicago, IL; 12/01), Who?(Indianapolis, IN; 3/02), Immersions Weekend at the Block Museum(Evanston, IL; 5/02) and ISEA(Tokyo, Japan; 5/02).

Group Bio

Todd Margolis is an artist, educator and programmer. In 1997, he received his BFA in electronic visualization, and is currently an MFA candidate in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Margolis frequently lectures on new media at UIC, Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Margolis has shown work internationally, in such venues as Ars Electronica(Linz, Austria), Art Chicago, ICC(Tokyo, Japan), ISEA(Paris, France) and SIGGRAPH(LA and New Orleans). As an artist-in-residence at (art)n Laboratory, he has collaborated with artists Ed Paschke, Karl Wirsum and Christopher Landreth, and recently participated in the creation of a permanent art installation at Chicago’s Midway Airport.
Margolis is currently developing a new virtual reality system (The Varrier(TM) Auto-Stereographic Display) with EVL Director, Dan Sandin. The results of this research were recently presented at the SPIE 2001 conference, 'Photonics West'. Margolis was also awarded the 2000 Christian and Oline Larsen Scholarship for Electronic Visualization and has been the recipient of a UIC Research Assistantship from 1998 through the present. He is also the primary collaborator on a major project funded by the Canada Council For The Arts entitled 'Where Are You From'.

Tim Portlock is an artist that currently works in the medium of virtual reality. He received a Masters degree from the University of Chicago in art and design where he studied painting and drawing. Prior to working in digital media Portlock worked as a studio painter and muralist. His current work in virtual reality has focused on the ongoing cultural changes that are taking place within large post-industrial cities in the United States. Portlock's work has been exhibited in Gdansk,Poland, COSIGN(Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Ars Electronica (Linz,Austria).

Geoffrey Allen Baum is an artist-programmer who is currently part of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Recent exhibits include Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) and the virtual reality segment of Chicago Artists Month. Baum finds his interests now converge in the common pursuits of the artist and scientist; the examination of the unknown and the beauty revealed in the structure and process of that search. He is a co-founder of Applied Interactives, N.F.P., a collective established as a resource for virtual reality hardware systems and applications development within the community. Applied Interactives additionally educates the public about such systems and technology while expanding the role of virtual reality within the art world. Baum is currently heading a collaborative effort of like-minded artists that are attempting to reveal, through virtual reality, the power of myth as descriptive of shared experience .

Keith Miller is currently an Instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Art and Design and a member of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). He additionally works at (art)n laboratory developing 3d models and graphic content for vintage PHSColograms where he has collaborated with such artists as Ed Paschke, Karl Wirsum and Mr. Imagination. His personal and collaborative works have been shown both nationally and internationally. Selected exhibits include Siggraph 2001 (Los Angeles), Art Chicago 2001, Ars Electronica 2001 (Linz, Austria) and Genomic Art: Portrait of the 21st Century (Santa Cruz, CA). Keith continues his work with VR artist, Franz Fischnaller, as he researches and explores the advanced concepts of computer generated imaging from both an aesthetic and technological perspective.

Media

Title	Shared Spaces
Artists	Todd Margolis, Tim Portlock, Geoffrey Allen Baum, Keith Miller
Year	2002
Physical Shape	7' x 6' rear projection screen
Full physical footprint	7' x 10' x 8'
Medium	VR Portal
Materials	metal frame, flexible screen, 2 projectors, 2 computers, 2 speakers, tracking system
Computer hardware/software	2 Pentium PCs, CAVELib(TM), VRCO Trackd, custom Ygdrasil software

Contact

Name	Applied Interactives, N.F.P. Todd Margolis, Tim Portlock, Geoffrey Allen Baum, Keith Miller
Phone	312.371.0921
Address	926 W. 19th St. Chicago, IL 60608
Email	email all todd@evl.uic.edu portlock@evl.uic.edu xiccarph@evl.uic.edu keith@artn.com