[ISEA2019] Paper: Haru (Hyunkyung) Ji & Graham Wakefield — Conservation of Shadows: Shared Physicality Between Worlds

Abstract

Keywords: Art Installation, Artificial Life, Embodiment, Interactive Art, Mixed Reality, Physical Computing, Shadows, SiteSpecific, Spatial Sound, Virtual Reality

This article describes a site-specific interactive mixed reality installation artwork involving a network of over a hundred motor-actuated bells, projections upon a 4x6m bed of salt, and a dual motion tracked virtual reality perspective inhabited by artificial life and integrating real-time volume capture. This work responds to very specific history of the host venue as a former centre for disease control and reagent storage, through a central conception of shadows as shared physical images between visible and invisible worlds, carried through with dual emphasis on functional and contextual meaning in all components. Details of this context, as well as the technical realization, are followed by discussion of mixed reality art as a site-specific expression, and directions for future development.

Artificial Nature is a research-creation project co-founded by Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield in 2007. Artificial Nature installations have counted over forty exhibits across nine countries, including festivals such as SIGGRAPH, Microwave Hong Kong, and Digital Art Festival Taipei, conferences such as ISEA, EvoWorkshops, and IEEE VIS, venues including La Gaite Lyrique, ZKM, CAFA Beijing, Seoul City Hall, MOXI and the AlloSphere Santa Barbara, long with selection in the VIDA Art & Artificial Life competition (2015) and the Kaleidoscope Virtual Reality showcase (2017).

  • Haru Ji is a media artist exploring the subject of life in art through artificial life worldmaking. She holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from UCSB, USA, and is an assistant professor in DPXA & the Digital Futures programs at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada.
  • Graham Wakefield is an artist-researcher and software developer exploring the liveness of computational media. As Assistant Professor in Computational Arts and Canada Research Chair in Interactive Visualization he directs the Alice Lab at York University.

Full text (PDF) p. 269-275

With special thanks to Mark-David Hosale and students of the Digital Media program at York University (Adiola Palmer, Amir Bahador Rostami, Filiz Eryilmaz, and Nicholas Abbruzzese) for invaluable help putting together the microcontroller network and motor-bell assemblies. This research was undertaken as part of the Vision: Science to Applications program, thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund