when art, desing
and technology become one and only reality they can be a powerful instrument
to experience and reinterpret the world
franz fischnaller - roberto cuccu
From
the first experiments with Virtual Reality to the state of the art of
his last creations, Franz Fischnaller comments on the creation of his
works, many of which have already become a classic for VR scholars and
researchers. He explains how he's trying to make
the tech-interface invisible so the visitor can get as first impact, an
emotional experience, getting immediately involved with the spirit of
the experience instead of the metallic machinery of the system. His works
use
the digital technology under a non-traditional basis for re-interpreting
the world, and
creating interactive installations that can be interpreted as passages
between the real and the imaginary, a bridge between past and the present.
Franz Fischnaller is Art-director and
production coordinator for F.A.B.R.I.CATORS - Architects of Culture,
Fabricators of Ideas. F.a.b.r.i.cators is an interdisciplinary group
concerned with the integration of technology, communication, art and design.
The group carries out research activities in the artistic and technological
fields.
Franz is also professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA,
School of Art and Design and at the Università degli Studi di Firenze,
Italy, where he teaches "Art&Multimedia".
In the following interview Franz comments on some of his creative realizations and discusses general issues on the use of interactive virtual environments.
RC: Well Franz, how did you
become interested in VR?
FF: Well, I began to use the concept of 3D and that of virtual perspective
and space in my artistic works a long time ago, when I still used traditional
media. I called that system "Uptodate". Many works I created
and I'm still creating are characterized by this conception. I actually
began to work with digital media when I wanted to create an interactive
sculpture that was impossible to carry out with all the techniques and
tools I knew at the moment. I'm talking about Multi Mega Book, one of
my first digital realizations. Multi Mega Book was completed in 1996-97
and it has now become a sort of classic of virtual reality.
L'ULTIMA CENA
RC: Ultima Cena is a journey within a painting whose
bidimensional space has been transformed in 3D space.
It looks like being within a painting allows you new points of views,
in particular a subjective vision of the aesthetic experience, doesn't
it?
FF: Approaching the Ultima Cena you can visit the 
painting
in its particulars and discover the beauty and the details of this masterpiece.
In the real ambience, the visitor can see the painting from 6 meter distance;
on the contrary, with this installation the visitor can observe it from
a very close viewpoint, enjoying the details and navigating through it.
RC: In one of the Active Worlds of
Eduverse, i.e. "Van Gogh", it has been created a 3D realization
of one of the most famous painting of the Flemish master, "A café".
You can actually walk along the main street.
In the 3D world I administer, "Edutopia", I'm trying to achieve
another effect, that is to have some characters from the paintings come
out from them and be the guides pointing at the pictures they belong to.
FF: Interesting this issue of rescuing the pictorial personages from
the painting and establishing this hyper-virtual dialogue.
As far as "Last supper" is concerned, it is only a very first
phase of a research project which was accomplished partially, but this
first phase production had lot of good feedback from scholars and public.
This work follows a former study done by Daniele Marini and Lorenzo Forges
Davanzati in 1982, aimed at proving a hypothesis about the shape and size
of the virtual room, based on an application of the "costruzione
legittima" theorem.
Leonardo's masterpiece can be considered as an outstanding example of the renaissance synthesis between art and science: the mathematics of geometric constructions was well established and known to scientist as well as art people. The computer based perspective representation is the final result of the continuing growing knowledge during the centuries in geometry and mathematics, which allows us now to compute accurately the numerical parameters of the ancient constructive methods.
The overlay of the theorem in the original viewpoint demonstrates the exact over position of the perspective composition. The computer programs construct the homogeneous coordinate representation of the painted space, perform the linear transformation in the perspective space, and produce the final projection on the visualization plane, in Cartesian coordinates, of the three dimensional scene imagined by Leonardo. This navigation is a powerful tool to understand the relationship between the real architecture of the refettorio and the painted architecture by Leonardo.
LAUTRIV MEDUSA
RC: Medusa is a sculpture made of parts coming from
different works, each of them belonging to different historical periods.
It has been transformed into a multimedia active map, to allow navigation
within the rooms of a museum.
In this work of yours the artistic creation becomes a metaphor that allows
the visitor to discover the space within which the statue is contained,
its temporal collocation, its cultural connotation. Knowing is equal to
discovering with one's own body the information hidden in the body of
the other.
FF:. One of the most important aspects of this piece, that is my oldest
work, is the idea to overlap in one unique "body" composed of
parts 
extracted
from diverse ancestral cultural forms such us Venus, Medusa and Discobolo.
And this is done using real low tech material for the sculpture itself
and all tech within the inner part of the body. The fact of using the
eyes of medusa to experiment VR , animation interactive and telepresence
through her interactive mirror really attracted me and in fact was one
of the latest things at that time.
She was very ambiguous and seductive and above all the visitors had really
a very emotive impact and the fact that I could cut off all "obvious
" hardware and computers was quite interesting. Besides that we used
the "intelligent Skin", a very innovative product made by Prof
De Rossi of Pisa University: just by touching her body her inner VR world
would react. The public was quite fascinated, specially by the sensuality
of this piece and the fact that the skin was part of the interactivity.
One of the most interesting part took place when we added, with our colleague
Mitti, the holophonic sound and effect, and then it became quite powerful.
MULTI MEGA BOOK
RC: Multi Mega Book is a huge book (6 x 3 meters)
that shows multimedia pages about important moments in the history of
art, of technology and communication in the Western world. Some parts
of the book have been designed so as to be experienced within a cubic
room (the Cave) where, thanks to the use of special glasses and sensors,
one is able to feel immersed into the work. Can you tell me about this
special room and your multimedia piece?
FF: Multi Mega Book is one of the pieces I created after Medusa with the
most sophisticated technology of the time. The Cave is really a full immersive
interactive experience, beyond web site, cinema and any other thing related
to the digital media ... the experience cannot be comparable with any
other multimedia pattern. I began working together with my group F.A.B.R.I.CATORS
in the first version - Multi Mega Book Architectonic Multimedia Installation
- around 1994 and produced the first prototype ad hoc, financed by the
Medienmuseum, in Karlsrue, Germany which was concluded at the end of 1996.
Afterwards
I produced the virtual reality version: "Multi Mega Book in the Cave"
between Milan, Chicago and Linz. For the developing of the technical solutions
and programming I had the support of Illinois University of Chicago and
EVL: The Electronic Visualization Lab, which is one of the legendary places
for Virtual Reality, worldwide and where they have invented some of the
most powerful Virtual Reality platforms.
"The Multi Mega Book" had lots of megabytes of models, texture-maps, audio, and a large virtual reality ambience articulated in several scenes and complex interactions like one of the printing press of Guttenberg. The idea was to make all this info easy to navigate and interact for the users of the CAVE, a multi-person- room-size virtual reality system developed at EVL. Dave Pape from EVL had solved a lot of technical issues for this application with the use of Cave Library and the XP system which he had designed purposely for this specific application.
One of the main objectives with the virtual version of the Multi Mega
Book was to create an interactive piece where the user could live in first
person, and creatively interact with two revolutionary moments of human
history, and experience the shift between: the printed communication (XV
century) and electronic communication (XX century). The Renaissance and
the Electronic Age integrated into one unique environment. The application
had to overlap the printed communication (XV century) and electronic communication
(XX century). Two revolutions which have transformed the history of communication
and in consequence human history.
It was very important for me to generate a high emotive level in the public,
make them experiment, in an essential way, this revolution and allow them
to do it in the first person, in an active mode. Permit them this liberty
of action, which is not possible with the traditional media.
I wanted that the navigation and the interaction of "The Multi Mega-Book"
be surprising, designed to draw the user from the Renaissance to the Information
Age, exploring two different modes of communication and showing how both
eras combined mathematics, innovation, art and cutting edge technology.
In its entirety, the MMB is a metaphor for means of communication throughout
time. I wanted that the visitor could feel the shift between the XV to
the 2000 … and live the experience of the shift between these two
historical moments, that of the Renaissance revolution to the digital
revolution. I wanted that the visitors would be able to enter into the
2000 and expand into an open cyber space ... connected by electronic streams.
This is the city of the 2000´s existing within the inner part of
a CD ... the microscopic work of the inner part of the CD becomes a mega
universe.
PINOCCHIO INTERATTIVO
RC: Pinocchio is an interactive story starring a
real character behind whom, on a screen, takes place the story of his
virtual counterpart. I'm intrigued by the implications of this relationship
between virtual and tangible personage. Could you expand on that?
FF: You see Pinocchio was a very innovative piece in the moment we made
it - to integrate robotic, VR and real time interaction with diverse visitors
in real time and associate this media with a high quality content was
a real challenge there. We still have to pass to the second phase but
the first phase technically was a real success for us.
Pinocchio
is a universal icon. In the past there were great expectations to see
and read each week the new chapter of Pinocchio adventures. Pinocchio
was one of the most intense "cybor" personage of its time. Centuries
after ... now in the 2000 ... Pinocchio comes into existence again. It's
a "Digital Renaissance Birth". The literary Pinocchio becomes
a robotic computerised puppet and a virtual personage. The robotic computerised
puppet belongs to the real (physical) world. Digital Pinocchio belongs
to the virtual (intangible) world. There is a dynamic and enigmatic relationship
within "Pinocchio Robot" and " virtual Pinocchio"..
the avatar.. we tried to crystallise his dream and pass the frontier of
the " humanoid-robot", that is to pass to the intangibility
of the avatar and the tangibility of the real personage in this piece
which in this case is the "Pinocchio robot" versus " virtual
Pinocchio"
TRACKING THE NET
RC: Tracking the net is a physical environment fitted
with sensors, visitors interact with the space through their body, activating
their perceptions and their abilities to trigger events. Without handling
any special device, visitors learn in groups activating sight, hearing
and movement.
F:F: The innovations here focus in diverse aspects but take in consideration two. First, it is an interactive collective Virtual Reality installation which is one of the very few in the world. Second, the visitors do not need any interactive devices in the hands or body, they are free to use their body as a real joystick!!!
RC: How was it born?
FF: A new work can be born out of a motivation, an interrogation, a need, an enigma, a desire, a frustration, an open premise, a hypothesis. Tracking The Net was born, essentially, out of a mixture of frustrations and desires. Naturally, other factors contributed to crystallize the idea, which led me to the development and solutions of this installation, but these two "sentiments-factors" were fundamental.
The frustrations came about by experimenting with interactive virtual platforms that permitted only a single visitor to interact, in real time, while the rest of the visitors observed and / or waited. My goal was to design an installation where more than one visitor could interact, in real time, an installation that will permit simultaneous interactivity of groups, in real time.
RC: A simultaneous group interaction is the dream many of us would like to achieve in their realizations. Could you describe more precisely how you have solved the interactive issue?
FF: Generally, the installations and platforms require different types of interfaces such as: wand, joysticks etc., which always represent an electronic instrument that relates the body with the content and the manipulation of the virtual world, a third body that interconnects two realities: that of the digital world and the actions of the visitor, man and the VR content. I wanted to avoid to the greatest extent possible the interactive visitor wearing any "physical" and / or interactive devices. I have come up with one almost invisible device that allowed the visitors not to wear any metal or electronic "skin" in any of their vital parts, such as hands, head or eyes.
The
objective was to arrive to an interface that could discard the use of
devices such as wand or joysticks. My priority and desire was that visitors
were able to use their own hands, body and motor force for accessing the
virtual world and as a consequence, the sensors were applied to the net
so that the visitor could interact with these, directly. This solution
of using the body as a joystick was very appealing … and above all
the action of simulating the function of a sport by means of navigation
and interaction, which was carried out as if it were your own body, really
appealed to me and I proceeded.
KALI
RC: A statue of an Indian goddess with some wide
screens at the back allows users to watch within the goddess and trigger
actions and situations, which are replicated outside on the mega screens.
As I understand, Kali is one of your latest creation and in a way it can
show us the state of the art of your research in virtual reality. Could
you sum up the major issues at play in this piece of yours?
FF: Kali is a conclusive experience for the creation of a new language
in interactive design, the esthetical interpretation of the digital information
and of the visual design of the virtual environment. Kali's main objectives
can be summarized as follows:
- To integrate on a creative basis diverse digital media such as Virtual Reality, VR, multimedia, video, interactive animation and sound effects.
- To make the tech-interface invisible so the visitor can get as first impact, an emotional experience, getting immediately involved with the spirit of the experience instead of the metallic machinery of the system.
- To use the digital technology under a non-traditional basis for re-interpreting the world of the antiquity into the digital era, establishing a sort of active pathway between the rational Age to that of the of the myth and the illusion.
- To integrate themes such us the shift between the orient and occident, the infinite cosmological conception in relation to that of the electronic, the cosmos and the planets, chaos and equilibrium, evolution and war, jungle and the city.
In conclusion, to create an interactive installation
that can be interpreted as a passage between the real and the imaginary,
a bridge between that of the antiquity and the present, an integration
of forms and contents of mythical elements, ancestral memories integrated
into the digital era of our times. The work is loosely based on the Oriental
Goddess Kali, as a main container and point of integration.
In large part the quality of Kali lays in the integration of the theme to the technology and in the originality of the concept. It has been accomplished a very intense, aesthetic interpretation of the content and of the design of the virtual environments. Kali's production does not intend to be a scientific, classical, historical nor an anthropological work, but a creative piece.
The entire piece is conceived as a non lineal narrative. The visitor has the possibility to navigate and interact from five to forty minutes or more. It has been extremely stimulating to work in this production. I recall clearly the moment a plain, black and white photograph of Kali Yantra was placed on my desk. Kali Yantra is one of the oldest symbols of Indian culture. As I modeled the symbol on a tri-dimensional level I found out how symmetric and perfect this form was.
Definitely, the digital technology could be a powerful tool for re-interpreting the world of the antiquity and most likely help us understand in a more essential way that reality, and find a natural bridge to fill the gap between "ancient wisdom" and present day
ROBOTS & AVATARS
RC: Some tangible robots, that can be activated
by the visitors, are set in a real space; these robots have counterparts
in virtual spaces, called avatars. Unlike Pinocchio, which was based on
sequences of narratives that took place one after the other, in this case
we have the same life that takes place, at the same time, in two parallel
worlds. The actions on the robots (real space) have consequences on the
life of the mannequins of the virtual space, and in so doing there's an
interactive life on two parallel levels.
You know, Franz, this idea of two parallel worlds interacting one with
the other is extremely interesting, and reminds me of the possible influences
of the actions of our everyday real world on the dream worlds that we
often create in our life, even with our eyes wide open. Moreover, sometimes
the situations of our imaginary worlds are more meaningful than those
we witness in front of our eyes, just for the peculiarities of the dream
state. It is not by chance that the language of the dream and that of
poetry have so many points in common.
FF:
Very interesting comment. When we consider the concept of space, time
and perspective in virtual reality, we are closer to the imaginary world
and the limits of the representation are felt much less, as there's a
possibility to "look for" the image, to chose the perspective,
to decide where to go, what to see and how to see it.
franz fischenaller - roberto cuccu
