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Consisting of five levels and
over 80 maps divided among those levels, all of which are heavily
populated with various light and sound combinations, Virtual
DJ is a complex piece. While Gibson had developed and performed
it for over three years and, so, was intimately familiar with
the location of the sound and light elements in the 80 maps,
Grigar, new to both motion tracking performance and the piece,
had to learn how to work in the space and with the piece before
she could begin rehearsing for the performance.
The fact that GAMS allows users
to see one another in the system by looking at their relative
location on the map shown on the screen of the computer controlling
the data (via Flash Track) made it possible for Grigar to memorize
the location of her body in the space in relation to the location
of media elements programmed in that space. For example, having
learned that a certain arpeggio was located on the map downstage
on the right side of the room about 1.85 meters above the ground,
she could reach her hand up above her head to "touch it"
with the tracker.
The cameras in her studio, sensing
her hand in that place in the map, would send her location, articulated
three-dimensionally, to her PC. In turn, the PC would then send
it to her Mac where the sound, produced with Reason, was housed.
At the same time, the PC would also be transmitting the data
to the central computer in Canada where the database linked to
the programmed maps resides. That computer would send the appropriate
data about the arpeggio to Gibson's PC and Mac in his studio
and back to Grigar in hers, allowing her not only to evoke the
element and produce the soundas well as evoking and
producing it in Gibson's studio almost simultaneouslybut
also to see the location of that element represented visually
on her PC screen as a point in 3D space in a particular place
on that specific map.
With visual recognition of space
reinforcing kinesthetic involvement in that space, Grigar learned
Virtual DJ well enough to rehearse it, in less than ten
hours. In that sense, embodied telepresence made it possible
for Grigar to learn the piece, rehearse it, and eventually perform
it online with Gibson. They have performed the piece over the
net several times since this early performance, most recently
at BC.net, held in Vancouver, Canada in November 2007.
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4 Conclusion
Motion tracking technology enhances telepresence and collaboration
in performance and installations by making it possible for users
to manipulate not only data objects like images, video, sound,
and light but also hardware and equipment, such as computers,
robotic lights, and projectors, with their bodies in a 3D space
across a network. As the two examples of its use show, applications
of this technology can do much to promote collaborations for
those working on digital media projects where hardware, software,
and peripherals must be controlled in real-time by teams working
together at-a-distance or where physical computing research is
undertaken.
Works Cited
Rokeby, David. 2000. Installations:
A Very Nervous
System. January 15, 2006 <>.
Frayn, Michael. Copenhagen.
NY, NY: Anchor Books,
1998.
Gibson, Steve. 2002. Virtual
DJ. January 16, 2006
<>.
Gibson , S. AND Grigar, D. 2005.
When Ghosts Will
Die. January 16, 2006 <>.
O'Sullivan, Dan. AND Igoe, Tom.
Physical Computing:
Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers.
Boston, MA, Thompson, 2004.
Wilson, Stephen. Information
Arts: Intersections of Arts,
Science, and Technology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
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