Michael Naimark

Two unusual projection spaces

Two immersive projection environments, both unconventional, both exploring different methods of 3D and panoramic imaging, and both produced as art installations, are described. Displacements (19801984) recreated an interior living space using a panoramic motion picture method and relief projection. Be Now Here (19951997) recreated outdoor public plazas using a panoramic motion picture method, stereopsis, and four channel sound. Both installations were unusual in that no intentions existed for anything more general or useful than the installations themselves as individual artworks.

Artists and technologists working together (panel)

This panel explores the dialog and interplay between artists and technologists. In the process, the panelists aim to bring considerations of art and the artistic process to the attention of the technology-oriented UIST community. We invite readers to think about how your work relates to art. We encourage the research community to look for ways to integrate art and artists within their own programs, for example, by starting artist-in-residence activities, introducing courses on art and design into CS curricula, or inviting artists to participate in projects.

Aspen the verb: musings on heritage and virtuality

Aspen, the picturesque mountain town in Colorado, is known for two processes, or “verbs,” relating to heritage and virtuality. One is to “moviemap,” the process of rigorously filming path and turn sequences to simulate interactive travel and to use as a spatial interface for a multimedia database. The other is to “Aspenize,” the process by which a fragile cultural ecosystem is disrupted by tourism and growth. This essay reflects on their significance and describes exemplary work integrating these two seemingly disparate concepts.

Experiments in interactive panoramic cinema

For most of the past 100 years, cinema has been the premier medium for defining and expressing relations to the visible world. However, cinematic spectacles delivered in darkened theaters are predicated on a denial of both the body and the physical surroundings of the spectators who are watching it. To overcome these deficiencies, filmmakers have historically turned to narrative, seducing audiences with compelling stories and providing realistic characters with whom to identify. This paper describes several research projects in interactive panoramic cinema that attempt to sidestep the narrative preoccupations of conventional cinema and instead are based on notions of space, movement and embodied spectatorship rather than traditional storytelling. Example projects include interactive works developed with the use of a unique 360 degree camera and editing system, and also development of panoramic imagery for a large projection environment with 14 screens on 3 adjacent walls in a 5-4-5 configuration with observations and findings from an experiment projecting panoramic video on 12 of the 14, in a 4-4-4 270 degree configuration.

Being early: Challenges and opportunities as vr grows up

Editors’ Note: To celebrate Presence’s 25th year of publication, we have invited selected members of the journal’s original editorial board and authors of several early articles to contribute essays looking back on the field of virtual reality, from its very earliest days to the current time. This essay comes from founding editorial board member Michael Naimark, who is actively engaged in exploring the dynamics between art and technology.

Artists in multimedia: creating meaningful roles

There was a time not too long ago when artists in the software businessconsisted of people who drew pretty pictures or composed nice music at the tail end of the production process. Their participation was rarely invited in the process of design, and in order to make even cosmetic contributions in implementation they had to learn, master, and repttrpose perversely arcane tools. In some regions, companies, and segments of the intfttstry, artists are still marginalized in these ways, This panel will look at several artists each with a unique role in multimedia who are making contributions and differences of an entirely different order: defining and directing research, inventing new media forms and structures, designing tools, and feeding technological innovation back into the performing arts. We will explore the topic of how artists can create and assume meaningful new roles in relation to the business of multimedia.