werner.poetzelberger Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I am proud to tell, that we have finalized and successfully published our first Unigine project. It is an art-piece for the Irish Artist John Gerrard, we are working with for several years. Following, I may post some images of the work and a descriptive text from the show's brochure. Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014 A mysterious structure in the heart of the Chinese desert, a precise system of roadways the size of a small town and apparently designed to be seen from orbit. For Exercise (Dunhuang) 2014, Gerrard commissioned an American satellite imaging firm to depth-scan these markings in order to digitally reconstruct the entire structure and its surrounding landscape. Into this simulation, set wandering through the vast road network, the artist places thirty-nine workers from a Ghangzhou computer manufacturing plant, still wearing the blue uniforms and elasticated paper bonnets from that context. Players on what may equally be read as gameboard, landscape, or gigantic theatre stage, the workers’ paths across the grid are calculated and determined by the A* algorithm, as used in GPS routefinding systems. When two participants meet, the actor closest to their goal continues walking, while the other must sit or lie on the landscape and rest. After a period lasting between 24 and 36 hours, only one remains standing. The process then draws to a close, the actors reassemble at the centre of the scene, the ground-level point of view gravitates around the worker who endured the longest, and the exercise begins anew—still without our knowing why (or for whom) this game, with its perpetual, seamless drift, is being played out. The entire performance, play, competition or exercise is depicted by three different virtual cameras: from human head height, from the point of view of a circling low-flying drone, and from a satellite’s vertical perspective. Tasked with piecing together the data they deliver, conducting a dispassionate surveillance, the viewer is telepresent, omniscient, yet strangely disconnected; a processing channel for information flows with a possibly violent intent, contemplating the scene, constructing the narrative from above, striving to penetrate the logic of the exercise. Like the site in which it takes place, this is a performance whose eerie calm secretes paranoia, uncertainty, and a creeping awareness of pervasive systems of technological control. The installation: The visual part of the artwork (the installation) consists of three ‘views’ into one, single virtual world. All three views are connected to each other in the following ways: - Each view shows the same human character in the center of the screen. - The rotation angle and speed of the images have the same values. Technially, the 3 visualization screens are connected to server application, which controls the timing of the animations and the camera motion, to synchronize the 3 views. The viewer is able to visually ‘follow’ the walking characters through the three different layers of observation from close up (orbit camera) through medium distance (drone camera) to far distance (satellite camera). In some time I will be able to point to some movies, to see the piece in action. As well more information will be posted soon on the artist's website. www.johngerrard.net cheers Werner 1 Link to comment
nat.harrold Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Congrats! I know you have been busy on this project for sometime. It is a real challenge to make a project look great from the different perspectives of viewing distance. Looks like you nailed it. Did you use sound in the project? Like the site in which it takes place, this is a performance whose eerie calm secretes paranoia, uncertainty, and a creeping awareness of pervasive systems of technological control. Nicely said... Link to comment
werner.poetzelberger Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 Thank you, Nat. The scenes look quite calm and non spectecular, dimmed and clean as the animations are. There also have been a lot of artistic decisions to move away from the idea, of how something might look like in reality, to something which aims for a definied visual style. It is a real challenge to make a project look great from the different perspectives of viewing distance Yes exactly, 3 different cameras. As well we have 24/365 daycycle which makes it even more difficult to control. I am kind of proud, that we could handle the project, as we had to learn, to produce and to deliver at the same time with no room of failure. The content was kind of heavy especially the animations took a huge junk of time to polish. Landscape also was not that easy as there were so many limitations and no gos. In the end it is very simple. The text is nice, it is written by an Irish philosopher. cheers Werner Link to comment
binstream Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 It's great to see this art work completed! Congratulations! Link to comment
werner.poetzelberger Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thank you Denis! We are happy that the production went quite smooth and that we could realize the things we wanted to do, using Unigine. Cheers.Werner Link to comment
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