Ahhhh, it's so nice to bathe in my natural environment!!
Before I got sucked into the Web and VRML I was doing a degree in Creative
Arts. It emphasised cross-fertilisation of the arts. Whilst I know there is
a danger that there is a danger of getting stuck in old paradigms by
holding art theory in one's heart all the really crappy VR environments I
have seen are flawed mainly because of a lack of understanding about design
and conceptual issues.
It's a fun thing to stir old mediums and their philosophies into the mix.
Although one thing I personally rebel against is being forced to try and
generate things that were another persons vision. In my work place a day
can not pass without a mention of Gibson, or Stevenson. I hate the
limitations that this
style of literature seems to presetn. I'm refusing to read any of it until
i know what my visions of cyberspaces are all about.
>> >Now I think there are three majors problems for VR creations:
>> >
>> >- first of all is of course is the heavy technology involved in it: which
>> >could very disturbing for the artist creativity
Many of the artists I met when I was working with the Interactive media
Festival this year taught me a valuable lesson. That is to focus on the fun
bits and get someone to work on the tech. There are some damn creative
engineers out there who are itching to produce cool stuff. I know that
Gideon May (Jeffery Shaw's engineer) is now making his own art pieces.
>> >- the third problem is more insidious: a large part of art is to show some
>> >things and to hide others: the people out of screen in a movie, the border
>> >of a picture and so on: the virtual world (with the multiple points of
>> >view) give the impression to be able to show everything; this could very
>> >castrating for the imagination of the visitors...
>>
>> I do not think that is right sorry
>> it is this very removal of the hidden which is the great gift of VR
>> and will mean a radical rethink in creating ART. But it is not true
>> that you can not hide things and events in a VR world, you can.
I think the third problem is quite valid. Many ways of overcoming the problem
pop into my mind, but I see many people falling into this trap in virtual
reality design.
What I'm really curious about is what Kevin is suggesting about "the
removal of the hidden", what are you rethinking Kevin? Inquiring minds want
to know :)
(note: I'm only talking in relation to VRML, my main VR experiences to
date so if you can point me to more sophisticated stuff I'd be delighted)
annette :)