Category: Archive [projects]

ThREE is a dance piece by the choreographer Stefanie Inhelder (Company glitch) and developed within the residency hosted by the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) and the Immersive Arts Space.

Abstract:
Three generations ago, Switzerland colonized Indonesia. Not only the country, but also the”women”. As a descendant of colonial concubinage, the choreographer Stefanie Inhelder carries both sides within herself.
The audience is invited to dive into the sea between the fronts. In this in-between space we fathom the paradoxes that our ancestors have left us. Five performers move into the present with a minimalist core. Arrived we let the clear lines flow in a liquid polyphony – a decolonization of the feminine connotated body.
ThREE is an immersive piece, that embraces the audience with an octophonic soundscape and holographic visuals. Through motion capture technology, the dancers’ movements expand throughout the theater auditorium. ThREE invites the audience to let go of clear sight and sides to find ourselves in the space between.

Credits:
Stefanie Inhelder – artistic director, choreography
Javier Munoz Bravo – composition and live electronics
Stella Speziali (IAS)- visuals
Eric Larrieux (IAS) – motion capture
Anna Heinimann – performing dancer
Kuan-Ling Tsai – performing dancer
Laetitia Kohler – performing dancer
Pascale Altenburger – performing dancer
Thea Soti – performing dancer
Jiaxin Chen – dramaturgy
Andreas Zangger – historical research
Lena Schmid – scenography, costumes
Daniel Tschanz – light design
Camille Jamet – production

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reconFIGURE in an ongoing research project and offers an insight into a re-imagination of our world, the human body and movement by AI. Do we lose control over our represenation? The project aims to discover and highlight the shift of our images and embodiement once they are captured via computer generated data.

reconFIGURE will be shown during this year`s Digital Art Zurich (DA-Z).
Tickets can be purchased [here].
Entrance is free for ZHdK students and employees.

Opening hours:
25th to 29th October 2023 | 15:00-19:00 £
Immersive Arts Space (1.J30), entrance via film gate (Förrlibuckstrasse)

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Possible worlds… is an augmented reality work developed by Oliver Sahli and Chris Salter that explores the 16th century philosopher Giordano Bruno’s proposition that the universe is infinite, animate and populated by innumerable other worlds. Using head-worn technology to blend the physical world with the computer world, the installation taps into the human fascination with creating meaning from patterns such as constellations of stars and planets.

Multiple visitors at a time wear head mounted displays, that allow the real physical environment to mix with animated visions of the cosmos beyond the physical space. At the beginning of the experience, the visitors are confronted with a ghostly apparition of Giordano Bruno created by motion capture that wanders through the observatory space speaking fragments of words from his 1540 treatise “On the Universe and Possible Worlds.” As the figure begins to vanish, the dome of the observatory is overlaid with a vast cosmological universe that the visitors then begin to travel through while lying on their backs. Speeding past stars and planets, asteroids and the still burning remnants of supernovas, the visitors eventually experience entering Gaia BH1, the closest dormant black hole to Earth which is only 1600 light years away but which suddenly becomes alive in the final moments of the work.

Exhibitions and showings:

Data Alchemy – Observing Patterns from Galileo to AI from June 9th to 24th 2023 at Collegium Helveticum, Semper-Sternwarte

NIFFF Invasion from 30th June to 8th July 2023 at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival.

REFRESH#5 on 9th November 2023 at the Immersive Arts Space

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A newly formed collaboration between the Immersive Arts Space and Pro Helvetia South America was launched in 2023. Within this framework, artists form countries in South America get the chance to do a residency in Switzerland. During that time they have the opportunity to come to ZHdK and work and develop their projects within the Immersive Arts Space.

Joaquina Salgado is a media artist and VJ from Argentina and is currently in Switzerland doing her residency. Her multimedia studies at the Universidad de Artes de La Plata led her to present her work in diverse exhibition contexts such as digital art festivals, night clubs, physical galleries and the metaverse. She has exhibited at festivals such as Mutek and Mirage, and collaborated on projects with Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF). She is also part of Amplify DAI, an international network of women artists and curators working in the digital arts. 

Her current project is called DERIVA. It is an audiovisual performance centered on the playing of cellist Violeta Garcia. With the help of motion capture, the music as well as the movements are transferred into a virtual world, which gives the audience new insights. The performance took place on April 28th 2023 in the Immersive Arts Space.

https://joaquinasalgado.com

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Shifting Realities was an overarching interdisciplinary research project, that started in Spring 2021. The goal is to explore the interplay of real and virtual experiences as well as the interaction of VR-users and by-standing spectators in shared experiences. Combining these different perspec­tives creates scope for new practices and forms
of expression in Extended Reality (XR). 

The research is structured in four binary focus areas (or pair of opposites):
• Virtual vs. augmented environments
• Virtual vs. real spaces, objects or humans
• Binaural vs. spatial audio
• Storytelling vs. game mechanics

The research focuses at the interfaces defined by the pairs of opposites above. Through them, differences in perspective, shifts in perception, and the extent of interactivity can be shaped and controlled. The primary goal is the development of prototypical unique solutions in limited subareas. 

In a first phase, basic concepts of reality shifts were explored and developed. They all depict situations, in which the users find themselves in transitional states between virtuality and reality. The aesthetics to create such transitional settings are defined by rough 3D scans, sketchy point clouds created in real time by depth cameras or the Oculus passthrough feature. The resulting imperfection of such low-end processes induces an awareness of our fluctuating and at times uncertain perception while experiencing mixed reality content. 

In a second phase, three prototypical experiences were developed. Two are device-based with mixed reality components displayed in VR goggles:
• PASSING ­THROUGH THE REAL and
• FRAGMENTS OF REALITY.

One is installation-based with spatial augmented reality contingent on projection mapping:
• FRAGMENTS OF A CONVERSATION (watch video).

For the first time, the three experiences were presented in preliminary versions at the LabInsights in June 2022.

Team:
Researchers: Florian Bruggisser, Martin Fröhlich, Valentin Huber, Norbert Kottmann, Eric Larrieux, Chris Elvis Leisi, Oliver Sahli, Stella Speziali. Production manager: Kristina Jungic; Chief Technician: Sébastien Schiesser. Principal Investigator: Prof. Christian Iseli

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Diploma project, MA Game Design, by Oliver Sahli

Power and Presence explores meaningful and empowering interaction in virtual reality and how it can be implemented as game mechanics without breaking the feeling of being in another world.  A critical analysis of game design theories and how they need to be applied to VR is demonstrated through a game that uses phonetic interaction.

Oliver Sahli, research associate at the Immersive Arts Space and graduation student in Master in Game Design, showcased his project Power and Presend within the diploma exhibition of the ZHdK in June 2021.

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Diploma project, MA Game Design, by Chris Elivis Leisi

In today’s VR games, the body often serves as the controller. However, when the player enters the virtual world, the connection to the physical environment is often lost. This master’s thesis deals with immersion mechanics in VR and reveals the potentials that arise when one’s own home can be integrated into the virtual world as a play area.

Chris Elvis Leisi, research associate in the Immersive Arts Space and graduate student in Master in Game Design, exhibited his graduation project Virtual Real World within the diploma exhibition of the ZHdK in June 2021.

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The Helium Drone project seeks to explore the aesthetic properties of installations based on floating devices that can autonomously navigate in space. In its complete state it will be a flocking swarm of diverse drones in different forms and shapes, each behaving in its individual way and interact with each other and the spectators on the ground. It will use the tracking system for location and navigation and the projection mapping system to wrap them into dynamically created ‘skins’.

A technological groundwork is laid out, with the goal to design a framework to quickly prototype and build helium drones with different shapes and propulsion concepts that integrate easily with the current technical setup of the IASpace. This involves the research for suitable materials and processes to build the floating volume, design of mechanical structures, electronics and network protocols, the evaluation and testing of motor and servos and the integration of motion and sensor data for autonomous flying capabilities (among many other things).

Involving many different skills, from designing and building physical structures to programming behaviors and creating interactive textures that are projected onto the creatures, it will be attractive to a wide spectrum of disciplines and a playground to experience multidisciplinary teamwork. There will also be an open source toolkit with instructions that can be made accessible to the public.

CREW

Project lead, motion tracking, projection mapping: Martin Fröhlich
Robotics, motion control, sensor integration: Max Kriegleder
Micro-controller, networks, protocols: Joel Gähwiler
Materials, rapid prototyping, construction: Roman Jurt
Theory: Serena Cangiano

Further infos on the project:

Everything you need to know about Blimpy on GitHub
Here you can find the paper on the Blimpy framework as presented at the ISEA 2020.

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The Umbrella Project is a research project that explores the use of 3D audio and projection mapping to achieve a sense of immersion without isolating participants from the real world, essentially, enabling an imaginary fantasy world to come to life in our own. We employ multiple levels of 3D audio and projection mapping (both directly within and on the umbrella, as well as throughout the room itself) in order to transport the participant into this virtual world.

The end goal of the project was to create a series of navigable compositions in the form of exploratory sonic worlds, as well as intereactive experiences where the participants’ behaviours (relative to each other and the world) shape the sonic and visual environment. Furthermore, we were investigating sonic and visual paradigms where the umbrellas can function both as objects existing in and can interact with the virtual world, as well as being windows onto these other worlds.

Naturally, these environments are best experienced from directly underneath the umbrella, where one can best appreciate the various levels of MR.

A spin-off of The Umbrella Project was presented at the REFRESH conference: An installative performance with the title A Day at the Beach.

Crew:
Eric Larrieux (lead), Stella Speziali, Martin Fröhlich, Corinne Soland, Mariana Vieira Grünig

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