Michael Hoepfel
Chodowiecki Str. 20
10405 Berlin
++49 30 37 30 48 33
hoepfel@meso.net
Oschatz / Wolf / Wollin
Gutleutstraße 96
60329 Frankfurt am Main
++49 69 2 40 00 30
digitalinteriors@meso.net
- Project: Cyberhelvetia Cybermovie "Drift"
- Date: May 2002 - October 2002
- Client: Credit Suisse Group
- Contractor: 3deluxe, Wiesbaden
- Location: Biel, Switzerland
- Tasks: Concept, 3d-Animation, Playback Programming
For it´s pavillion on the Expo02 the Credit Suisse chose a seaside resort. With heavy deployment of digital media 3deluxe and meso transformed the location to an artificial landscape of glass, light and interactive entertainment. A huge glass cube in it´s middle served as ‘virtual pool’.
Visitors reach the upper surface of the glass pool by means of a ladder. Here, six soft mattresses float on the virtual water. These are supplied with video goggles. Shoals of plankton direct the bather to a free matress where he can relax and watch the animation Drift. This takes him off into the world of the virtual water and it´s inhabitants.
In an uncut, subjective jourey above and under the water Drift introduces the spectator to a world that reminds of a computer game. The Visitor finds himself in the shape of a low-polygonal 3D character on an air mattress in the middle of a mountain lake. Pushy caption inserts instruct him to perform certain movements with his arms or to catch flying fish.
To what extend visitors would get involved in this pseudo interaction was an experiment.
In fact they eagerly grabbed, paddeled and waved their arms – they had experienced so much interactivity already and were absolutely willed to believe.
The true intention of this mock-up was to let the unaware spectators perform a choreographed ballet with their arms gesturing in the empty air – a beautiful sight for the othervisitors around the pool.
It was amazing to see with what precision the visitors followed the animated movements of the displayed character. It seemed that the animation´s parameters controled the visitors´ movements to let them become avatars of an ‘inverted cyberspace’.
A semi virtual swiss badi
The Cy.Bee constructor web page and the Rendez-vous camera.
A synchronized nonvirtual water ballet.
Technical Background for the Cyberhelvetia Exhibition.