Displacement | A Mixed Reality Installation
Project Description
Displacement is a uniqe immersive experience that invites people to engage with each other in a whole new way. It is a real-time experiment that connects people across space and dimension — merging the real and virtual domains.
At a conceptual level, the artwork raises questions about the nature of human connection and what it means to be co-located and 'present'. It also explores how people occupy 'public space' in both the real and virtual worlds.
The project is composed of 3 main parts -
A freestanding red doorway installed at a physical location (in Austin);
A virtual environment that mirrors the real site — transposed with a wheat field;
Player interaction via a web browser (MVP);
Overview of key interactions -
The real/virtual doorways act as touchpoints connecting those in the physical environment with those in the digital environment in real time;
Real <> Virtual: A Kinect camera positioned nearby, uses real-time tracking and registers people walking through the door. A point cloud avatar of the person is generated and emerges through the virtual doorway in real-time;
Virtual <> Real: Players walking through the (virtual) doorway trigger the real dooway to light up, (so that even when no-one is physically present, the doorway lights up).
Both ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ avatars co-exist in the same virtual environment; the viewer in virtual space is able to observe the 'real' avatars in a kind of ethereal encounter.
The project brings together different skillsets and technologies that include: Physical computing / Programming / 3D & Game design / Virtual reality (VR) / Architecture and design.
The Displacement project was conceived by Artist and Project Lead, Nazia Parvez. To read more about the project background, please visit the Displacement description on her website: formblu.com/displacement