Introduction:

A joint art based project that explores Remote Interactive Animated Projections has been initiated between the Humanities Computing Department of McMaster University and the Multimedia department of The School of the Arts, also of McMaster University. The project will utilize a newly funded video streaming facility that is currently being organized by the Humanities Computing department to facilitate faculty research. The Remote Interactive Animated Projection Project is being initiated in part to foster interdisciplinary research between The School of the Arts and The Humanities Computing Department. The content of the work will largely be animation based. The content will be generated in advance of the actual installation. Animation was chosen as an art form because of its flexible nature and the relative ease in which it can be digitized. Animation allows for a dynamic projection of inner thoughts and ideas that are at best difficult to render in any other way. Animation is often derived from abstract thought. At times there is a struggle to simulate aspects of the world as experienced by an artist. In this way, much like a draughtsman, the work becomes a distilled thought: a studied observation. An observation that is somehow greater in its sum than that of a photograph. In this way, one could suggest that animation is able to express a remediation of how images are perceived. One seductive aspect of animation is production time is usually lengthy and anything but "instant." Production is slow and meticulous. At times the work can be quite tedious. A thousand ideas come and go as while progressing image by image. Ones mind wanders and the subconscious seems to permit unusual thoughts to float to the top. New ideas and connections arise. In its creation, animation seems to encourage lateral thinking; an intuitive thought process. Suppressed thoughts gain currency and come to the forefront. It is no wonder that some of the most inspired examples of animation are strangely surreal and occasionally frightening. Examples would be the work of Jan Svankmajer, The Brothers Quay or more recently; various clips in the recent feature film The Fight Club: the animism of familiar objects. The Remote Interactive Animation project attempts to bridge artifice with reality. The project investigated the creative application of interactive media within an environment that would normally not be associated with external media of any form. An example of this would is the potential of a suburban neighborhood and itís track housing. To intrude upon this environment presents many possibilities. The project will convert picture windows in the front of a houses in to a large video screens that randomly generate narratives which are triggered according to the movements or reaction of the people passing on the street. The images would be streamed from a central server directly from the University.

Streaming Video: New Potential for Expression

To augment existing structures and concepts within a community is to address the possibility of integration or introduction of new media to an environment that otherwise would not be deemed appropriate. The concern is to conform media to an actual pre-existing neighborhood. The reason for this is two-fold: to initiate interest in new media and animation within the community and secondly, to explore and augment existing forms of community communications. In relation to existing forms of communication within a given community such as television, the introduction of interactivity has begun to radically alter the relationship between transmitter and audience. No longer passive yet not entirely empowered, the audience has yet to determine the exact nature of interactive communication. An additional purpose is to explore the territory of media interface and display. Although computers are excellent at creating and/or organizing the content of media, they are not always the best suited to displaying the results. This is a major concern: to free media from the confines of a desktop computer. The goal is to augment an existent display system that recreates interactive elements found in a computer terminal but within a new context. In addition, the entire system will be portable, allowing for easy transport and installation.

Implementation

Essentially, the project consists of streaming video from a central server of animated figures through a portable projection system in a public space. Viewers may influence the projection through body movement or other criteria. The interactive projection is a viable means for creating a rich experience for the viewer.

Conclusion

The Remote Interactive Animation Project is a work in process that will evolve over the duration of approximately one year. The project will should wrap-up by December 2001. The results of the research will be documented and organized in to an online site. Anticipated results include the dissemination of fine art based projects in both the immediate community and abroad, expanding the potential sphere of presentation for art based projects and the implementation of technology that will offer interactivity with media at broadband speed.