From: brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen) Subject: Re: Virtuality as a system of actions Date: 30 Sep 91 20:30:32 GMT Organization: Computer Research Lab, Tektronix Inc. In article <1991Sep28.202307.23511@milton.u.washington.edu> smoliar@maclane.iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar) writes: > > > In article <1991Sep25.022239.28221@milton.u.washington.edu> > HSR4@vax.oxford.ac.uk (Old Baldie) writes: >> >>In article <1991Sep23.023616.4287@milton.u.washington.edu>, >>smoliar@iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar) writes: >>> >>> ... > Actually, I think the theatrical thread is DEFINITELY pertinent. I worry a bit > that we are spending more time on fancy new hardware than on some relatively > fundamental questions of interaction and communication. A few theater > technicians could bring significant intuition to the "virtual arena." > Are there any projects which have engaged such talents? I agree that the dramatic elements (which I take to cover a wider area than "theatrical"; drama is a part of any art which evolves with time) are important in VR. That's one of the things that attracted me to VR; in a previous lifestyle I was studying to be a film director and got sidetracked about 20 years ago into telling electrons what to do. There are some aspects of VR which go beyond most of what we know about drama today: two-way interaction between actor and audience (other than the throwing of produce) is a fairly recent invention. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone on this list knows of an interactive, dramatic work which does more than occasionally offer the audience a vote on a plot branchpoint ("interactive movies") or have the actors wandering around in the audience ('60s "happenings"). VR puts the "audience" into the work as a participant, not as a passive observer as in passive media, or as a god as in interactive movies. The interaction is thus much more intense and more complex than others we currently use, and so we know much less about how it works. Where VR goes beyond current theater is that it has far less control over what parts of the scenery and action the audience can see, and what viewpoints they can assume to see them. Many theatrical techniques work by limiting the view the audience has of the action, much as a stage magician controls the sightlines between the audience and the objects he manipulates. Electronic media do this even more, by taking over control of the viewpoint (the camera) completely rather than controlling where the audience sits, as in a theater. Not to say that theatrical techniques don't apply, just that there's a real challenge here, one that won't entirely be met by current theatrical techniques. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaker-to-managers, aka Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab email: brucec@crl.labs.tek.com Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503)627-5241 M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR 97077