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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Videoplace
Myron W. Krueger
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Original: Videoplace | 4425 * 3017px | 42.9 MB
Participants of the interactive “Videoplace” system by Myron Krueger are identified by a real-time video camera. The image is analized as a “shadow” on the graphic screen. Each participant (shadowpeople) can now interact with objects provided by the computer system and other shadow people.
The “Videoplace” system perceives one or more participants and responds to their movements in realtime. Video cameras view participants standing in front of a backlighting assembly that makes it easy for the computer to distinguish their images from the background. The video image of the participants is reduced to a binary image which is analyzed by a series of hand-made specialized computers that can perform their algorithms thousands of times faster than a standard personal computer.
The “Videoplace” system identifies each participant's head, arms, legs, hands and fingers and determines their rate of movement, This analysis is performed on separate processors for each participant. Once each person's image is understood, it is analyzed with respect to the objects and creatures on the graphics screen. For instance, the computer maycheck to see whether a participant is touching a graphic object. Since the participant's image may be moved, scaled or rotated anywbere on the screen, the relationship of the transformed image to other objects on the screen must be considered.
Once each person's actions have been interpreted with respect to the graphic world, the computer must determine the consequences of these actions and initiate responses of its own. It then schedules its responses and directs subordinate processors dedicated to the generation of graphics, image transformation and sound to effect responses.
“Videoplace” is exhibited in two modes. In one, it selects a new interaction automatically when a person enters. It continues that interaction until all the participants have left the environment. When a new person enters, the next interaction in the sequence is triggered. In th second mode, the exhibit operates as a dialog between two participants: one who understands and controls the system and a second naive participant who is visiting the exhibit for the first time. The knowledgeable participant is seated at tbc “Videodesk” which operates in a manner similar to the “Videoplace” environment. The person at the desk can interact with the person in the “Videoplace” environment using the image of his or her hands. In addition, the "Videodesk" operator controls the selection of interactions from a menu. The person at the desk, a stand-in for an artificial intelligence system with a Vaudevillian sense of humor that will ad lib invent interactions on the fly, makes decisions that someday will be made by the computer.
Overall control of the system is asserted by a National 32016 processor running on a Multibus. “Videoplace” hardware runs on a specialized bus structure that allows great flexilbility in the intermingling of video images, standard graphics and the output of specialized graphics generators. Much of the programming is done in C, although each of the subordinate processors has a specialized architecture that is controlled by a unique microcode. The twelve specialized processors operate in parallel to the main processor. They are told what kind of processing to perform and do so automatically until their rules of behavior are changed. The sound is generated by two ATT WE32 digital signal processors, one of which performs Fourier synthesis and another which modulates the behavior of the sixteen channels of the first once a millisecond. (Myron W. Krueger)
The “Videoplace” system perceives one or more participants and responds to their movements in realtime. Video cameras view participants standing in front of a backlighting assembly that makes it easy for the computer to distinguish their images from the background. The video image of the participants is reduced to a binary image which is analyzed by a series of hand-made specialized computers that can perform their algorithms thousands of times faster than a standard personal computer.
The “Videoplace” system identifies each participant's head, arms, legs, hands and fingers and determines their rate of movement, This analysis is performed on separate processors for each participant. Once each person's image is understood, it is analyzed with respect to the objects and creatures on the graphics screen. For instance, the computer maycheck to see whether a participant is touching a graphic object. Since the participant's image may be moved, scaled or rotated anywbere on the screen, the relationship of the transformed image to other objects on the screen must be considered.
Once each person's actions have been interpreted with respect to the graphic world, the computer must determine the consequences of these actions and initiate responses of its own. It then schedules its responses and directs subordinate processors dedicated to the generation of graphics, image transformation and sound to effect responses.
“Videoplace” is exhibited in two modes. In one, it selects a new interaction automatically when a person enters. It continues that interaction until all the participants have left the environment. When a new person enters, the next interaction in the sequence is triggered. In th second mode, the exhibit operates as a dialog between two participants: one who understands and controls the system and a second naive participant who is visiting the exhibit for the first time. The knowledgeable participant is seated at tbc “Videodesk” which operates in a manner similar to the “Videoplace” environment. The person at the desk can interact with the person in the “Videoplace” environment using the image of his or her hands. In addition, the "Videodesk" operator controls the selection of interactions from a menu. The person at the desk, a stand-in for an artificial intelligence system with a Vaudevillian sense of humor that will ad lib invent interactions on the fly, makes decisions that someday will be made by the computer.
Overall control of the system is asserted by a National 32016 processor running on a Multibus. “Videoplace” hardware runs on a specialized bus structure that allows great flexilbility in the intermingling of video images, standard graphics and the output of specialized graphics generators. Much of the programming is done in C, although each of the subordinate processors has a specialized architecture that is controlled by a unique microcode. The twelve specialized processors operate in parallel to the main processor. They are told what kind of processing to perform and do so automatically until their rules of behavior are changed. The sound is generated by two ATT WE32 digital signal processors, one of which performs Fourier synthesis and another which modulates the behavior of the sixteen channels of the first once a millisecond. (Myron W. Krueger)
Videoplace, 1970 – 90
Assistant: Katrin Hinrichsen
Assistant: Katrin Hinrichsen
Myron Krueger (USA) was born 1942, in Gary, Indiana, and grew up in New Jersey. He earned a B.A. in liberal arts from Dartmout College in 1964. After two years in the army, he went to graduate school in computer science at the University of Wisconsin, receiving an M.S. degree in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1974. While Krueger's original interest in computers was technical, his background in literature and philosophy distinguished him from his fellow graduate students. The immediate efficiency of the computer seemed far less significant than the relationship between human and machine and the purposes to which computers were put. This approach resulted in a series of experiments in human-machine interaction which inadvertently led blitz towards the arts.
In 1969, Krueger collaborated with artists on a computer controlled environment called “glowflow” While this exhibit succeeded aesthetically, it failed to embrace interactivity. Reacting to this experience, Krueger conceived a computer artform in which the computer would perceive the participants' behavior and respond through environmental scale displays. Discovering that he had strongly felt beliefs about the direction computer art should take led to his conversion from technologist to artist.
In 1970, he exhibited an environment called “metaplay” established the format of participants interacting with a video projection screen combining computer graphics with their live video images. In 1971, “Psychic space” used a sensory floor to perceive the participants‘ movements around the environment. Among the many interactions that occurred within this exhibit was a graphic maze that the participant navigated by moving around the room.
In 1972, he wrote the first draft of his dissertation which was ultimately published as “Artificial Reality” (Addison-Wesley 83). Immediately after receiving his Ph.D. from Wisconsin in 1974, M. Krueger sought support for a massive “Videoplace” project to be implemented with satellites that would be the theme of the US Bicentennial. People entering “Videoplace” environments in Europe, the US and Japan would be united in a graphic fantasy world where the laws of cause and effect were composed by the artist. While “Videoplace” was not implemented on this scale, its development was funded by the National Endowment for the arts and a two-way “Videoplace” exhibit was shown at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1975. From 1974 to 1978 M. Krueger performed computer graphics research at the Space Science and Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin in exchange for institutional support for his "Videoplace" work. For the next four years, he developed the “Videoplace” system and some preliminary interactions.
In 1978, he joined the computer science faculty at the University of Connecticut where he taught courses in hardware, software, computer graphics and artificial intelligence. He has been independent for the last five years and continues developing the “Videoplace” artform with his assistant Katrin Hinrichsen. “Videoplace” has been exhibited widely in both art and science contexts in North America and Canada and was shown in Japan. It was included in the SIGGRAPH Art Show in 1985, 1988 and 1990. “Videoplace” was also the featured exhibit at SIGCHI (Computer-Human Interaction Conference) in 1986, 1988 and 1989. “Videoplace” currently (1990) has 50 interactions in its repertoire with new ones being added on a continuing basis.
In 1969, Krueger collaborated with artists on a computer controlled environment called “glowflow” While this exhibit succeeded aesthetically, it failed to embrace interactivity. Reacting to this experience, Krueger conceived a computer artform in which the computer would perceive the participants' behavior and respond through environmental scale displays. Discovering that he had strongly felt beliefs about the direction computer art should take led to his conversion from technologist to artist.
In 1970, he exhibited an environment called “metaplay” established the format of participants interacting with a video projection screen combining computer graphics with their live video images. In 1971, “Psychic space” used a sensory floor to perceive the participants‘ movements around the environment. Among the many interactions that occurred within this exhibit was a graphic maze that the participant navigated by moving around the room.
In 1972, he wrote the first draft of his dissertation which was ultimately published as “Artificial Reality” (Addison-Wesley 83). Immediately after receiving his Ph.D. from Wisconsin in 1974, M. Krueger sought support for a massive “Videoplace” project to be implemented with satellites that would be the theme of the US Bicentennial. People entering “Videoplace” environments in Europe, the US and Japan would be united in a graphic fantasy world where the laws of cause and effect were composed by the artist. While “Videoplace” was not implemented on this scale, its development was funded by the National Endowment for the arts and a two-way “Videoplace” exhibit was shown at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1975. From 1974 to 1978 M. Krueger performed computer graphics research at the Space Science and Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin in exchange for institutional support for his "Videoplace" work. For the next four years, he developed the “Videoplace” system and some preliminary interactions.
In 1978, he joined the computer science faculty at the University of Connecticut where he taught courses in hardware, software, computer graphics and artificial intelligence. He has been independent for the last five years and continues developing the “Videoplace” artform with his assistant Katrin Hinrichsen. “Videoplace” has been exhibited widely in both art and science contexts in North America and Canada and was shown in Japan. It was included in the SIGGRAPH Art Show in 1985, 1988 and 1990. “Videoplace” was also the featured exhibit at SIGCHI (Computer-Human Interaction Conference) in 1986, 1988 and 1989. “Videoplace” currently (1990) has 50 interactions in its repertoire with new ones being added on a continuing basis.