MySpace - Spherical Worlds

Project staff:	Dipl.-Ing. Erik Steindecker (former staff member) Markus Wacker (student) media information technology students of the HTW Dresden
Partner:	Matthias Lehmann

VR in art means that first the artist and then the art recipient have more opportunities to try things out and experiment than in the real world. The spherical worlds project was created as part of a collaboration between Matthias Lehmann, a freelance artist and sculptor, TU Dresden and HTW Dresden.

The spherical worlds span a space from reality to virtuality. The individual installations are housed in spheres (each a small, self-contained world). In the anteroom of the CAVE, there are real arrangements and sculptures mounted in spheres. These continue into the CAVE, where virtual spheres now traverse the space of the CAVE on slow tracks. As soon as the viewer's head penetrates the surface of the sphere in the CAVE, he or she is immersed in the world of the sphere. The contents of the sphere become visible and suitable music and sounds become audible.

The contents of the 18 spheres were created by students of the HTW Dresden as part of project work and deal with very different themes. For example, there is a floating dream island, a spaceship, fairgrounds or a 3D variant of the game Tetris to experience. The complexity of the scene with multiple objects as well as the internal control of the movements in each sphere, required an elaborate resource management. This guarantees smooth playback at all times. Sphere contents are only activated when needed. Depending on the viewer's position, the intensity of the sounds inside and outside the spheres is controlled. Already when approaching the sphere, the sounds from inside can be heard and stimulate the expectation of what will soon also be seen inside the sphere.