Attaining Presence: 4Jetpacks4 and Bryn Oh

Posted by Alpha Auer

4Jetpacks4 was an immersive installation created by Bryn Oh, with the participation of Glyph Graves and Nonnatus Korhonen earlier this year. I was privileged to be one of the group of avatars that were given the tour of the research centre back on March the 6th. I will not talk here about what 4jetpacks was all about. The extraordinary video by Evo Szuyuan above does that far better than I ever could. What I will attempt to do instead is to talk about "immersion" and "presence" as integral parts of virtual world creativity. I know from personal conversations we have had that this is a subject as dear to Bryn Oh's heart as it is to mine, the thing which she puts at the center of her (virtual) creative activity.

I will quote a bit from scientific sources while I try to set up a basic definition of "presence", as a sense of “being there” in a mediated environment (IJsselsteijn, deRidder, Freeman and Avons, 2000). Lombard and Ditton (1997) define it as an illusion of non-mediation in which a user no longer perceives the display medium as a separate entity. A high level of presence will help users remember a virtual environment as more of “a place visited”, rather than “a place seen” (Slater et al., 1999). A success indicator of the attainment of presence is also considered to be the realization of similar behavior patterns in virtual environments to those in the physical realm (Slater and Wilbur, 1997), and even the manifestation of similar physiological responses towards a given event to its approximation in the physical realm (Meehan, 2000).

Various definitions of the term “presence” and their relevance to the immersive virtual experience are discussed by Mantovani and Riva who challenge the notion that experiencing a simulated environment deals with the mere perception of its objective features; instead proclaiming that presence in an environment (real or simulated) means that individuals can perceive themselves, objects, as well as others not only as situated in an external space but as immersed in a socio-cultural web connected through interactions between objects and people, leading us to the paramount importance of the interacting agent within a virtual culture, i.e., the avatar.

And this to me, lies at the very heart of the problem where artistic activity in a virtual world such as Second Life® is involved. Is the goal to be sought the "perception of objects" only? Or could it be that what would set artistic activity in a virtual world as a genre apart, would involve conditions wherein "individuals perceive themselves, objects, as well as others not only as situated in an external space but as immersed in a socio-cultural web connected through interactions between objects and people"? For me, without the shadow of any doubt, it is the latter. And it seems to me that this definition is what 4jetpacks is/was all about as well: That the creation of an immersive experience was the primary intention became obvious to me during Bryn Oh's opening statement where she addressed the importance of "presence" in virtual art. In her terminology the word "presence" is interchanged with "immersion", which does of course add up to very much the same thing. "Viewing" art, i.e., "the mere perception of its objective features" does not seem to overly interest Bryn Oh, and I am so very heartened to observe this in a fellow content creator, and one for whom I have a great deal of respect at that.

Bryn Oh is an exquisite builder. Every texture, every prim, every shape and object placed in perfect proximity, culminating in visual systems that I am awed by over and over again. And a very good thing that this is so: The immersive experience needs that level of concern for perfection to be pulled off with credibility. Creating an immersive experience does not imply that one can get away with shoddy visuality. If anything, it would imply the exact opposite: For us to become fully "present" within the "artwork" involves a level of visual expertise on behalf of the artist whereby perfect cohesion and gestalt are achieved to the extent at which not even a tiny component of the installation appears out of sync, thus distracting us from the immersive experience through its ineptitude or its misplacement within the overall system. Whether the visual gestalt that is meant to bring about "presence" involves high levels of abstraction or realism, opulence or stark minimalism would not be the issue at all by the way: I would seriously doubt whether one would need minutely detailed craftsmanship emulating realism to attain a state of presence. But, I would dare to say that what one would need would be a continuity of visual language - which as any artist worth his or her salt knows is a devil of a thing to pull off.

However, presence needs more than visuality. It also needs narrative. It needs a story or a situation endowed with sufficient power and imagination to pull us in. "Presence in art" needs substantial planning. An observance of fine detail whilst maintaining a firm grip on the whole. In other words, not a thing to be pulled off in one afternoon. Amongst much else, it is visuality, performance, role play, cyberpsychology combined. Bryn Oh has whatever it takes...

In the end, for me, the attainment of "presence" is more than likely to be the thing which will eventually create a "genre" out of the currently rather haphazard conglomeration that is the state of art in virtual worlds today. It really does seem to me that art generated in virtual worlds needs to be contextualized within the broader framework of contemporary art, given a raison d'etre, a property unique onto itself - and the attainment of "presence in art" would be a not too easily imitated attribute of virtual world based artistic activity. 4jetpacks gave me huge hopes in this direction and I am very grateful to Bryn Oh for having given me just that - hope!

...

A video created by Bryn Oh on 4jetpacks ends this post:



Also please read the post by Hamlet Au on NWN talking to Evo Szuyuan about her utterly remarkable SL-video skills and all that is involved in the attainment of the perfect SL-video here.

“uncharted pages from a voyage of the beagle”

Posted by Alpha Auer
...

"This time I am alone
This time I will not leave"

"I can not remember"

"It is happening again"

"what we thought were offspring are in fact an extension of the two: A way for change, a way to bring us in as a part of the whole."

...

The lines above are whatever little fragments I have been able to catch from the notes of the explorer that float above my head as I stand enraptured watching the toil of Nonnatus Korhonen's doomed creatures as they try to desperately make their way into an overcrowded tank that awaits them at the end of their long journey down a stepped structure resembling an inverted Ziggurat, one surrounded on three levels by circular walkways.





"... In lonely isolation, the avatar Lamarck Zapatero has been standing and observing the constant cycle and recycle of the system that surrounds him. Like his namesake, he is part of a cul-de-sac in a way of thinking about things - though the fragments of knowledge he will come away with are still vital to the picture as a whole. He is also the avatar of an avatar, a representation of Nonnatus Korhonen, one step removed from having his own human.

Falling from one of two ‘egg’ shaped objects at the top of the system, and close to where Zapatero spends his long days of observation, are small monotone creatures that appear to be at the whim of the simulated gravity, like ‘fish out of water’ they bounce and flail their way ever downwards. Their existence is short, as they are propelled from a place purely constructed from numbers (and values assigned to placeholders) into a place describing a possible visual representation of these numbers. As they fall, one of the many possible values that defines them will change ever so slightly, and this change has the potential to be inherited by further creatures as they are thrust into this world of eternal flux, where extremes of parameters are set in stone, but where almost limitless combinations of the interrelations of sites within these extremes give Zapatero the impression of infinite variation (and where the far more complex mind of the human observer is invited to suspend disbelief and observe the origins of complexity arising from these evolving parts.) The potential for inheritance is strengthened through longevity; something the viewer has direct control over, given dedication and perseverance to understanding the system through observation, trial and error..."

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin. Two names, two clues, which Korhonen seems to me to have woven into this starkly hermetic piece addressing the emergence and extinction of artificial life: "The Voyage of the Beagle" is the title commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, ideas which Darwin would later develop into his theory of evolution by natural selection. And Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 – 1829) is the author of the first truly cohesive theory of evolution, in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through "use and disuse" of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms.

Hermetic as Korhonen's installation is, it did propel me towards my own musings and imaginings, which may or may not reflect the original intentions of the artist: Firstly, it would seem to me that the piece invites the viewer to make connections to Second Order Cybernetics, symbolized in the lone figure of Lamarck Zapatero, the observer of a system who in his turn ends up becoming observed - by me. Leading me to speculate on my own involvement and how I too am observed, in an endless cycle of Droste effects, by others.



The Theory of Evolution put an end to the Biblical Myth of Creation. But did it also put an end to the mystical explorations surrounding the subject of creation itself? Or did it simply reposition the whole discourse onto the level of abstraction already present in the Kabbalah? And does Korhonen ever so subtly weave these associations into his Ziggurat of generation and destruction? The creatures themselves: I can end their overcrowded agony by pushing a button, something resembling the stopper of an ancient inkwell. A red stopper. Red for Gevurah? The 5th Sefirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life? The mighty one of destruction which makes way for new life? And sure enough, when I push the stopper on the "inkwell" the glass tank turns red, and the doomed creatures become extinguished. I have just destroyed artificial life - to make room for its new generations. And isn't it strange that it is me, standing at ground level, who has been endowed with this power rather than the observer Lamarck Zapatero, enthroned God like, high above at the top of the edifice? Which, of course, leads me straight back to Second Order Cybernetics? Is this where I am meant to go?

It is not an easy piece to understand, this work of Korhonen's. However, understand it or not, it dis-settled me into asking some very uneasy questions, while it also embroiled me in a very compelling narrative, a tale of inevitability and destruction, which despite the stark minimalism of the construct makes its presence profoundly felt; especially, I believe, through the rendition of the "creatures" themselves: Brown, soft textured spheres, a few striped tail like protrusions: It is through such stringently used visual means that Korhonen has managed to present us with an artificial life form that we do in fact end up feeling for, that we can thoroughly identify with. A reminder of childhood toys? The long lost eyeless teddy bear that I once had?

"... this incomplete narrative can only become whole through the creative imagination, and speculative mind of the persistent viewer. Suffice is to say this whole system is built upon the shaky foundations of a set of assumptions about artificial life processes that I believe exist in the previously mentioned cul-de-sac. Regardless, shaky foundations are often the starting place for many a fascinating insight or experimental exploration leading to the firmer ground supportive of more persistent sites."

"This time I am alone
This time I will not leave"...

You can teleport to “uncharted pages from a voyage of the beagle” by Nonnatus Korhonen/Andrew Burrell directly from here.

Australia awards AU$30,000 to Nonnatus Korhonen and Nuerone Schism to combine art with neuroscience and make virtual bees

Avatar Nonnatus Korhonen and real bees hover over the honey in Nuerone Schism's hand

It must be said... Australia continues to trailblaze ahead of most first-world nations in its funding and fostering of novel programs that explore the arts in the virtual realm. The Australia Council for the Arts has just announced the winners of its collaborative massive multi-user virtual environment (MMUVE) arts project, MMUVE IT!, and this is the second consecutive year that a NPIRLer wins.

Our own Nonnatus Korhonen (aka Andrew Burrell), together with Nuerone Schism (aka Trish Adams), are the recipients of the Council's AU$30,000 grant, which they will use to collaborate on Mellifera, a mixed-realities artwork exploring cognitive processes and body movement, and their relationship to virtual environments in both Second Life® and the recently launched Australian virtual platform, Vastpark.

Last year's winner was Babelswarm - an interactive sculpture based on the mythical Tower of Babel - conceived and created by NPIRLer Adam Ramona (aka Adam Nash), Mashup Islander (aka Christopher Dodds), and Justin Clemens, (teleport directly from here).

Andrew Burrell (Nonnatus Korhonen) is a Sydney-based visual artist and writer, best known to us as the man who created the mysterious and elusive birds at the Garden of NPIRL Delights...


This photo by Kean Kelly

... as well as Oracle, an installation that investigates perception and interpretation of language and representation of form (teleport directly from here).



Brisbane-based arts/science practitioner and researcher Trish Adams (Nuerone Schism) has a Doctorate in Visual Arts, and her thesis explored the impact on expressions and representations of corporeality of experimental techniques in biomedical engineering and involved a cross-disciplinary collaboration with a biomedical scientist at The University of Queensland.

The artists will collaborate with Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, head of visual and sensory neuroscience at the University of Queensland's Brain Institute - where Trish Adams is currently an artist in residence - to create artifically intelligent bee-like creatures that will be native to their virtual environment. Said Andrew,"They'll feed and have predators like ordinary creatures, but their behaviour will be determined by the rules of the environment."

Professor Srinivasan was the recipient of the 2007 Premier of Queensland Smart State Fellowship Award for his leading research into cognition and navigation systems in small brains such as the honey bee.

The birds by Nonnatus Korhonen

Photography by Kean Kelly

They are other-wordly and a bit unsettling, in a cute sort of way. They reside where giant strawberries are found. Flocks of them chase visitors, but they won't allow themselves to be caught. They are the birds by Sydney-based Nonnatus Korhonen (aka Andrew Burrell), created for the Garden of NPIRL Delights (teleport directly from here).


Kean waits for them to come to her


Kean works to establish trust in them