[spectre] V2_ | TEST_LAB: Immersive Mixed Reality Environments

[Remco Beeskow]

** ANNOUNCEMENT & INVITATION **

V2_Test_Lab: Immersive Mixed Reality Environments

Saturday 21 October 2006, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam

11.00 – 12.30: Bioinformatics dept., Faculty building, 15^th floor
12.30 – 18.00: Sophia Children’s Hospital, Cinema 3^rd floor

Test_Lab:/ Immersive Mixed Reality Environments/ is the product of a 
unique collaboration between the Erasmus Medical Centre and V2_, 
Institute for the Unstable Media with the aim of opening the dialogue 
between scientists and artists that apply Virtual Reality in their 
research and art practice. The event consists of demonstrations by 
Virtual Reality artists and scientists providing hands-on experiences 
with Immersive Mixed Reality Environments, and presentations by renowned 
international speakers presenting the latest in Virtual Reality in 
science and art. See below for the program details, a description of the 
projects that will be demonstrated, and the invited speakers that will 
present their work in the seminar.

Test_Lab is a bi-monthly public event hosted by V2_ that provides an 
informal setting to demonstrate, test, present, and/or discuss artistic 
research and development (aRt&D).

The event is free of charge, but registration is required before the 
19^th of October. For further information and registration please 
contact Remco Beeskow at press at v2.nl (tel: +31 (0)10 206 72 72) or Fred 
Balvert at f.balvert at erasmusmc.nl (tel: +31(0)6 41431721). Also visit 
www.v2.nl and www.erasmusmc.nl.

*Program*

(Saturday, 21-10-2006)

11.00h - 12.30h: Demonstrations:

- Sonia Cillari (/GATC/Life/)

- Anton Koning (Clinical and research demonstrations)

- Artem Baguinski (/Deep Limb Sensation/ by Pierre Proske)

12.30h - 12.50h: Reception

12.50h – 13.00h: Opening by Anne Nigten (Manager, V2_Lab)

13.00h - 13.45h: Peter van der Spek (Erasmus MC)

13.45h – 14.30h: Derek Hales (University of Huddersfield)

14.30h - 15.00h: Coffee break

15.00h – 15.45h: Yike Guo (Imperial College London / CEO InforSense 
Limited)

15.45h – 16.30h: Maurice Benayon (Création Interactive 
Transdisciplinaire Universitaire)

16.30h – 17.15h: Discussion

17.15h – 18.00h: Drinks

*Demonstrations*

(Saturday, 21-10-2006, 11.00h-12.30h,

Erasmus MC Bio-informatics dept., Faculty building 15^th floor)

- *GATC/Life*

Artist Sonia Cillari will demonstrate a project called /GATC / life/, 
which she realised as an artist-in-residence at V2_ and in collaboration 
with Erasmus Medical Centre’s Bio-informatics department.

/GATC / life/ is an immersive experience inside unities of life. The 
liquid multi-colored breathing membrane (the 'inside') contains flocks 
of cells and smallest particles/molecules having disordered human-like 
noisy behaviours. Our presence and actions can influence their 
configurations and growth within the space and around/near us. This work 
explores our perception in a condition of extended body dimensions and 
lack of control.

- *Biomedical research*

Anton Koning will demonstrate applications for clinical and fundamental 
research.

- *Deep Limb Sensation*

Developer Artem Baguinski will demonstrate an art project by artist 
Pierre Proske called /Deep Limb Sensation/. The project is the result of 
an artist-in-residence period at V2_ funded by the Pauwhof Fonds and 
developed in collaboration with Erasmus Medical Centre’s Bio-informatics 
department.

In augmented- and virtual-reality environments one is often represented 
by avatars or virtual bodies/limbs. Deep Limb Sensation exploits this 
disconnection between our physical bodies and our bodies as we conceive 
them by having a person use their real arm to activate a "phantom" limb 
in a virtual world. The context in which this game-play takes place is a 
deep sea immersive underwater environment, in which a limb is controlled 
with the aim of touching another creature to accomplish a gentle act of 
virtual invertebrate love-making.

*Presentations*

(21-10-2006, 12.30h-18.00h,

Sophia Children’s Hospital, Cinema 3rd floor)

*Peter van der Spek *is professor at Erasmus MC University Medical 
Center Rotterdam and head of the Department of Bioinformatics. In a 
world awash with data there is an increasing need for effective methods 
of gaining insight into associated and underlying information. We need 
methods for visualizing information to support rapid learning and 
accurate decision making. The talk will emphasize on various aspects of 
information visualization using real world examples besides lifesciences 
and medical applications of computer generated interactive information 
visualization methods. Information visualization deals with the 
representation and presentation of concepts and data in a meaningful 
way. Depending on the medium used, information can be visualized in 
either traditional static form or more recent and powerful interactive 
and dynamic using virtual reality technology.

*Derek Hales *is Research Leader for the Department of Creative 
Technologies at the University of Huddersfield School of Art & Design, 
where he also leads the Multimedia subject area. He is a chartered 
Architect and a regional councillor of the Royal Institute of British 
Architects, chairing their Digital Futures Group. In the /Immersive 
Mixed Reality Environments/ seminar, Derek Hales will present his 
current research on exploring virtual environments and the impact of 
such environments on contemporary practice.**

*Yike Guo *is professor at Imperial College, University of London and 
head of the Data Mining Group at Imperial College. He is a world leading 
expert in large scale data mining and Grid computing. He will introduce 
DiscoveryNet, an e-science pilot project, aiming to provide a uniform 
framework for enabling a global collaboration for scientists in their 
data-driven scientific research. This project achieved its goal and has 
been successfully commercialized by InforSense limited, an Imperial 
College spin-out company. One key impact of the DiscoveryNet technology 
is that it establishes a new model for scientific collaboration as well 
as knowledge dissemination.

*Maurice Benayoun* is a media artist whose work explores the 
potentiality of various media from video to virtual reality, Web and 
wireless art, public space large scale art installations and interactive 
exhibitions. Benayoun's work has been widely exhibited all over the 
world and received numerous international awards and prizes. For the 
/Immersive Mixed Reality Environments/ seminar he will focus on the 
concept of ‘situation’ applied to art. Based on his 15 years experience 
in creating VR-based works, Maurice Benayoun will address topics such 
as: Experiencing representation through VR in metaphorical environments 
(Does this introduce the metaphysics of games or the mechanics of human 
dialogue?), semantic spaces as information to live in, the bible of the 
VR World: something to read by visiting, virtual architecture as 
being-prints, the foot prints of our experience in the symbolic world, 
and much more.

*Anne Nigten *is the manager of V2_Lab, the aRt&D department of V2_, 
Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She 
lectures on research and development in interdisciplinary fields from an 
art perspective and is advisor for several media art and science 
initiatives in Europe. Anne will moderate the /Immersive Mixed Reality 
Environments/ seminar and will use her experience in interdisciplinary 
debates to provoke a dialogue between the presenting scientists and 
artists, and the audience.

For more information please contact Remco Beeskow, V2_Communications 
press at v2.nl <mailto:press at v2.nl>. Phone: +31(0)10-206 72 72. Website: 
www.v2.nl <http://www.v2.nl/>