Virtual Reality, 3D Sensors, Metanoia Exhibition, Pragovka, 2021, Technical support by Jan Zobal
Dimensional interplay in both its simplest as well as its most complex version of itself in the context of the n-verse project takes place inside the Traces virtual reality installation. While its simplicity comes from the straightforward idea that a digitized version of physical reality streamed from two four-dimensional scanners can be aligned with its physical source and explored through a virtual reality system, its complexity lies in manipulation of time and advanced mapping of variables enabled by computer vision. In addition to real-time point cloud streaming into the system, mathematical operations in combination with skeleton tracking AI are used to not only transform raw colored points into their higher-dimensional representations, but also to filter portions of these points belonging to human bodies and apply specific functions on them in relation to time. In other words, one can explore the self in the flux of time. Up to ten seconds or three hundred frames of movement, change, and spatial translation in the form of multidimensional traces can be explored by the participants depending on their position within the installation space. Furthermore, additional skeleton tracking data such as hand positions are used and combined with random ranges to slightly influence other forms in the system. The resulting experience is visually overwhelming. Realistic forms turn into abstract structures with complex levels of detail composed up from smallest scales. The interplay of point, lines, rectangles, and cubes with delay and hyper-interactivity invites proprioceptive exploration that is both physical and digital at the same time, even though the time shifts.
