and

ADaPT

(Association for Dance and Performance Telematics)
   
 

Performance: Viroid Flophouse

Date: 26 april 2004

Location: Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham, UK), Waag Society for Old and New Media (Amsterdam, NL)

 

Description:

The Viroid Flophouse was an exploration of playable art in an online gaming environment, which incorporated movement, motion tracking, streaming technologies and telematic performance, within the common theme of "virus."

It was a hybrid game/performance environment created by ADaPT (Association for Dance and Performance Telematics) which includes among others Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona), Nottingham Trent University (Nottingham, UK), Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) and Waag Society for Old and New Media (Amsterdam, NL).

The sites functioned as rooms in the "flophouse," in which on-site participants could interact with remote participants.

The ADaPT members involved in this production included a team from Arizona State, spearheaded by John Mitchell, a small team from Waag Society headed by Josephine Dorado, with additional input from Johannes Birringer (Nottingham Trent University).

 

Previous renditions of the project:

ADaPT had already experimented with one rendition of the project, named the Saira Virous which involved teams from Nottingham Trent University, headed by Johannes Birringer, and Wayne State University, headed by Kelly Gottesman.

Birringer's documentation of the Saira Virous can be viewed at the following urls:

http://art.ntu.ac.uk/performance_research/birringer/lat5.htm

http://art.ntu.ac.uk/performance_research/birringer/lat.htm

http://art.ntu.ac.uk/performance_research/birringer/lat4.htm

That rendition of the project mainly focused on the extension of dance performance telematically within an online gaming infrastructure, via streaming and projected media integrated with live performance.

 

The introduction of OSC (Open Sound Control protocol) into the gaming structure:

In our rendition of the project, the goal was to enhance the interaction by incorporating the sending and receiving of OSC data (Open Sound Control protocol) combined with motion capture, into the scenario.

The incorporation of osc data transmission over a network, in combination with motion capture via softVNS, enabled the sites to communicate the performers’ positions to each other. That data, in turn, could be used to control game events.

 

The gaming structure:

The game structure was developed and was based on the action of the remote and local gamer "sharing" the same space. In other words, the gamer in Arizona and the gamer in Amsterdam had to position themselves in the same virtual gaming space in order to get to the next level. The game was played by Arizona and Amsterdam players in this fashion, with supplementary commentary being streamed in sports commentary style, from Birringer.

 
Stage setup was as follows:
 
The Arizona and Amsterdam sites both had this same configuration. The first level of the game consisted of an image of a sculpture garden. Both gamers had to step "through" the door, thereby triggering the motion capture region associated with that area, in order to move to the second level.
 
First Level: Sculpture Garden Motion Capture Region Map
 
Second Level: Egyptian Hieroglyphs Motion Capture Region Map
 

The stream from Arizona consisted of the images of the sculpture garden and hieroglyphs, with the image of the local player superimposed over them and game-show sound effects. The stream from the Waag consisted of the black and white motion capture region maps behind the sculpture garden and hieroglyphs, plus some additional region maps that were used to provide an assortment of interesting images, plus audio synthesis triggered by the regions. Birringer, as mentioned before, was streaming his "sports commentary" as he was observing both streams and provided a sort of narrative for the game.