Reaffirming the original vision for the kiosk, my early visits to the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant did indeed provide me with "an occasion to review the nature of information stations." At the time, I felt that "the informational function of these stations, for the most part, tends to feature those aspects of the facility that the creators of the information have deemed important to impart to the visitor...The visitor might, for example, be presented with a set of simple buttons which, when activated, might provide 'examples' of approved information sets."
Rather than present visitors with such pre-approved stories, however, from the very beginning my idea was to "redefine the nature and function of the information kiosk, in order to create a kind of information display about the plant that (a) allows the visitor to experience information rather than 'retrieve' it; (b) permits the visitor to create information rather than navigate among prefabricated choices; and (c) encourages direct physical contact as a primary medium through which the visitor's experience with the information is mediated."
This observation envisioned the nature of the kiosk we had proposed as very different from that of the usual information station. In particular, I have always aimed, not to create an information kiosk per se, but to create an artwork based upon the idea of the information kiosk. In principle, this is no different from any other artwork based upon taking a particular perspective on a realworld entity--a forest, or a portrait of a human being. However, the function of any artwork, including the one we are creating now, is not simply to reproduce the nature and function of the model, even if that were possible--and it isn't.
My original observations viewed the Point Loma plant as "a very complex organism, with both human-made and nature-made elements acting in concert...The sounds of the machines, the birds and seals, the ocean, the airplanes that fly overhead at regular intervals, the people who work at the plant, and the vehicles that move back and forth through the area, constitute a rich and diverse experiential base." I proposed that the use of multimedia technology could impart to visitors "a sense of the richness and complexity of the plant as hybrid organism. Thus, complexity made sensuous is the essential nature of the work I propose..." For me and for my team, identifying and presenting this sensuous essence is fundamental to the nature of art. Moreover, I feel strongly that in experiencing art, this is what audiences are looking for. Realizing this vision is what we have been working toward over the past six months.
The design encourages visitors "to configure their own combinations of the text, images and sounds related to the plant. Visitors are able to see and hear this process very directly, by mixing and matching sounds, images and areas in real time. A visitor to this kiosk is able to create his or her own experience of the (virtual) plant, interactively exploring that experience for as long as desired. In effect, a visitor will, via this technology, create his or her own plant."
Our system acts as a partner with the visitor, helping to combine and create new combinations of visual, textual and sonic elements. The system can also operate in "automatic kaleidoscope" mode, where it recomposes and recombines images on its own, so that visitors can view the system's own take on the imagery connected with the plant. Other visitors to the kiosk can watch and experience vicariously as the person standing at the kiosk navigates through multiple and simultaneous perspectives of the plant, including parts of the plant too dangerous or inaccessible for direct visitation."
From a visitor's perspective, the kiosk consists of three 15" LCD video monitors that present images, and four channels of sound, with speakers distributed in two-dimensional space. Both the speakers and the monitors directly face a single visitor, who is seated at a distance of approximately ffve feet from the face of the kiosk. Two simple and widely-available WebCams are embedded within the kiosk, but are located in a way that is basically out of the visitor's direct notice. From a camera's eye view, however, the visitor's body fills most of the available field of view of both of these cameras.
A remote "control room" holds equipment that sends images and sound to the kiosk area, including:
We are using the video-based motion tracking software known as "BigEye" as the physical interface to
the kiosk. Implemented by the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam, one of the
world's leading institutions for experimental sonic art, this software can work with practically any
video input source, and is in wide use among artists working in interactive media to control sound
and image. One of the Macintosh computers, using the BigEye software, detects the approximate
location and trajectory of the visitor's movements. Relevant information includes the location in
(two-dimensional space) of the visitor, the extent to which the visitor is active (i.e., moving),
the instantaneous location of the visitor's hands, and much more. No part of the visitor's body
actually touches any part of the kiosk.
Three laserdisc players contain a series of one-minute edited video clips about the plant. Each disc can hold about 45 minutes of broadcast-quality clips, which will be indexed for quick search and retrieval. These clips will be similar in function to television "spots." The views presented will undergo various image processing operations, and will be directly shown on each of the three screens. The subjects of the clips may be categorized in the following areas:
All spoken and written texts will be presented in Spanish and English as
primary languages. A short introduction to operation, goals and function of
the kiosk will be presented on the kiosk's frontispiece in these languages,
and perhaps in others as well; Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese,
German, French, and Russian are all candidates for inclusion here.
The center screen will be somewhat different than the others. On this screen, the image of the visitor will at times be superimposed upon whatever video clip is playing. This image will be subject to visitorinfluenced changes in color and texture via the use of a second Macintosh computer. The desired effect is a choreographic one--to encourage the visitor to experience direct associations of movement, sound and image, as in dance. This computer is running another STEIM program, Image/ine, which is designed to facilitate interactive control of video image processing effects.
The visual programming language known as Max (created by UCSD computer music professor Miller
Puckette and published by Opcode Systems of California) has become the lingua franca for
interactive process control for multimedia applications. Max will run on the first computer,
and will serve to control the laserdiscs.. Together with BigEye, the effect of this object-oriented
software is to allow interaction between the operation of the discs and the movements of the visitor.
As envisioned in my original narrative, the visual component of the system would also be able to
operate in "automatic kaleidoscope" mode, where it would recompose and recombine images on its own,
so that visitors could view the system's own take on the imagery connected with the plant. This would
also serve to invite visitors to dialogue with the kiosk.
Max, with its audio signal processing extension, MSP, has been used as the
primary means of making and controlling the sounds made by the kiosk. Again in response to visitor
movements, Max/MSP software allows the visitor to select and perform sounds and musical images.
The kinds of sounds used may be categorized in a manner analogous to the visual categorization:
These sounds, while slightly audible outside the kiosk, will be at a sufficiently low level as to permit conversations to take place without difficulty in other parts of the staging area, while at the same time facilitating a fully sensuous sonic experience for the visitor. This is possible because the sounds of the kiosk are largely contained by its walls, within which the visitor is seated. Further, the walls, floor and ceiling of the kiosk will feature sound-absorbent materials that are intended to inhibit sound propagation outside of the immediate kiosk area. Since the kiosk is activated by video detection of the physical presence of a visitor facing it, every effort will be made to ensure that sounds will be active only while the kiosk is being directly accessed by a visitor.
What the visitor can do Using the BigEye software to divide the visual field into a series of
"active zones", visitor movement can serve to:
While information is not presented at random, the ability to select particular areas or interest (i.e., "show me the definition of 'effluent' ") is not part of the definition of the operation of this artwork. Rather, information is presented progressively, as in a story. The visitor interacts with the current version of the story--perhaps altering it, modifying it, asking for a new part of the story, and so on. Because of the multiple sources of sound and image, the story has multiple perspectives, but is linear in its essence, with notions of plot, narrative, recapitulation and climax. The notion here is that the system, like any artwork, has its own story to tell, and when the visitor and the system interact, a larger story is created.
