I do VRPR (virtual reality public relations) for a state of the future company called The Vivid Group. Our product is the Mandala Virtual Reality System.
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by gogo B GoNia
from pata go Nia
I do VRPR (virtual reality public relations) for a state of the future company called The Vivid Group. Our product is the Mandala Virtual Reality System.
Techsplanation: What is Mandala?
Standing in front of a video monitor, a camera instantly displays your entire body onto that monitor so that, as if in a mirror, you view yourself in a "virtual environment." When you move, your discarnate body on the monitor moves and, thanks to a computer linked to a real-time digitizer, you can manipulate and interact with the icons, graphics and animations around you. For example, if there is a drum kit in front of you, you could reach out to where your video-self could beat the animated skin. This will trigger the appropriate sound in real time. It is unencumbered VR -- you don't have to wear or hold anything. With this exciting, particular interpretation of the VR concept, The Vivid Group is a world leader in the field of virtual reality.
Vivid's success lies in the fact that people can immediately play and have fun when they step into camera range, like a cross between being in Alice's Looking-Glass Wonderland and being inside an interactive TV set. You don't have to wear any goggles, data gloves, body suits or headmounted displays. You are also free from alienating interfaces such as keyboards, mice and joysticks; you are the mouse. You are empowered by the freedom of movement and unencumbered interaction. When you appear in the virtual environment with full-body mobility, the immersion is convincing, allowing you to become absorbed in the action. The ability to use strength, agility, creativity and co-ordination make the adventure seem tangible. By comparison other virtual reality experiences are cumbersome, bulky and intrusive due to physical restraints which feel unnatural and confining. Your involvement is further limited when you don't set your whole body in the virtual environment.
The Mandala submerges you into an interactive world where you don't see the technology because you have become a part of it. When The Vivid Group started out, people's sense of interactivity was limited to the mere clicking of a mouse or the touching of a screen.
Vincent John Who?
In 1980, I skipped grade 13, and having gone right into university, found myself unable to enter the University of Waterloo pub since the drinking age had recently gone up. A doorman named Vinny was standing at the gate post like a living Mandala who could permit me to enter into an alternate universe -- the bar! Being a non-drinker I was content to just hang out at the entrance because we were both into phenomenological psychology and the layers of reality. My trusty doorman and I became fast friends. Vince's concept for the Mandala system was born out of the time of experimentation with psychedelic drugs and alternative therapies. He wanted to create an instrument that would help facilitate a kind of "wholeness of being" perspective with computers.
Vincent soon met Francis MacDougall, a computer wiz with a wicked sense of humour, and together they began to hack out the Mandala concept -- science with art converged. The challenge was to create a medium, or tool of expression, which could bring Vincent's internal visions to light and be communicated to others as they wandered through different digitized worlds.
The Mandala was soon alive, and with it people could focus on creativity and use their body as an interface with the computer, as if their whole body was stepping into a creation of the unconscious, or a dreamscape if you will. The Mandala became Vincent's personal performance instrument. On his cyberstage he controls on-screen midi instruments and animation, dances around in virtual space, and can also play in harmony with an accompanying band. During his performances Vincent would take the audience along on a trip into his unconscious and communicate the visions of his dreams, as if a third person dream experience was being relived, interacted with, manipulated, influenced, melded, and molded. It became Vincent's vehicle, taking around the world and allowing him to interweave graphic arts, dance, music, juggling, mime and acting.
The Mandala is a superb medium for performers because in it you can create a context for whatever you are talented at, and like any instrument you get better over time. Since VR performance is such a completely new thing, people get off on the technology as much as the show itself, which at times is so potent that the audience is often mesmerized as Vincent experiments with the new medium.
One such person was Sue Wyshynski, and by 1988 she joined with Vincent and Francis in The Vivid Group, and now heads Vivid's West Coast operations outside of San Francisco from a 150 year old ferryboat that was formerly used by the Allen Watts Society. Last year she brought Mandala to Harmony Land in Japan, among numerous other places.
Space Freaks
"Vivid heads", being space freaks, recently studied the effects of weightlessness on the human body and developed a Skylab Mission Simulator for the Astronaut Hall Of Fame in Florida. The installation challenges guests to relive an actual Skylab mission, their images floating around the screen in a simulation of zero gravity. The experience teaches people about physical dynamics in outer space. Engaging your whole body, you develop new co-ordination all at once using the left and right side of your body equally as objects roll around you. Although there were no conclusive results, it made us wonder what could happen when you had an instrument of interaction that engaged the entire body to see how it may stimulate aspects of your awareness and thinking.
The Vivid Group began to do installation art in such places as ARS Electronica in Austria, Image Du Futur in Montreal, MuuMedia Festival in Finland, Cyber Arts and Cyberthon in San Francisco, Le Fresnoy Interactive Art in France, Expo '92 Spain, Expo '93 Korea, special installations at Siggraph, Lollapalooza, the MTV Christmas party, and hundreds more. These installations gradually became more permanent as Mandala began to integrate elements of edutainment as well as interactivity. Museums embrace our exhibits because they not only provide museum-goers with an interactive experience, but as edutainment Mandala can demonstrate concepts of technology and art which appeals to a wide range of people.
Business is Business ...Not!
People like Timothy Leary supported and influenced Vincent, Francis, and Sue, because they stuck to their mandate that with enough tools to explore your sense of self then you don't need rely on violence to market your product. They believed that fostering love and creativity was the key to human evolution, and that this could allow The Vivid Group to prosper as a company because our focus was on creativity rather than seeking out an existing market first. We were able to make money by being creative because there was a demand for that creativity. The Vivid Group didn't have to fall into any marketing traps and go the usual corporate route that is typical with new technologies, like marketing electronic wet dreams with hot babes. We were aware of the social effects of our new technology and took responsibility for our product. Virtuous and non virulent virtual reality. The Vivid Group focuses on non-violent adventure worlds. When approached with violent or military-oriented clients, we would offer non-violent training and competition-based alternatives. Our game categories range from sports motifs to fantasy adventures, promoting positive concepts such as recycling and self-growth.
In this way we create markets, as opposed to finding and cashing in on existing markets. We are experiment with new ways to do business. Communication is the key. Everyone has their input, and you don't have to be in the production department to have a good production idea. We all help each other by being part of the creative element which helps our business grow. There is no set way of doing things because we are creating the markets. "Hey, how about doing raves, barmitzvahs, amusement parks, corporate promotions, TV production!" We have to create new ways of refocussing our energies with every new job. Ninety percent of the people we hire learn their skills on the job and have to adapt and change as the market changes and grows. The Vivid Group hires people who can change and grow with the technology -- open minded competent people who enjoy using their imagination in learning how to play business.
Ritual Virility
At the Vivid Group we are trying to facilitate technology that not only can be used by an individual for their own creativity and growth, but also to facilitate positive interaction and creativity in the global village, the idea of "electronic democracy", of getting technology into the hands of the people to allow them to link up and communicate together and expand their minds through knowledge. For example, we created the Virtual Cities project with the National Film Board of Canada, a live video teleconferencing project that linked participants from three countries in a shared Mandala world to investigate urban development issues. This event was also seen live by over fifty countries and had the capability of participants to plan and create their own virtual city.
The Vivid Group also works with the McLuhan Program of Culture and Technology to integrate Mandala into interactive teleconferencing events. Videophone experiences are greatly enhanced when accompanied by Mandala. Not only can you construct what you'll do, but also where you'll do it, since with a virtual library you can pick video from anywhere on the globe, or create your own world. I can call my friend in Berlin and we can place ourselves on a beach in India and play hacky sack together. It's like nothing anyone has ever encountered before. The participants appear alongside each other on the screen and they are both the same size. There is a lot of visual interaction and nonverbal communication that takes place by seeing peoples' whole bodies in the same virtual environment. You don't even need to speak the same language!
On April 24th, 1994, Vincent performed in the world's first Virtual Transatlantic video link. On this cyberstage he played virtual musical instruments and danced in the same virtual environment with a friend who was in Belgium. They also juggled balls, and painted a virtual canvas with an animated brush. On May 27th, at the Digital Media Award ceremony in Toronto, a Mandala videophone was set up with interactive links in California with Dr. Timothy Leary and multimedia artist Todd Rundgren. This new fusion of TV and telephone will surely be the wave of the future as people are able to communicate and perform together regardless of their physical location. Now, in the Spring of 1995, The Vivid Group will be unveiling it's first application of SGI Mandala.
Interactivity still hasn't peaked, it's still not the natural way of doing things. The Vivid Group keeps pushing the limits of technology and making forays onto the digital frontier. With Ritual Virility the future is pregnant with possibilities.