interactive installation, realtime rendered
PC computer, 16:9 beam projection or display on screen, socle with mouse
interactive 3D engine software development, random generated camera view path
Passage Park #5: Beeline is the fifth stage of the Passage Park 3D interactive projection project. Since 2014, different levels of this work have been presented in a number of exhibitions. This version is site independent and developped without physical spatial installational parts.
The title of "Beeline" refers to the expression for the shortest connection between two points, 'as the bee flies', which is not in accordance with the meandering, erratic, curved route a bee actually covers. A straight line may thus represent the shortest distance in space but is not a representation of the associative way object landmarks are put together to a continuous space in our brains.
Like every version before, this version features an enhanced set of objects and texture maps.
Passage Park consists of several different interactive levels. They are linked through a common interface but are displayed independently.
The moving images of the scene are not retrieved from a DVD player or a media server, but rendered on a PC computer. This results in levels that are not mere video recordings, instead they are 3D realtime images, which are not limited in time, and have a programmed camera behaviour and user interaction we write individually for each scene.
Photographs and objects are selected from our stock and placed in the scene at random. These objects are placed on different stage heights and may overlap and/or intersect. We don't want to create an arrangement of objects that could be found in reality but a mixture that induces an atmosphere of the viewer passing by surrealistic spatial situations.
While the first person camera is moving automatically through the 3D objects and photos, the vistor can use the mouse to look around. Clicking the mouse will change the light situation: Without pressing the mouse button the user will see just what lies directly in front of them within the narrow beam of a searchlight; when the mouse button is held down the scenery is openly displayed in a bright, vivid ambient light. The photographs however, which were important to the scene characteristics in the dark scene, vanish in the bright light, leaving nothing but a aleatory composition of scattered 3D objects.