Interactive installation, realtime rendered

PC computer, 16:9 beam projection, 480cm x 270cm (h/w), socle with mouse
interactive 3D engine software development, random generated camera view path

Flotsam and Jetsam is the third stage of the Passage Park 3D interactive projection project. For the exhibition at the Städtische Galerie Nordhorn (ger), new 3D elements have been added to the set of objects, including parts of the pavillion architecture, and plant and tree props used in the spatial installation at the same display.

Passage Park consists of several different interactive scenes. They are linked through a common interface but can be displayed independently.
The moving images of the scenes are not retrieved from a DVD player or a media server, but rendered on a PC computer. This results in scenes 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 a stock and placed in the scene at random. These objects are placed on different levels 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 formed the contours of the location characteristics in the dark scene, vanish in the bright light, leaving nothing but a random composed combination of scattered 3D objects.