PLACEHOLDER: landscape and narrative in virtual environments

Expericrwcs arc said to take place. Onc comes to know a place with atl one’ssenses and by virtue of the actions that one performs [here, from artembodied and situated point of view. The mind, observes naturalist Barry Lopez, is a kind of projection within a person of the place which [hat person inhabits; “Each individual undertakes to order his interior landscape according to the exterior landscape.” The cnvironmerrt proceeds to record our prcscncc and actions and the marks that we place there — this is a reciprocal affair. PLACEHOLDER is Lhename of a research projec[ which explored a new paradigm for narrative action in virtuat environments. The geography of PLACEHOLDER look inspiration from three actual locations in the vicinity of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada — the Middle Spring (a sulfur hot spring in a natural cave), a waterfall in Johnston Canyon, and a formation of hoodoos overlooking the Bow River. Tlmedimensional videographic scene elements, spatiafimd sounds and words, and simple character animation were employed m construct a composite landscape that could be visited concurrently by two physicaffy remote participants using head-mounted displays People were able to walk about. speak, and use both hands to touch and move virtual objects. People’s relationships with places and the creatures who inhabi[ them have formed the bssis of many traditions, spiritual practices, ancient stones, and myths. The graphic elements in PLACEHOLDER were adapted from iconography that bassbeen inscribed upon the landscape since Paleolithic times, Narrative motifs that revealed the arehetypal characters of landscape features and animals were selccled from ahoriginal [ales. Four animated spirit critters — Spider, Snake, FMt, and Crow — inhabited this virtuaf world. A person visiting the world could a..sume the character of one of the spirit animals and thereby experience aspects of its unique visual perception, ils way of moving abou[. and its voice, Thus the critters tinctioncd as “smart costumes” that changed more than the appearance of the person within. People sometimes leave marks in naturaf places — pictograms, ptroglyphs, graftli, or trail signs for example. In PLACEHOLDER, people were able to leave Voicemarks — bits of spoken narrative — [hat could he fislened to and rearranged by anyone who passed through. The virtual landscape accumulated definition through messages and storylines that participants Icft afong the way. We hope lhat the ideas we explored in PLACEHOLDER will foster the emergence of new forms of narrative play. CAITURING THE SENSE OF A PLACE by Rachel Strickland Most computer graphic virtual environmcrrts— and video adventure games in pwicular — that had heretofore faJlen in our paths consisl of synthetically generated scenery that comes from rrowhctv on earth. Even the flight simulator cxttmplcs with airporl runways precisely dimensioned and positioned on geographically correct termin models mosi starkly rellect the world of cartoons. Ortc of our objccyives with PLACEHOLDER wasto experiment with caphrring acIual places — in the auitude of landscape painling karfitions or documentary cinema, for example — using video and audio rccordcd on location as the raw material for constructing the virtual environment, It must be emphasized lhat we were not concerned wi[h achieving a high degree of sensory realism — something bristling with polygons and mips lhat mighl induce a perfect audiovisual delusion of slicking your head in the “real” walerfaH. No, it gets more slippery than that, What wc have really set out to capture or reproduce is jussl the simplest “sense of place.”’ Genius Loci For one thing, there is Ihe genius k~ct— a Latin phrase Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted providaf that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and Its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association of Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, recfuiresa fee ancf/orspecific permission. Multimedia 9410/94 San Francisco, CA, USA