Jeffrey Shaw
ZKM-KARLSRUHE
(Australia/Germany)
"THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM"
versión en español
The Virtual Museum is a three dimensional computer generated museum constituted by an immaterial constellation of rooms and exhibits. Its apparatuses are a round rotating platorm on which is located a large video projection monitor, a computer, and a chair in which the viewer can sit. From this chair the viewer interactively controls his/her movements through The Virtual Museum. Forwards and backwards movement of the chair causes forwards and backwards movement of the viewer in the museum space represented on the screen. Turning the chair causes a rotation of this virtual image space, and also a synchronous physical rotation of the platform.
We see around us a world that is becoming increasingly museified. This tendency towards pemature conservation may be relieved by a virtual museum architecture that is as provisional as the culture that embodies it.
Equipment used: Silicon Graphics supercomputer, robotic platform engineering by Huib Nelissen, software by Gideon May.
Jeffrey Shaw was born in 1944 in Melbourne, Australia. He studied architecture and art history at the University of Melbourne, and sculpture at the Brera Academy Milan and St. Martins School of Art London. He is a founding member of the Eventstructure Research Group (1967-80) and at present is the Head of the Institute for Image Media at the Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. He has been making interactive media events, installations and sculptures since the mid 60s. He has been awarded the Ars Electronica prize (Linz) and the L'Immagine Elettronica prize (Ferrara) among others. His works have been shown at major museums and festivals worldwide.
