versión 1995 versión 2000

THE TRACE is a telepresence installation that invites two participants in remote sites to share the same telematic space. The piece consists of vectors, sounds and graphics that respond to the movement of the participants. Two interactive stations are needed for the piece; these are interconnected with a normal ISDN digital line so they can be in the same exhibition hall, on either side of a city or in different cities. For ARCO´95 the stations are in the same hall, approximately 100 meters away from each other. The main objective of THE TRACE is to allow the two remote participants to "telembody", that is, to have them occupy identical positions in telematic space, to the point where they are inside each other. This is done using real-time audiovisual events that reconstruct the three-dimensional presence of each participant in the space of the other. Each station consists of a dark room with a giant rear-projection screen on the ceiling, a side monitor, four robot-lamps hanging from the ceiling and ten speakers distributed around the room. Upon entering the station, each participant is given a small wireless sensor that monitors his or her exact three-dimensional position. THE TRACE transfers the sensors' coordinates between the remote stations so that each sensor controls audiovisual elements in both stations. The piece has four ways of insinuating the presence of the remote participant in the local station: 1) 3D GRAPHICS. Presented on the giant screen on the ceiling are interactive animations of a ring and a disc which make low drones as they float around the screen. The ring follows the movement of the local participant, wherever s/he goes. Conversely, the disc follows the sensor in the remote station, so that the local participant can infer the displacements of the other participant through the movement of the disc. 2) ROBOT-LAMPS. There are four mechanized lamps hanging from the ceiling each of which emit a very narrow light beam: two have a yellow beam and two have a blue one. The blue beams point to the local participant, while the yellow beams point to the position of the remote participant. The point of intersection of the yellow beams corresponds to the exact position of the sensor in the remote station. Fog machines accentuate the light beams. 3) POSITIONAL SOUND. Ten speakers distributed around each station broadcast sounds that seem to originate from the relative position of the remote participant. For instance, if a participant moves to the right, the other participant hears the sound also moving in that direction. Similarly, the sound becomes louder as one approaches the other participant. Among the sounds used are those that indicate the distance between participants in meters ("one point five, "three", "four point five", etc.). 4) STATISTICS SCREEN. Each station has a giant monitor that presents statistics, messages and graphics designed to give the participants quantitative information about their movements. The presence of the remote participant is ghostly and mysterious since one knows nothing about him of her, except for his or her three-dimensional movement. "Telembodyment" happens when both participants occupy the same relational space, that is, when they share the same telematic coordinates. During telembodyment: i) the four light beams intersect forming an interference pattern; ii) the ring (the local participant) and the disc (the remote participant) merge and launch an animation of a mechanism in motion, including appropriate sounds; iii) the stations are flooded with sound. This so-called "telembodyment" is presented in THE TRACE as a technological metaphor of those moments in which human beings are inside other human beings: physically, as in pregnancy, sex or surgery; and virtually, as in Bakhtin's "intersubjectivity", the holy communion ("the body of Christ") and Spock's "Vulcan mind-meld" in the Star Trek series. Of course participants may choose not to "telembody" and instead try to avoid sharing the same space -thus producing a telematic hide-and-seek game. One of the motivating reasons to do this piece was to find out whether the "lebensraum", the physical distance we are expected to keep from other people, is upheld within telematic systems. Excerpt from catalog: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer   We have posted The Trace videos (to view them you will need QuickTime3 or later)