The Museum of Colliding Dimensions: A mixed reality installation
Debra Polson · 2016
The Museum of Colliding Dimensions is a unique large-scale installation combining new virtual reality technologies with multi-projection mapping, industrial motion tracking, multitouch displays, responsive theatre lights and dynamic sound. Set up as a mock museum display, the project presents an immersive experience with a mysterious Alternate Reality, called the made up of morphing platonic shapes, crystal formations and alien sounds all controlled and composed by the visitors’ position, movements and interactions. The Rift World can be experienced across multiple platforms of increasing immersion, allowing visitors to move from physical to augmented to virtual realities as they go from being a spectator, to actor and ultimately transition to a digital avatar. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY By adopting a Design-based Research methodology, the project was split into two main phases each with a series of design iterations, development sprints and discipline contributions. The resulting mixed-reality installation was created over an intense period with both game development tools and theatrical technologies. The early phase was strengthened by a Design Fiction (DesFi) approach which involves visualising future scenarios to design and build testable prototypes inspired by emerging scientific ideas and technological advancements. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION The work not only demonstrates a unique mashup of technologies, it also invites visitors to imagine how we perceive and interact with competing realities as our lives become further enmeshed in combinations of the digital and physical dimensions. It is also an exercise in activating mundane spaces into playful, contemplative and informative environments through careful collaboration between the arts and science disciplines. The project was produced over an intense and rapid production cycle of only four months with a small team of lead artist, programmer, 3D technical artist and sound designer. Each team member has been challenged well beyond the normal discipline boundaries in order to produce a work that raises a number of questions about both the nature of creative practices and of the perceptions of reality as it becomes increasingly augmented by technological advances. Such intense collaborations and unique experimentations result in new kinds of expertise that can only be achieved RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The first iteration was commissioned by QUT Creative Industries with a $29,000 development funding plus inkind provision of venue and technologies provided by the QUT Creative Lab. First installed and presented for the Launch of the CreateX Festival to demonstrate the potential of trans-disciplinary practice and innovative adoption of emerging technologies across interactive and theatrical domains. Over 1000 people interacted with the installation during the one day CreateX Launch event and due to the unique presentation of new technologies and the innovative nature of the creative practice, this work received significant attention from both the media and industry. The Premier of Queensland, Hon Annastacia Palaszczuk, visited the installation as a result of the Press Release and the project was featured on ABC International, Channel 9 National Nine News, in the Courier Mail and Sun Herald. Demonstration Days were hosted by the artist, Deb Polson, and her team for students and industry professionals over the weeks of installation and presentation to discuss the research involved, technical integrations and creative processes that emerged from the experimental practice.