ALCHEMY (1995)
PLAY WALK-THRU ANIMATION
The 3D immersive environment presents my first attempt at envisioning new ways to configure a body of material, impacted by the shape and nature of the space, and is indigenous to the immersive environment. Image and sound elements migrate from 2D analog to 3D digital, and the transformation of source materials into synthetic objects and spaces. The QTVR environment can be navigated intuitively. The environment is the interface to embedded media that illuminates the meaning of the symbols.
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The source imagery is derived from the research and field production work done in Burkina Faso, Angola, Haiti, India, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, and Fiji.
Alchemy was originally configured for cd-rom, then re-envisioned as a large scale physical gallery installation.
The Alchemy physical installation concept was developed to the physical model stage. This process has subsequent expression in the modeling of Mirrors & Smoke, and In The Sweet Bye & Bye: An Immersive Memoir in Second Life.
Guides: Robert Ferris Thompson, Ph.D., Flash of the Spirit, The African Atlantic traditions in art and cultural practice; Teshome Gabriel, Ph.D., cinema scholar, the Nomad Aesthetic; Charles Finch, M.D., Echoes of the Old Dark Land , Nile Valley civilization iconography; R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, egyptologist, Le Temple de L”Homme, Symbol and the Symbolic.
Alchemy is part of a series investigating symbolic language systems as repositories, and modes of conveyance, of a culture’s wisdom and knowledge.
This concept model for a physical installation is constructed of plexiglass prims (cube, cylinder, etc.), optics, pen light illumination. Imagery is die-sub print on transparent film.
Support: Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship
Produced at the Institute for Studies in the Arts, College of Fine Arts, Arizona State Unversity. Richard L. Loveless, Director
