Interactive Virtual Sculptures

1979 - 1982

These compositions were developed between 1979 and 1982 on what at the time was a very sophisticated real-time 3D vector graphics computer. All elements were rendered as lines, and all lines were a blue-ish white against a black background.

Click on the icons to see larger images.

Each composition was programmed by me in Fortran nearly from scratch - including how the 3D joystick's movements were to be interpreted, where to draw each line element, and what if anything to do when the user gave some input. Input came through two 3-axis joysticks and a keyboard.

In spite of the technical limitations, the compositions were quite powerful. To begin with, the sense of space was quite intense and convincing. The blue-ish lines were depth-cued in several ways. First, all elements were rendered with perspective, nearer objects appearing larger and more distant objects appearing smaller. This perspective applied also to the thickness of each line: that portion of the line nearer your eye was thicker than a distant portion. There was also a color depth cueing, with closer elements rendered as very white and more distant elements with an increasingly blue tint. This effectively applied the atmospheric perspective technique of the Italian Renaissance to these contemporary compositions. And finally, the viewer of these compositions was able, with a three-axis joystick, to gently move his point of view in, around and through the space of the composition.

The interactivity of the pieces went beyond the user's ability to move through the space. Each composition was programmed so that certain elements were under the user's control, while others were not. The user/viewer could elect to rotate or move these elements of the composition in three-dimensional space and make certain changes to those elements. At the same time that the viewer was making these modifications, he could continue to navigate through the space of the structure. The result was a composition defined in and perceived to be in three-dimensional space, with the final visual result being partly composed by me, the artist, and partly by the viewer.

Within a few years after I had completed these pieces, all these compositions (I made about five) became extinct. The Vector General company that made the equipment these pieces ran on went out of business, the machine I had been using broke, and the compositions were never again viewable by anyone. The only records that remains are screen images I shot at the time and (somewhere in my cellar) printouts of the code. Some of the screen images are viewable here on this website and are also printed as limited edition prints.

Click to read a section of a 1985 paper in which I describe some philosophical implications of virtual reality.