Free Space Loss is a term used to describe the tendency of a wireless signal to spread out over time and distance.

Free Space Loss: VVR, 2008. Motorcycle helmets, liquid crystal displays (LCD), sensors, speakers, custom software, fabric, electronics, video and audio distribution amplifiers, audio mixer, computer. Dimensions variable.

This project is a Low-Fi virtual-virtual reality installation in which user input causes images of real landscapes (captured during walks that I have taken near the venue prior to installing the work) to transform into new emergent 3-D topographical maps.

The installation consists of 5 Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) which each contain an LCD that displays the emergent maps and a set of sensors that measure heat, light, sound, and humidity levels inside  the HMDs.  Each of the HMDs are suspended from the ceiling at different heights ranging five to six feet from the floor. To experience the emergent maps the viewers wear the HMDs  and then become linked to a feedback mechanism where their physiological output is measured by the sensors. All of this data is transmitted to a computer software program which, using methods comparable to gaming and scientific computer modelling, generates four 3-D landscape planes based on the stored images.  As the viewers watch the images in the HMDs the sensor data is applied to the four 3-D planes and over time the position of each plane shifts, the topographic features of the planes change:  the landscape moves from familiar to alien until the map no longer matches the territory. An audio channel is open to all the other helmets over which viewers may discuss what they see on the LCDs and as social relationships develop the group can organize its behaviour and further affect the landscape planes.



I am currently working on the expansion with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts New Media Grant.

QuickTime test video document