HISTORY - WORKSHOP PRAGUE

20th September, 2002 – 4th October, 2002 in Prague




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The main topic of the eGaLab first workshop was the definition of a common language and concept enabling the participating artists and engineers to employ its potential within a future and shared artistic experimentation. Great effort has been pushed towards the agreements on the common technical platform and protocol which is now believed to be a solid ground for developing new artistic projects in the domain of space construction on the Internet.

Through general introductions and further detailed exploration, the main topic was discussed and practiced by 9 artists, 9 engineers and scientists (supported by 5 members of administration and production staff) from 5 countries and divided into several particular themes. Bellow we name the most relevant of them in more general way including the methodology of the workshop, results and opinions:

1. Creation of tools for 3D design

The participants discussed and practically tested the employment of the following technological tools for artistic creation: 3D STUDIO MAX, SOFTIMAGE XSI, Director and Flash. The goal was to exemplify the potential of these tools, to point out to the limits of its use and to suggest the method of the most efficient 3D creation. Via the benchmarking of these tools, the definition of a common platform was achieved for the project.

2. Creation of tools for modelling Virtual Reality on Internet

The participants have been introduced to the latest techniques of VRML 97, STRINX and Java and have been encouraged to try to develop modified application in accordance with the needs of the project. This point has become a subject to long-term exploration and since the beginning mirrored the essential importance for the artistic creativity within the project.

3. Presentation of tools for animation and artificial intelligence (AI)

Reflecting the potential of the “life” in the virtual worlds participants followed these topics: virtual storytelling principles, AI problematic and narrative strategies, real-time interfaces and sensors (video and sound capture), real-time musical creation. On this problematic a number of introductory lectures was provided and faced a great interest among artists as far as these topics are very specialized kind of knowledge. Especially at this point, the scientific support (namely Marc Cavazza from University of Teesside) played its intended and basal role.

4. System definition of common server: http://www. EGALAB.net

The primary achievements have been made in the finalisation of architecture design and JAVA script. This has established the framework of the server capability. It will serve two main functions: its internal part will be a communication tool for members of the consortium as well as creative tool for artists, its external part will become experimental tool for the project laboratory and place for presentation of the results.

5. Technical parameters and specification of the Internet problematic

Among the technical experts the problematic of Internet lines, installations, camera device and streaming technologies has been deepened and opened up the solution for Internet base of the project. The architecture and content of the eGaLab web site has been proposed and agreed on.