I S L A N D

John Donne writes in his Meditation XVII that “no man is an island intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine.”

In this project I’m trying to visually convey this message – that no man is an island – by inviting users participate in a visualization with their mobile phones.

I am hoping to convey the power of human company in a visual manner.

My undergraduate degree is in literature. I've tried my best to implement some of the richer concepts I was exposed to: tone, scansion, subject, subtlety, irony. I really think that modern society is dominated more by the visual than the literary and am interested in finding new graphical ways to express this trend. Remote participation to influence a visualization has the result of bringing people together to experience art, music, or a game.

The audience for this piece could be families, groups of friends, or others meeting for a common theme. The audience for this project falls into several categories - 3D for the web, and live interactive 3D. For the broadest reach, I'd like to publish a Virtools .cmo for the web. This would just require a telephone and a browser with the Virtools plug-in to experience the 3D. The second audience is more specific - I envision a real-time demonstration on a PC with Internet connection and Virtools.

-The user would dial to a local number
-The user points the bowser to either a Virtools file on the web
-User speaks to actor on web page
-User navigates aforementioned environment

This project is software based, using front-end and backend web programming, Virtools Scripting, and modeling in MAYA.

As clarified by my colleagues, the focus of this project was not technical but instead content-based. The true meaning for me in this project is aspiring to create a meaningful and aesthetically balanced interaction, regardless of the technology or times.

I was inspired by metaphysical poetry and ways to integrate that into an interactive visual environment