Data_Sea : Michael Takeo Magruder : 2009

Data_Sea

by: Michael Takeo Magruder - 03.2009

A networked, real-time 3D installation exploring the relationship between astronomy and broadcast media.

The televised broadcast of the Berlin Olympics in 1936 was humanity's first media transmission powerful enough to pass through Earth's ionosphere and travel into deep space. From that point in time our signals have radiated into the universe, creating an ever-expanding globe referred to as Earth's Radiosphere. In the 73 years since that defining moment, our communications have reached nearly two thousand other known star systems.

Data_Sea is a real-time virtual environment based upon this relationship between broadcast media and astronomy. The core geometry of the artwork is directly derived from the actual positions of all catalogued star systems residing within the Radiosphere. Obtained from current astronomical databases such as the Hipparcos star catalogue, these scientific measurements have been translated into a three-dimensional structure constructed in Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML).

Each star system's basic properties affect its aesthetic manifestation within the virtual realm. Star type is represented by shape, with normal stars appearing as full spheres, 'failed' stars (brown dwarfs) as incomplete spheres and 'dead' stars (white dwarfs) as compressed crosses. The stellar nodes are connected to a central spherical body (representing our solar system) by line structures that are coloured according to spectral class of the individual stars. Systems that are known to contain exoplanets are surrounded by concentric ring structures.

Live media from the BBC world news service is streamed into the environment. The virtual elements are textured with images from today's events, while layers of live audiocasts are blended into a persistent soundscape. These mediated reflections of the present are in constant flux, forever shifting as they drift into an endless sea of virtual space.

Drew Baker ( 3D visualisation ) + Johanna Jarvis ( scientific research ) + David Steele ( backend programming )

* note * The Cortona3D Viewer is not available for OS X. On these systems FreeWRL can be used to render most aspects of the work.

[ online ] Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 computer system with Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, the Cortona3D Viewer 6, Adobe Flash 10 and Windows Media Player 11 plugins, and 5.1 or stereo audio. A high-specification CPU/GPU, colour display with ≥1024x768 resolution and 512+ kb/s Internet connection are recommended.

[ gallery ] High-specification Windows XP/Vista/7 computer system capable of real-time high definition 3D rendering. Multi or single channel high definition video system. 5.1 or 2.1 audio system. HCI device for user navigation.

Mario Di Maggio + Clara Lim ( curation ) . Emma Puente ( project co-ordination )

Data_Sea is a Thinktank production for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The project was made possible with funds from Arts Council England and generous support from King's Visualisation Lab, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London and ParallelGraphics.

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