Bubbles World
Lets Bubbling!
I could not prevent myself from entering that 15 meter square area. It has such a strong magnetic power that attracted everyone who was passing by. Afterwards, I found myself running in all directions to catch pale-grey spherical bubbles, in various sizes, falling down from the sky. I was not alone, other people kept going into the arena too. All of us had the same focus: bubbles! But we treated it differently, based on our personal interest. A man near by was busy playing with a big bubble, he stroke it with his foot, trapped with his chest, and passed it strongly with his head. Obviously, he wanted to imitate the style of soccer star Zinedine Zidane. Another girl acted calmly. She just unfolded her arms widely and rotated her body slowly, following the sound created by the bubbles. I guess she was trying to do ballet dancing. The more people came, the more different forms behavior they showed. One of my friends even found her hunting talent in that arena. “Wow! it’s like catching the flies!” she shouted enthusiastically.
We were not in a carnival or a playhouse but in the Zentrum fứr Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. We interacted with Bubbles, an artwork by Wolfgang Mứnch in collaboration with Kiyoshi Furukawa. The first sketch of Bubbles was made in January1998 and it became a prototype in July 2000. Bubbles had been the centre of attention of visitor since it was demonstrated for the first time in ZKM, April 2002. “All people want to play with the Bubbles,” said Monika Bottcher, a communication officer at ZKM.
Admittedly, the main idea of Bubbles is all about playing. The artists seem to try to awaken everyone’s childhood memories when they are playing with the Bubbles. Their work offer the warmth of playing ambience which could be an alternative media to experience interacting with bubbles for those who live in metropolitan cities where the space for playing has been replaced by skyscrapers.
Unfortunately, my intention to keep playing with the Bubbles was disturbed by a strange behavior of a friend. She shouted, “Ouchhhh!!!” and looked at me somewhat angrily when my shadow smashed a big bubble on her head. Why did she react in that way? Did she feel any pain? I was sure she was not. Why then she did act as if the bubbles touched her? Those questions made me stop playing. With a very strong curiosity, I started to look more closely to the Bubbles. What kind of creature is it? What it has done to my friend’s brain?
Play or Being Played?
The brain of the Bubbles is a set of computer software connected to a projector and a camera. The limelight from the projector result in a virtual image of flowing bubbles on the projection screen. The spectator only needs to walk onto the light from the projector, then their shadow will be reflected onto the screen. With the input from the camera, the virtual stream of bubbles will recognize the shadow of spectator’s body and will change its direction as it responded. A certain music accompanies this process. Normally, only in a few second spectator will enact this arena as a playhouse or a dance floor.
During the playful moment in the bubbles stage, an interaction is occurred. This installation bridges the two different worlds, the real world, our body movement, on one side, and the virtual world, the bubbles, on the other side. This mechanism is related closely to the concept of telepresence which has been applied to many different phenomena in telecommunication system. Jonathan Steuer, as quoted by Thomas J. Campanella, defined telepresence as, “the experience of presence in an environment by means of a communication medium,”. Campanella emphasized that telepresence is reciprocal, “the observer is telepresent in the remote environment and the observed environment is telepresent in the physical space in which the observer is viewing the scene”.
Indeed, this is what’s happened in Bubbles’ system. The spectator can feel the presence of the bubbles. It attracts them to play, dance, and many more cheerful activities. On the other side, bubbles from the remote area, virtual world, also recognize the presence of spectator by moving their direction and emitting certain music each time they are touched by shadow, the trace of spectator in Bubbles virtual world. The main principle of telepresence exists in this contact. In spite of this relevance, we should notice that the concept of telepresence from Steuer and Campanella are applied for webcameras which is used fortelepresent in the real environment. This fact might make Bubbles expel from the telepresence concept. But, in a different point of view, Bubbles apparently bring a new discourse to this conceptualization. Through Bubbles, virtual world rebelled. It keen to prove its existence: virtual world is real, as real as a sunset over the South China Sea or any other objects captured by webcameras, and it can and worth accessing. The telepresence concept seem has to count on the virtual territory within its theory immediately.
If the webcameras use optic nerves and electronic eyes as medium for telepresent, Bubbles, uniquely work with shadow. In daily life, shadow is only the forgotten part of human body. It is nothing but body reflection which is resulted from the blockade of the light, but Bubbles installation give the power for shadow to mediate the two different worlds. It becomes the interface to bridge the real world and the virtual world.
The use of shadow in Bubbles is similar to technique applied in Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theatre which exists in Java and Bali islands in Indonesia. Wayang Kulit is a flat puppet made from buffalo leather. Every piece of Wayang represent one character, most of them come from Hinduism epics such as Ramayana or Mahabharata. The actual problem such as current political issues is often added in Wayang scenario. In the stage of Wayang performance, this leather is manipulated behind the white screen with the back light so the audience can see the shadow of Wayang on the screen. Through this shadow, the story goes. In spite of its traditional technique, Wayang, just like Bubbles, can be a magnet for its attendance. They can awake all night long to watch the entire story of the show.
The main character behind the stage of Wayang is the Dalang, the puppeteer who sits behind the screen and manipulates Wayang movements in order to create certain action from its shadow. In the world of Wayang, Dalang is the God. He, all of them is male, is a leader, a director, a story teller, and also a conductor for the musical group that accompany the show. On top of that, Dalang has the absolute power to determine what will happen in the shadow world during the show. Who will win and who will lose at the end of story is completely in the hand of Dalang. Usually Dalang has a high status, not only in Wayang, but also in his social community.
Although Bubbles and Wayang have similar technique, there is one major difference between these two shadow worlds. In the Bubbles, Dalang is no longer a human being, a set of computer program take over this honorable role capriciously. The magical charming aura appears from the character of Dalang has been replaced by a sophisticated electronic circuit. Where is the human being then in the Bubbles? They are on the stage playing with their shadow. They become the Wayang who loyal to their electronic Dalang.
The extreme reshuffle of Dalang, from human being to computer software, in Bubbles leads to the popular concept from a prominent contemporary theorist, Jean Baudrillard, The Precession of Simulacra. Through this concept, Baudrillard describe the phenomena in which the simulation precedes and creates the reality. This model occurs in the ring of Bubbles wherein the simulation from computer program precedes the motion that exist in the arena. Any real activity in the Bubbles arena, football playing, ballet dancing, flies hunting, is only a model of simulation. Baudrillard called it as a hyperreal, “a real without origin or reality,”.
Spectator experiences the real playful moment during their interaction with the Bubbles. Outsiders also can observe what is happened in the arena. Both of this fact makes the event seem real. But when we realize that those episodes is rooted from digital simulation then the reality of it become blur. The further question arises regarding this phenomena. How does this hyperreal experience influence spectator in human to human interaction?
Bubbles and Us
Bubbles is a multi user installation. More than one spectator can play in this system at the same time. The majority of them interacts each other in the real world when they are talking excitedly about their playing with bubbles. But, interaction through the virtual world, even though accidentally, is still possible. For instance, I got an unpleasant contact with my friend when my shadow smashed a big bubble on her shadow head. From her reaction, she shouted, “Ouchhhh!!!” and looked at me somewhat angrily, she seemed to immerse deeply in Bubbles world.
Admittedly, the way of interaction in Bubbles enable spectator to get involve deeply in those virtual world. The users not only use their eyes or hands, as they usually do in interacting with computer or other electronic devices, but their whole body to interact with artificial bubbles on the white screen. The creators of Bubbles call their work as interactive installation. In fact, the spectator only interact to the rain of the bubbles, the virtual image, while the question about how does the installation work become unimportant. In this case, the spectator becomes a ready-made consumer. They don’t need to pay attention about the user manual. They will not disturb by computer hang problem. In another word, the spectator has lost their critical sense. Thus, no wonder, such “Ouchhhh!!!” reaction could happen after quite long interaction with this installation.
What has happened with my friend is exactly one main character of hyperreality in Baudrillard theory. The distinction between ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ became unclear for her. She forgot that there was no bubbles hit her head, it was only a shadow of a bubble hit her head shadow. For her, the image on the white screen dominated the real world in front of screen. It was no longer only an image, it became her real experience which might be her reference for future action.
Since the contact with the Bubbles is not too intensive then the confusion of reality seem will not leads problem into social life. However, Bubbles, only one artifact from a real virtuality culture, a system which Manuel Castells defined as, “a system in which reality itself (that is, people’s material/symbolic existence) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a virtual image setting, in the world of make believe, in which appearances are not just on the screen through which experience is communicated, but they become the experience”. There is still a lot of digital instrument which construct this civilization. Every second we are exposed to the television, internet, game, and many more electronic gadget which provide us virtual image. Do those images influence our sense in human to human interaction? Does the terrorist movie we watch create a prejudice in our mind to other people coming from certain ethnic group? Does the game our children play contribute to their violence behavior? Those questions is always led us to an endless debate. But the right answer must be found immediately due to the fast speed of the digital technology proliferation. Doesn’t it ridiculous if we treat other people badly only because of our confusion of reality?
In the Bubbles installation, a little bit experiment can help us to get a little farther distinction between real and unreal. I tried to blow one of bubbles and it didn’t respond. It is a quite simple trick but since playing is the main menu offered by the Bubbles, nobody seems to interest to try.
Maastricht, Sept 27, 2006
I could not prevent myself from entering that 15 meter square area. It has such a strong magnetic power that attracted everyone who was passing by. Afterwards, I found myself running in all directions to catch pale-grey spherical bubbles, in various sizes, falling down from the sky. I was not alone, other people kept going into the arena too. All of us had the same focus: bubbles! But we treated it differently, based on our personal interest. A man near by was busy playing with a big bubble, he stroke it with his foot, trapped with his chest, and passed it strongly with his head. Obviously, he wanted to imitate the style of soccer star Zinedine Zidane. Another girl acted calmly. She just unfolded her arms widely and rotated her body slowly, following the sound created by the bubbles. I guess she was trying to do ballet dancing. The more people came, the more different forms behavior they showed. One of my friends even found her hunting talent in that arena. “Wow! it’s like catching the flies!” she shouted enthusiastically.
We were not in a carnival or a playhouse but in the Zentrum fứr Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. We interacted with Bubbles, an artwork by Wolfgang Mứnch in collaboration with Kiyoshi Furukawa. The first sketch of Bubbles was made in January1998 and it became a prototype in July 2000. Bubbles had been the centre of attention of visitor since it was demonstrated for the first time in ZKM, April 2002. “All people want to play with the Bubbles,” said Monika Bottcher, a communication officer at ZKM.
Admittedly, the main idea of Bubbles is all about playing. The artists seem to try to awaken everyone’s childhood memories when they are playing with the Bubbles. Their work offer the warmth of playing ambience which could be an alternative media to experience interacting with bubbles for those who live in metropolitan cities where the space for playing has been replaced by skyscrapers.
Unfortunately, my intention to keep playing with the Bubbles was disturbed by a strange behavior of a friend. She shouted, “Ouchhhh!!!” and looked at me somewhat angrily when my shadow smashed a big bubble on her head. Why did she react in that way? Did she feel any pain? I was sure she was not. Why then she did act as if the bubbles touched her? Those questions made me stop playing. With a very strong curiosity, I started to look more closely to the Bubbles. What kind of creature is it? What it has done to my friend’s brain?
Play or Being Played?
The brain of the Bubbles is a set of computer software connected to a projector and a camera. The limelight from the projector result in a virtual image of flowing bubbles on the projection screen. The spectator only needs to walk onto the light from the projector, then their shadow will be reflected onto the screen. With the input from the camera, the virtual stream of bubbles will recognize the shadow of spectator’s body and will change its direction as it responded. A certain music accompanies this process. Normally, only in a few second spectator will enact this arena as a playhouse or a dance floor.
During the playful moment in the bubbles stage, an interaction is occurred. This installation bridges the two different worlds, the real world, our body movement, on one side, and the virtual world, the bubbles, on the other side. This mechanism is related closely to the concept of telepresence which has been applied to many different phenomena in telecommunication system. Jonathan Steuer, as quoted by Thomas J. Campanella, defined telepresence as, “the experience of presence in an environment by means of a communication medium,”. Campanella emphasized that telepresence is reciprocal, “the observer is telepresent in the remote environment and the observed environment is telepresent in the physical space in which the observer is viewing the scene”.
Indeed, this is what’s happened in Bubbles’ system. The spectator can feel the presence of the bubbles. It attracts them to play, dance, and many more cheerful activities. On the other side, bubbles from the remote area, virtual world, also recognize the presence of spectator by moving their direction and emitting certain music each time they are touched by shadow, the trace of spectator in Bubbles virtual world. The main principle of telepresence exists in this contact. In spite of this relevance, we should notice that the concept of telepresence from Steuer and Campanella are applied for webcameras which is used fortelepresent in the real environment. This fact might make Bubbles expel from the telepresence concept. But, in a different point of view, Bubbles apparently bring a new discourse to this conceptualization. Through Bubbles, virtual world rebelled. It keen to prove its existence: virtual world is real, as real as a sunset over the South China Sea or any other objects captured by webcameras, and it can and worth accessing. The telepresence concept seem has to count on the virtual territory within its theory immediately.
If the webcameras use optic nerves and electronic eyes as medium for telepresent, Bubbles, uniquely work with shadow. In daily life, shadow is only the forgotten part of human body. It is nothing but body reflection which is resulted from the blockade of the light, but Bubbles installation give the power for shadow to mediate the two different worlds. It becomes the interface to bridge the real world and the virtual world.
The use of shadow in Bubbles is similar to technique applied in Wayang Kulit, a shadow puppet theatre which exists in Java and Bali islands in Indonesia. Wayang Kulit is a flat puppet made from buffalo leather. Every piece of Wayang represent one character, most of them come from Hinduism epics such as Ramayana or Mahabharata. The actual problem such as current political issues is often added in Wayang scenario. In the stage of Wayang performance, this leather is manipulated behind the white screen with the back light so the audience can see the shadow of Wayang on the screen. Through this shadow, the story goes. In spite of its traditional technique, Wayang, just like Bubbles, can be a magnet for its attendance. They can awake all night long to watch the entire story of the show.
The main character behind the stage of Wayang is the Dalang, the puppeteer who sits behind the screen and manipulates Wayang movements in order to create certain action from its shadow. In the world of Wayang, Dalang is the God. He, all of them is male, is a leader, a director, a story teller, and also a conductor for the musical group that accompany the show. On top of that, Dalang has the absolute power to determine what will happen in the shadow world during the show. Who will win and who will lose at the end of story is completely in the hand of Dalang. Usually Dalang has a high status, not only in Wayang, but also in his social community.
Although Bubbles and Wayang have similar technique, there is one major difference between these two shadow worlds. In the Bubbles, Dalang is no longer a human being, a set of computer program take over this honorable role capriciously. The magical charming aura appears from the character of Dalang has been replaced by a sophisticated electronic circuit. Where is the human being then in the Bubbles? They are on the stage playing with their shadow. They become the Wayang who loyal to their electronic Dalang.
The extreme reshuffle of Dalang, from human being to computer software, in Bubbles leads to the popular concept from a prominent contemporary theorist, Jean Baudrillard, The Precession of Simulacra. Through this concept, Baudrillard describe the phenomena in which the simulation precedes and creates the reality. This model occurs in the ring of Bubbles wherein the simulation from computer program precedes the motion that exist in the arena. Any real activity in the Bubbles arena, football playing, ballet dancing, flies hunting, is only a model of simulation. Baudrillard called it as a hyperreal, “a real without origin or reality,”.
Spectator experiences the real playful moment during their interaction with the Bubbles. Outsiders also can observe what is happened in the arena. Both of this fact makes the event seem real. But when we realize that those episodes is rooted from digital simulation then the reality of it become blur. The further question arises regarding this phenomena. How does this hyperreal experience influence spectator in human to human interaction?
Bubbles and Us
Bubbles is a multi user installation. More than one spectator can play in this system at the same time. The majority of them interacts each other in the real world when they are talking excitedly about their playing with bubbles. But, interaction through the virtual world, even though accidentally, is still possible. For instance, I got an unpleasant contact with my friend when my shadow smashed a big bubble on her shadow head. From her reaction, she shouted, “Ouchhhh!!!” and looked at me somewhat angrily, she seemed to immerse deeply in Bubbles world.
Admittedly, the way of interaction in Bubbles enable spectator to get involve deeply in those virtual world. The users not only use their eyes or hands, as they usually do in interacting with computer or other electronic devices, but their whole body to interact with artificial bubbles on the white screen. The creators of Bubbles call their work as interactive installation. In fact, the spectator only interact to the rain of the bubbles, the virtual image, while the question about how does the installation work become unimportant. In this case, the spectator becomes a ready-made consumer. They don’t need to pay attention about the user manual. They will not disturb by computer hang problem. In another word, the spectator has lost their critical sense. Thus, no wonder, such “Ouchhhh!!!” reaction could happen after quite long interaction with this installation.
What has happened with my friend is exactly one main character of hyperreality in Baudrillard theory. The distinction between ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ became unclear for her. She forgot that there was no bubbles hit her head, it was only a shadow of a bubble hit her head shadow. For her, the image on the white screen dominated the real world in front of screen. It was no longer only an image, it became her real experience which might be her reference for future action.
Since the contact with the Bubbles is not too intensive then the confusion of reality seem will not leads problem into social life. However, Bubbles, only one artifact from a real virtuality culture, a system which Manuel Castells defined as, “a system in which reality itself (that is, people’s material/symbolic existence) is entirely captured, fully immersed in a virtual image setting, in the world of make believe, in which appearances are not just on the screen through which experience is communicated, but they become the experience”. There is still a lot of digital instrument which construct this civilization. Every second we are exposed to the television, internet, game, and many more electronic gadget which provide us virtual image. Do those images influence our sense in human to human interaction? Does the terrorist movie we watch create a prejudice in our mind to other people coming from certain ethnic group? Does the game our children play contribute to their violence behavior? Those questions is always led us to an endless debate. But the right answer must be found immediately due to the fast speed of the digital technology proliferation. Doesn’t it ridiculous if we treat other people badly only because of our confusion of reality?
In the Bubbles installation, a little bit experiment can help us to get a little farther distinction between real and unreal. I tried to blow one of bubbles and it didn’t respond. It is a quite simple trick but since playing is the main menu offered by the Bubbles, nobody seems to interest to try.
Maastricht, Sept 27, 2006
posted by ALFIAN at 1:17 AM
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