Dream Vortex

Dream Vortex is a virtual interactive installation-in-progress, a collaboration with researchers at the Complexity Sciences Center and KeckCAVES Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Made with drawings projected in 3-D space, the Dream Vortex unites our oldest and newest art-making technologies. A vortex of images appears in the air before the viewer; they can be “touched” and handled, as if they were physical objects. Participants can compose their own virtual dream with them, subject to a degree of surprise provided by a hidden network of associations built into the programming.

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Above: In the Dream Vortex (2012). Visualization of a viewer in the CAVE with the vortex, showing the expressionist feel of the installation.

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About the Dream Vortex

Dream Vortex (2011 – ongoing), virtual, interactive, 3-D installation, dimensions variable

Personnel

Meredith Tromble with Dawn Sumner and assistance from Jordan van Aalsburg, Philip Benn, Jim Crutchfield, Joe Dumit, and researchers at the University of California, Davis.

Locale

Complexity Sciences Center
KeckCAVES

Programming

Dream Vortex prototypes are made in Mycelia and Vroom, open-source programs created at the University of California, Davis.

Mycelia is a network visualization tool for the CAVE, as well as desktop systems.

Vroom is a rapid development environment for virtual reality applications.

Exhibitions

Dream Vortex prototypes were exhibited by the Macroscope group at Maker Faire San Mateo in 2012 and 2013, and at the Djerassi Artist in Residence Program Open House in Woodside, 2014. 2-D video of the Dream Vortex was shown in the Creativity & Cognition 2015 exhibition at the Glasgow School of Art and City College of Glasgow. Dream Vortex was shown for the first time on Oculus Rift at the Exemplar Projects exhibition of the Alliance for Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) at Virginia Tech, 2015.

Video

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In this 2013 talk, Dawn Sumner and I describe the background and motivation for our collaboration on the Dream Vortex. Our presentation was part of the Art, Technology and Culture series organized by Ken Goldberg and Greg Niemeyer at the University of California, Berkeley.

View talk at Archive.org

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