[[recursive]descent] 
[[recursive]descent] is a 'strange loop' which traverses the real and the virtual through the use of videogame technology augmented with a live video feed from a webcam. The installation is embedded in a site-specific setting where a viewer's descent down a staircase is contradicted by the projected scene before them. This results in the destabilisation - if only briefly - of experience; an unsettling interaction between architecture and sense.

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You can see the installation at the MediaLab Prado in Madrid (on show till oktober 2008), where the piece was made in the context of the Interactivos?08_Vision_Play workshop and seminar...

more info below



The entire project is built upon OpenSource software and content, if you're interested in the codebase have a look at http://moddr.net/svn/lowstandart/ (or point yr SVN client somewhere there)..

core technologies used:

Ubuntu OS - Debian flavoured GNU/Linux operating system

OpenArena - a "violent, sexy, multiplayer first person shooter based on the ioquake3 fork of the id_tech_3 game engine"
<<open source&&open content>>

libwebcam/luvcview - driver, libraries and configuration tool for the Logitech Quickcam used

OpenCV - Open Computer Vision Library used for interfacing between webcam, /dev/shm/, and game-engine

ZeroRadiant - level editor based upon the GTKRadiant�_1.4.0 architecture and design

a rather crude description (under construction) of the tech setup can be found on the MediaLab Wiki


[image courtesy of Eduardo Navasse]