[[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.


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]