EXPLODED VIEWS 2.0 2012 / 2013
Exploded Views 2.0 is an interactive installation where the visitor physically navigates through an audio-visual city landscape built up from 'point clouds'. These 'point clouds' are generated from online web 2.0 photo collections like those found in Flickr.
In Exploded Views 2.0, the audience physically moves through an interactive audio-environment and interactive imagery projected on a large screen. There are two versions of the work: in the first version the movement of the entire observer’s body sets the 3D images into motion, in the second version the user navigates rolling a giant trackball. Both ways of interacting reveal fragmentized cityscapes from all over the world. The cityscapes are constructed with a 3D scanning technology that creates a surreal and dreamlike atmosphere. These 3D scans are meticulously assembled using complex algorithms from an enormous pool of photographs. Playing with the possibilities offered by the combination of movement and 3D interactive imagery, this installation purposefully places the viewer in an intensely absorptive experience. However, what is actually offered contradicts the reality of the physical and illustrative perception by mediating a juxtaposed dreamlike encounter.
In Exploded Views 2.0, De Nijs further investigates the representation of global urban environments and comments on the prominent role the World Wide Web has assumed in constructing our view of the world and ultimately, on what we perceive as reality. In contrast to the previous version of the installation, the content for 3D city landscape is provided by users of social media platforms. The work analyses GPS tags of all the pictures available on photo-sharing community websites and reconstructs the top 400 most photographed locations into 3D. The work represents the world according to the way it is photographically represented on the web.
Producer: Marnix de Nijs, Rotterdam
Software development:
Artm Baguinski, V2_organisation, Rotterdam, NL
Co-producer: V2_organisation, Rotterdam, NL
Scene-reconstruction: Mate Beljan, Sebastian Koch, Benjamin Lück, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Michael Goesele, TU Darmstadt, DE
Financial support: dKC, Rotterdam, NL;
FBKVB/Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, NL; AFK, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, NL