Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project Performance in CAVE2 at Electronic Visualization Lab, Chicago

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Date/Time
Date(s) - 26/10/2016
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Location
Electronic Visualization Laboratory, Engineering Research Facility (ERF), University of Illinois at Chicago

Categories


On Wednesday, October 26th, the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) at the University of Illinois Chicago is pleased to welcome visitors attending the 15th annual Transatlantic Forum with an opportunity to tour the EVL and experience a performance of the 2016 Electronic Literature Award-winning virtual reality theatre work Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project.

Hearts and Minds, The Interrogations Project performance in the CAVE2

Hearts and Minds, The Interrogations Project performance in the CAVE2

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory  is an advanced visualization facility at the University of Illinois Chicago that has been responsible for a number of technological innovations including the first CAVE immersive virtual reality environment and the CAVE2™ immersive virtual reality theatre. It is a lab that merges scientific research and technology development with arts and humanities, providing an environment that allows for true interdisciplinary collaboration.

 

Gold Nanoparticle displayed in EVL’s CAVE2 system - L. Long, EVL

Gold Nanoparticle displayed in EVL’s CAVE2 system – L. Long, EVL

The CAVE2™ is a next-generation large-scale virtual-reality 320-degree panoramic environment which provides users with the ability to see 3D stereoscopic content in a near seamless flat LCD technology at 37 Megapixels in 3D resolution matching human visual acuity. See this YouTube video for more information about the CAVE2™.

 

 

Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project is an interactive, immersive, and cinematic environment that draws users into the haunting memories of ordinary American soldiers who became torturers in the course of serving their country. This project about human rights foregrounds veterans testimonies of US military enhanced interrogation practices and human rights abuses during the Iraq War, often by young and ill-trained soldiers who never entered the military to become torturers and still find themselves struggling to reconcile the activities they were asked to do. While on a Norwegian Research Council-funded sabbatical in 2014, University of Bergen professor of digital culture Scott Rettberg was a guest researcher at the EVL and along with UIC researchers Daria Tsoupikova and Arthur Nishimoto, and Temple University professor Roderick Coover developed Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project at the EVL.

 

The project has subsequently been ported to other platforms including a cinematic performance version, a version for the Oculus Rift, and a version for the iPad. Hearts and Minds recently won the 2016 Electronic Literature Award for a Work of Electronic Literature, the top prize in the field, and has been exhibited internationally at a number of venues including the Oslo Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival, the 2016 International Society for Electronic Arts conference and exhibition in Hong Kong and most recently the Bergen International Film Festival BIFF Expanded. Based on social science research by University of St. Andrews researcher John Tsukayama, the project has resulted in humanities, social science, arts, computer science and technology research outcomes with contributions from researchers at four institutions in three countries.

 

Hearts and Minds in Gallery 360 VR theatre, Hong Kong during ISEA 2016

Hearts and Minds in Gallery 360 VR theatre, Hong Kong during ISEA 2016

The tour program will include an introduction to the EVL, demos of scientific and artistic research projects developed in the CAVE2, and a performance of Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project. The program will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Tours will take place at noon and 2PM, and will be limited to 20 visitors per tour, available on a first-come first-serve basis. Registration is required. Shuttle bus transportation to the EVL from the Omni Hotel for attendees of the Transatlantic forum. The shuttles will leave from the Omni at 11:4o and 1:4o PM and will return to the Omni after the event. For other onward journeys, the EVL is located one block from the Blue Line of CTA, which connects both to downtown Chicago and to O’Hare International Airport.

Bookings

Bookings are closed for this event.