Protocity 2005++, a multi-player interface for browsing projects

Chris Kievid and Tomasz Jaskiewicz

The Avenirs de Villes/Future for Cities, Exposition d’Architecture, curated by Jean Louis Maubat, in Nancy, France was an exhibition of art and architecture that presented proposals of nine artists and twelve international architects on how they view the city up to the horizon of the year 3000. This exhibition was a journey into the future through a maze of models, photos, videos and interactive installations. As a complementary event to The Urban Spirit exhibition, it took a look at two kinds of modern urbanism: one created by the urban planners of the second half of the twentieth century, and the other the emerging automobile town of tomorrow generated by necessity and chance.

As one of the selected architects ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] exhibited its Car City proposal. The project integrates physical and digital form and explores radically new possibilities of architecture in the age of ubiquitous information. As an addition to that project, Hyperbody developed an interactive multi-player game to present numerous other projects of ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] and Hyperbody that come together to form a complete vision of the complex city of the future. This playful installation let visitors discover the work of ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] and Hyperbody through a spatial multi-player user interface connected to three screens that displayed relevant project content. The intention was to support playful interaction, making the process of informing visitors more collaborative and engaging when compared to traditional techniques.

[Figure 1]

The interface consisted of a circular white play field where from above a virtual swarm of particles was projected. Each of the swarming particles represented a project developed by ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] and Hyperbody. People walking on the play field influenced the motion of the particles. Certain spots, marked by icons, activated impulses affecting the virtual swarm. These virtual forces repelled, pushing particles away from activated points; attracted, drawing particles closer, and rotated, making particles rotate around activated points. When several points were triggered at the same time, that is when multiple people were active in the field, their effects were combined to create a more complex behaviour of the displayed particles. This caused the particle swarm to be highly reactive to people's actions in the play field, while at the same time its behaviour seemed to have a will of its own. The exhibition visitors could influence it, but to some extent it always remained out of control.

[Figure 2]
The play field itself was surrounded by three large flat-panel LCD displays. Each of them showed the title and an iconic image of the project whose particle was closest to the screen. Whenever interested in a particular project, visitors approached the screen and the selected particle became fixed in its location. In place of the title image, a short movie started to play describing the selected project in more detail. An act of collective play emerged wherein visitors manipulated the motion of the particles. Some of them were interested in learning more about a specific project; others wanted to browse through as many projects as possible, while some engaged themselves in the interaction with the swarm of particles for the pure fun of the act of play.

[Figure 3]
While playing, visitors learned how to achieve their goals. They could also decide to help or obstruct other visitors. Ultimately they all gained the intuitive skill of how to influence the complex system consisting of particles and other visitors. They did it in a way that suited their individual needs, while learning about exciting projects of ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] and Hyperbody and acquiring an understanding of how the many presented projects could be potentially combined to form a complex future city organism.

The presented installation is of significant importance. Apart from providing a showcase of projects it also shows that an exhibition can become much more than just a medium for conveying information and pre-programmed experiences to its visitors. In this case, the exhibition becomes not a medium, but a mediator itself. It interactively mediates between all shown projects and all visitors. It is in a state of constant change and evolution, and hopefully changes its visitors as well.