The advent of Internet search engines such as Google have demonstrated
the informative power of computer aided navigation of massive text
and still image databases. Anyone who has used these search engines
experiences the remarkable outcomes of keyword searches that assemble
clusters of information and open countless paths of exploration in
cyberspace. A fictional rehearsal of this process is rendered in Steven
Spielberg’s film Minority Report where a number of scenes present
the simulation of a semi-immersive information space that enable such
search procedures within moving image material.
T_Visionarium makes this vision a reality, creating a wholly
immersive information space where the viewer can interactively explore
and link a vast database of video clips that are derived from multiple
broadcast television sources. It expresses the artistic potential
of such a system, by embodying a tagging architecture that extends
beyond the mere keyword hierarchies of similar topics that are to
be found in conventional digital video archive systems. In particular,
T_Visionarium II enables the viewer to navigate within a
cluster of similarities and so assemble a unique sequence of video
events that share certain identities, while at the same time triggering
the rearrangement of that cluster as soon as the viewer moves to a
different clip. By shifting their attention to other clips at a greater
distance the viewer generates completely new arrangements of the material.
The result is a fundamentally dynamic system of narrative interaction
that is being continuously fine tuned as the viewer navigates the
data space. In this process there is a continuous narrative reformulation.
On the one hand the narrative is determined by the ordering of the
tagging architecture. On the other hand, the narrative is completely
open to reassembly in totally unexpected emergent sequences according
to the individual pathways undertaken by the viewer.
Exmple of statistical distribution
In effect T_Visionarium is an ultimate auto-creative authoring
system offering the viewer a real time editing tool that operates
in tandem with algorithmic processes to generate an infinitely varied
self-organising stream of narrative events. While the current embodiment
of T_Visionarium uses a database of televisual materials,
the concept and implementation is applicable to any kind of cinematic
content. It prefigures a future where powerful home computing resources
and large screen displays will permit the recycling and repurposing
of broadcast television, as well as any other source of recorded audio-visual
material. In this way, T_Visionarium demonstrates a whole
new genre and culture of media ecology.
