SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery Provides a Feast for the Senses

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Press Release from SIGGRAPH

(Chicago, IL) June 21, 2010 - From virtual bugs to wearable devices, the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery investigates the multi-sensory nature of human experience in a technologically enhanced environment. The official title is TouchPoint: Haptic Exchange Between Digits, and from more than 250 submitted pieces, the jury selected 14 to be featured at SIGGRAPH 2010.

"The exhibition becomes an interactive environment where the viewer or participant is essential to the manifestation of the work," said Richard Elaver, SIGGRAPH 2010 Juried Art Chair from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. "This is art that immerses people, and the end result is an art experience that many have never encountered before."

Works exhibited in TouchPoint are published in a special issue of MIT Press's /Leonardo, the Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology/. Peer-reviewed SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Papers will also be published in this special issue, which coincides with SIGGRAPH 2010 in July. A reception for the Art Gallery will be held Tuesday, July 27 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. in Room 150 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where attendees can talk with the artists, designers, and Art Papers authors about their work and meet the members of the SIGGRAPH 2010 committee who organized this year's Art Gallery.

The Art Gallery jury consisted of a wide range of the leading experts in haptics, design theory, architecture, and sculpture.

Highlights of the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery include:

- Echidna ll

- Tine Bech, University of the West of England and Tom Frame, Surrey Space Centre. This interactive sound sculpture is a fussy, tumbled creature that has an electronic voice. Undisturbed, it hums happily, but when it is touched it squeaks and reacts to human presence. The work combines a circuit that directly measures electrostatic changes in the environment and a custom-designed, phase-locked loop system that drives an audio speaker.

- Glowing Pathfinder Bugs

- Squidsoup. In this shared environment of a sandpit, virtual creatures and real people coexist and communicate. The sand operates as a tactile interface, allowing participants to define physical landscapes to which the digital creatures respond in real time. The result is a form of animal husbandry, a sense of controlling and caring for the bugs.

- hanahanahana

- Yasuaki Kakehi, Keio University; Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kunoh, plaplax. To experience hanahanahana, the participant applies perfume to a leaf-shaped piece of paper and shakes it in front of a bud-like device. A flower appears and changes intensity according to the strength of the floating scent, while color and shape also vary according to the type of fragrance applied to the paper. Participants can enjoy temporal and spatial variations of floating air with olfactory sensations from the scent, visual sensations from the projection screen, and tactile sensations from the wind.

- In the Line of Sight

- Daniel Sauter, University of Illinois at Chicago and Fabian Winkler, Purdue University. In the Line of Sight is a light installation that uses 100 computer-controlled tactical flashlights to project low-resolution video footage of suspicious human motion into the exhibition space.

- Tools for Improved Social Interacting

- Lauren McCarthy, University of California, Los Angeles. This series of wearable devices (the Anti-Daydreaming Device, the Happiness Hat, and the Body Contact Training Suit) uses sensors to condition the wearer to better adapt to expected social behaviors. The work explores the potential for technology to shape how we think, feel, and act. It also questions our social expectations and attempts to improve our understanding of their function and worth.

View the entire Art Gallery at

http://www.siggraph.org/s2010/for_attendees/art_gallery [1]

About SIGGRAPH 2010

SIGGRAPH 2010 will bring approximately 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles, California, USA for the industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, music, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Sunday, 25 July through Thursday, 29 July 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. SIGGRAPH 2010 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 27-29 July 2010. More than 200 international exhibiting companies are expected. More details are available at www.siggraph.org/s2010 [2]

About ACM SIGGRAPH

The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques www.siggraph.org [3] is an interdisciplinary community interested in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. Members include researchers, developers and users from the technical, academic, business, and art communities. SIGGRAPH provides information to the computer graphics community through its annual conference, publications and the SIGGRAPH Video Review.\

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org [4] is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.