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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.12 - MARCH 2001
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Standing at the Crossroads When the demonstration of how a virtual human is being programmed was made, we went step by step into its makeup. I was hard pressed to find "something" that had not yet been catalogued, and was delighted (relieved?) to come up with this one: consciousness! Our consciousness seems to work a lot by association, so that (as has been shown so well by Herman Hesse) a scent can trigger the vivid recollection of a sound and vice versa. This ability we have to experience as "real" that which is physically not "there" is what the autonomous virtual human has a long way to go to acquire. It is our very subjectivity that may save us from (total) assimilation (yes, a Borg joke). In a more "practical" way, this type of research opens up doors for applications such as virtual interactive games and remote manipulation, as in surgery or dangerous environments. In this latter field, Jean Noël Portugal has a lot to offer (http://www.dramaera.com/). It is also worth noting that Jean Noël Portugal and Stéphane Donikian share some of their research, which has led to commercial applications such as those offered at http://www.irisa.com. I felt that these topics, all brought up during the last day of the conference, were important enough to warrant a conference of their own, as much had to be left out due to time constraints. Larger, Larger, Larger Issues
On the other hand, much of what happened led to reflections about the kind of world we are now busy creating through this rampant globalization. With that in mind, I wonder if la Réunion isn't focusing its sight on too short a vision, aiming at a short term success (as a service industry to the global animation market), but in the process, risking the longer term negative outcome of not developing its own unique content. Asia is quite capable of delivering those services at the lowest possible costs, but it may not be able to deliver truly unique content (unless it too revises its thrust). In my examining this problem, I see how much it also exists in, for example, North America, a continent were there are many remote areas which, if we stay within the "global" models and agenda, will never be able to compete head on with urban centres. Unless, once again, the remote areas develop their unique and irreplaceable content and, like on la Réunion, they benefit from serious public aid to develop their infrastructure. The Web is exploding and the need for original material is greater than ever. That need can only continue to grow, surely this could provide the incentive to bank on one's idiosyncrasies? As an example. Montréal was recently given the opportunity to see Passage, a co-production by the Théâtre Talipot (from la Réunion), the Centre Dramatique de l'Océan Indien, the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris and the Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yveslines. This show was a terrific success in Canada, from where I am writing. Passage is the quest of a man who searches far and wide for his identity and freedom, and who finds it when entering a cave in the very same way one enters one's self. In there, he finds that at his deepest core, he is not alone, far from it. The show was presented in a mixture of French, Créole, Zulu and more. The "idiosyncratic language" was not at all a barrier to comprehension, the "meaning" was felt more than "understood."
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