User manual

and keyboard based, first-person camera navigation, as implemented in the prototype,
bear a more direct resemblance to a game).
In retrospect, the application outlined in this document bears many specifics,
so related projects are difficult to identify – indeed, it may be the first of its kind as an
idea. Many of those specifics come from the fact that this is an application based on
and around light programming, which in particular is coupled with an actual real light
show. In that sense, it is in the overall context of the event, and the eventual
interfacing with the real projectors, where the application gains its true importance;
and where it can be seen that it does facilitate online collaboration (although limited
and not in real-time sense as commonly expected from modern online 3D
applications). Within the time frame of both the light programming phase and the
entire event duration, the application can be seen to facilitate both collaboration, and
in some sense, audience interaction – as the creators of the show are themselves
expected to be a key part of the audience as well. Maybe this is here where the biggest
quality of the event as a whole lies – it puts existing technologies (seen in a larger
scope: from the level of browser technologies, to the level of light projectors as a
technology) together in a novel approach; approach which in the end, aims to gather
people together at the celebration in the outdoors.
This approach is a fresh view upon celebration events, as here it is the audience
(or at least a key part of it) that produces the artwork, the actual show - everything
else, from the web application to the set-up of actual projectors, can be seen as simply
a tool to unleash the creativity of the participants. In that sense (its highly
asynchronous/slow nature taken into account) it could serve as a new metaphor
within audience participation and interaction, which as an intention is present ever
since “post-modernism” and “performance art” became household terms on the arts
scene – and is also an ever more occurring topic in media technology research. In any
case, the social aspect of the event may be in itself a quality that could stimulate
performing of the same type of events in different contexts and environments. Thus,
one could expect further development of similar kind of events, where the application
could be put in use – hence the motivation to produce an engine that is independent
of environment models and projector setups, which would eventually allow easier
porting of the application in a context of a different event.
"DMX Director" - Architecture of a 3D light-programming application, in a multi-user Internet environment
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