Virtual reality lives in Lindley Hall. Its locked room becomes another world inside the 8-foot cubed square known as the Computer Automated Virtual Environment. \nCreated at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Chicago, IU's CAVE is one of the many appearing across the country. Featuring three walls and a floor upon which computer generated sights and sounds are projected, CAVE participants experience virtual reality scenarios in real time. Each movement of the active participant triggers the next scene based on the computer program design.\nLarge enough to hold as many as 10 participants, CAVE has become an ever-changing canvas for School of Fine Arts Assistant Professor Margaret Dolinsky and her students. \nAs an artist who focuses mainly on painting and printmaking, Dolinsky said she designs computer art scenarios for CAVE as a way of extending her artistic background.\n"Participants wear glasses with batteries on the side, similar to the old 1950s 3-D glasses, but they're much heavier," said senior Craig Strubing, a former CAVE student. "There's also a joystick, or wand, on a kind of remote control that the user has to navigate through the scenes."
The dedication \nDolinsky, who received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois in Chicago and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, has showcased her CAVE artwork "Dream Grrrls" and "Blue Window Pane" at the Arts Electronica Center in Linz, Austria.\n"I'm interested in the stream of conscious constancy, as we're constantly bombarded with visuals," Dolinsky said. "I wish to create empathic experiences, dilemmas and psychic confrontations for others who are able to expose their inner-selves to experience unique reflections."\nRegardless of course of study or major, students interested in CAVE are always welcome to enroll in classes, Strubing said.\n"CAVE is open to both graduate and undergraduate students, even independent study, regardless of your major," Strubing said. "But, it's usually recommended that students take basic computer art graphics classes before tackling CAVE. I recommend that students interested get involved. It's a lot of fun and a completely different experience."\nWhile Strubing encourages students to get involved, he warns that working with the CAVE system isn't always the easiest task.\n"One time I had to stay at CAVE until 3 a.m. because the machine wouldn't accept my design," he said. "I was like 'augh!' Until I finally got it to work."
The creativity behind CAVE\nStudents participating in the CAVE program work throughout the semester, creating virtual environments that will be displayed at the end-of-year CAVE art show. The 2004 CAVE art show, showcased May 7, 2004, at Lindley Hall, featured student works and tours of the CAVE facility. Strubing, one of the featured artists at the show, debuted his piece titled, "To Be Little: an Immersion Piece."\n"I wanted to present a different perspective from the usual human experience in this environment," Strubing said on his Web site. "In this unique environment, a human can visualize the viewpoint of a small rodent or insect. A viewer traverses to these different areas via tunnels in the wall, which helps enforce the perspective of a small animal."\nCAVE not only serves as an outlet for artistic expression, but also as a technologically advanced research tool at IU. \nDimitrij Hmeljak is an analyst and programmer with the Advanced Visualization Laboratory, "a rich environment of distributed visual computing," according to its Web site. He said CAVE serves as both a teaching and research tool.\n"Computer science uses the CAVE for visualizing astronomic data and many other research topics that can be visualized in a 3-D environment," he said in a 2004 interview.\nCombining the art and science worlds is an important feature of the CAVE system, Dolinsky said.\n"We are constantly discovering the possibilities of science and art coming together," she said. "With CAVE, you see that everything has a knowledge based and a creative side. But sometimes, it's difficult to balance the research and technical with the artistic side."\nThe CAVE today\nRecent research with CAVE has uncovered the ability to connect different CAVEs across the country, as well as across the world, to the same virtual scenario, creating a type of distance learning.\n"We can now network the CAVEs together, meaning that we can all share the same environment," Dolinsky said. "Each person at a remote CAVE is represented by avatars. Each person can talk in real time. When I move my head in the Bloomington CAVE, the avatar representing me in Austria moves its head too."\nTours of the CAVE facilities normally offered every Friday are not offered this semester due to preparation for the unveiling of a new CAVE.\n"We're hard at work preparing things for the new CAVE we're going to be receiving," Dolinsky said. "It should be ready by April or May, so we'll be able to start tours up again during the fall semester."
Limitations of CAVE\nWhile Dolinsky and her students are excited to receive a new CAVE, they also admit that the CAVE system is not without its flaws.\n"The CAVE system is so large and so expensive," Dolinsky said. "My long term goals for the system, as well as for the programs, are to make it more affordable, which will also help make the systems more prevalent."\nWhile Strubing agrees CAVE is a large and expensive facility, he said he has a different set of goals for the program.\n"My main problem is that with the current set-up, you're so limited on the details you can show," he said. "My goal for the program is for it to eventually be able to produce movie quality detail, while making the CAVE itself smaller and more portable."\nWhile both admit that the CAVE system is not perfect, Dolinsky said she believes the CAVE program will only expand from now on, as technology is becoming more and more important.\n"CAVE serves as an outlet for combining the scientific method with the artistic approach," she said. "You can see things in the CAVE that you just can't see on paper."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Jennifer Griffin at jdgriffi@indiana.edu.
