Kisho Kurokawa in Second Life (Completed)

"Nakagin Capsule Tower" (Original architecture was created by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa in 1972) in Second Life is open to public now. This is a typical architectural work of the metabolism of Japan (Wikipedia).

SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/nikkeibp%20way/85/93/71




In this project, the scale of original construction is faithfully reproduced. Because it doesn't suit the size of avatar, it looks very small. It is also difficult to enter the entrance.



However, we gave priority to value as "Historic site" because the original had been decided to be demolished. Many architecture of the modernism will receive the life in the near future. 3D Internet such as Second Life might become a platform to preserve them.

• Production: Hidenori Watanave Laboratory @ Tokyo Metropolitan University + Atelier Ten
• Original design + project cooperation: Kisho Kurokawa architecture and urban design office
• Produce: Nikkei architecture

Related:Photosynth of Nakagin Capsule Tower

SIGGRAPH Asia Archive in Second Life (Completed)

SIGGRAPH Asia Archive in Second Life Project was completed now.



This is an art project that collects photographs concerning past "ACM SIGGRAPH Emerging Technlogy" and makes an 3-D image archive in Second Life, aiming at this year's SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008. 600 photographs or more were finally collected.

It is created by Hidenori Watanave (Supervisor of Photon,Inc. / Associate Professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University), and conception by Tomoe Moriyama (SIGGRAPH ASIA Art Gallery and Emerging Technology chair / Museum of Comtemporary art Tokyo). Please refer to the lower side of this article about cooperators.

It will be exhibited in SIGGRAPH Asia Art Gallery (Singapore, Dec.10 - 13 2008). I will make a machinima (movie) of this project and upload soon.

SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/nikkeibp/188/151/62













All photographs of SIGGRAPH were taken and granted by:

Jacki Morie - SIGGRAPH 1993 and 1994, The Zone And Neuro Baby/ The Edge
Brian Blau - SIGGRAPH 1996, Digital Bayou
Kathryn Saunders - SIGGRAPH 1999, Millennium Motel
Toshihiro Konma - SIGGRAPH 2002,2003,2005,2006,2007 and 2008, Emerging Technology / Art Gallery / Kids / NewTech / Slow Art

Thank you very much for their contribution!
(SIM sponsor: Nikkei Business Publications,Inc.)

SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/nikkeibp/188/151/62

SIGGRAPH Asia Archive in Second Life (Prototype)

Now I am developing "SIGGRAPH Asia Archive in Second Life" for Art Gallery of SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 in Singapore.





The aim of this project is "Developing 3D image archive of Emerging Technologies". This is due to a conception of Tomoe Moriyama (SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Art Gallery Chair). Thanks to the cooperation of several people, a lot of images of "Emerging Technology" are collected now.



"Photograph space" scatter when the plate of each age is clicked. Avatar can sit on "Photograph space" by clicking the photograph of the favor, and can be inspected peacefully. This mechanism is an application of "3-D image database of Oscar Niemeyer".



This is a prototype that uses the photographs of 1996. A lot of photographs until 2008 is prepared to be added.



This project will be exhibited in SIGGRAPH Asia, Dec.10 to 13 in Singapore.

Photosynth - "Nakagin Capsule Tower" by Kisho Kurokawa

We made "Photosynth" from many photographs of "Nakagin Capsule Tower" - a famous metabolism architecture by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. All photographs were taken by Hidenori Watanave + Students @ Tokyo Metropolitan University and Atelier Ten Architects (winner of Digital Design Competition 2007).



We are also producing "reconstructing" and "3D visual database" of Kisho Kurokawa in Second Life. Moreover, workshop by Tokyo Metropolitan University + Miyagi University is planned in same SIM.



Details will be open to the public in a few days.

ObaMcCain / OBAMApPING / MAcCaPPinG

"ObaMcCain (Obama * McCain)" and "OBAMApPING (Obama mapping) + MccAinPPING (McCain mapping)" are mashup critisism projects. They had been exhibted in "Virtual Residency Project Exhibition" @ Location One Gallary from September 10 to November 4, 2008.

"ObaMcCain" (Obama * McCain)
by Hidenori Watanave and Koichiro Hajiri, Ph.D





These chatterbots automatically generate the conversation from "Phrase on the web" of Obama and McCain in virtual world. They influence each other, and the content of the conversation changes dynamically. Finally, the entire of this "ObaMcCain space" becomes a "Speeching space" based on "Common opinion of Obama and McCain". The latest word of Obama and Mccain is always supplied to the database of chatterbots. This "Speeching space" that synthesizes the opinion of two candidates keeps speaking and existing, even if either of them wins by the election. - Hidenori Watanave

slurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/UCHIDA%20EDUCATION/184/56/36


"OBAMApPING and MccAinPPING"
(Obama and McCain mapping)
by Hidenori Watanave + Shingo Noguchi






View with large map

• View with Google Maps
• View with Google Earth

This is dynamic geo-mapping of IP-geolocation -- Place where image of "Obama" "McCain" actually exist -- based on the Yahoo image search result. The words "Barack Obama" in about 10 languages is used for image-searching.

"Obama"
باراك أوباما, Barak Obama, Барак Обама, バラック　オバマ, Μπαράκ Ομπάμα, ברק אובאמה, 奥巴马, 歐巴馬, 버락 오바마
"McCain"
سياسي أمريكي, John McCain, Джон Маккейн, ジョン・マケイン, Τζον Μακέιν, جان مک‌کین ,ג'ון מקיין, 麥凱恩, 매케인

Line-tracks have expanded toward each image from Honolulu and Panama that is the birth ground of Obama and McCain. This map makes "Worldwide extention of the impact of Obama and McCain" visible. And, it changes every day. There are various "Image that relates to two candidates" in all over the world. Please try it. -- Hidenori Watanave

"Obama bot" prototype

This is Obama bot (chatterbot) prototype for Virtual Residency Project. It will be exhibited at the same time as OBAMApPING.



A lot of "Obama-chatterbot with individuality" are floating in the air. Each robot has the Obama collection of personal phrases of the Internet in the background. They make remarks automatically while reacting to the word of other chatterbots and avatars. What discussion will they do in the future?

And also, McCain and Hillary's chatterbots will be produced as I wrote here. I want to try and err about not only a content of the word, but also composition of them in the space.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UCHIDA%20EDUCATION/184/56/36

Credit:

• Produce + Direction: Hidenori Watanave
• Collaborator: Koichiro Hajiri Ph.D.

OBAMApPING prototype

This is prototype of "OBAMApPING" for Virtual Residency Project.



View with large map

This is dynamic geo-mapping of IP-geolocation -- Place where image of "Obama" actually exists -- based on the Yahoo image search result. The words "Barack", "Obama", and Japanese Hiragana "Obama" is used for this retrieval. 150 images are displayed now.

Viewing with Google Earth is also available.



Tracks have expanded toward each image from Honolulu that is the birth ground of Obama. This map makes "Worldwide extention of the impact of i-Obama (Informationized Obama)" visible. And, it changes every day.



Naturally, there are a lot of images that exist in the United States. However, a lot of images exist also in Europe, Japan, and the southern hemisphere. When the image is clicked, an original website is displayed.



The map published in here now is static contents. In the exhibition with Location One, dynamic map will be exhibited. Moreover, I will produce the map of Macan and other candidates for exhibition. My work are this "OBAMApPING" and "Obamabot vs McCainbot in Metaverse".

Hidenori Watanave

Credit:

• Produce + direction: Hidenori Watanave


• Programming: Shingo Noguchi(PhotoXP)


• Powerd by GeoLite City, Yahoo! API, Google Maps API

Permutation City

via DigitalUrban:



This is a demonstration movie of virtual world "LivePlace" with cloud based computing. This image and system make me recall Greg Egan's "Permutation city". If the interface of immersive type is equipped in this, it is the world setting of the science fiction novel as it is. The time left is 37 years. There is enough time.

SIGGRAPH2008 Poster

Now I am in Los Angels.

In this morning, I have set up my poster in Los Angels Convention Center. It is in a good location that is vicinity of entrance of hall. But I have a question -- "Is poster session necessary for presentation of Second Life?". I think indeed, it is a very very old-fashioned presentation format.

PDF of poster is available.






I will be in front of my poster tommorow (11/Aug). However, I will be not there on the presentation day (12/Aug.) because I will have to take an airplane. Ah, "Poster session" is very inconvenient! I put a lot of business cards instead of myself, please take it.

Now I am staying in Hotel Carmel @ Santa Monica.


View with large map

My presentation in FILE2008 @ Sao Paulo

Complete version movie is here.






Now I'm in Rio de janeiro.

Now I am in Sao Paulo !

Now I'm in Sao Paulo because for preparation of FILE2008 symposium.



The high rise, the building that exists for 100 years, and the
temporary lavatory exist together. And terrible amount of car is running. People are walking while dancing. It's quite a metaverse-like city !

My presentation movie in symposium is below.



My presentation schedule is 15:30 (local time) on August 5.

Archidemo Poster for SIGGRAPH2008 Poster Session

I just uploaded 2 pdf files of "Archidemo Poster" for SIGGRAPH2008 Poster Session.

1. pdf #1 : Abstract of "Archidemo"
2. pdf #2 : Winners of Digital Design Competition 2007

They are big files because the poster format is so large (4 feet by 8 feet).

Locations:
Displayed outside Room 403, 404, 409, and 411, and in West Tower Lobby
http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/attendees/posters/

My category:
Art, B113 - B126
http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/attendees/posters/2.php

Posters are displayed throughout the conference week:

• Monday, 11 August 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
• Tuesday, 12 August 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
• Wednesday, 13 August 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
• Thursday, 14 August 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
• Friday, 15 August 8:30 am – noon

Poster Sessions (I will not be there):

• Tuesday, 12 August 12:15 - 1:15 pm
• Thursday, 14 August 12:15 - 1:15 pm

Poster images:

3D image database of Oscar Niemeyer on Second Life

Now I and student team of Tokyo Metropolitan Univ. are developing 3D image database of Oscar Niemeyer on Second Life. This is an official art project of "The 100th anniversary of exchanging between Japan and Brazil".



A big image screen appear from floating box, and when it is touched, original website is displayed.



All images are downloaded from image search by Google. Because of the specification of Second Life, it is necessary to one by one upload all images now.



This is still a prototype now. I want to form it to "Niemeyer's shape" finally. And also, the other archiving project that uses Google Earth is starting.

I will stay in Brazil between from Aug.1 to 9, and take photographs of Niemeyer's architecture and the city scenery of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. These material will be used for this project. Moreover, I will make a presentation of this project in FILE 2008 (Aug.5 15:30~).


SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nippaku100/140/128/28

Developing team:

Hidenori Watanave
+
Kanako Hayashi, Kaname Shimizu, Makiko Suzuki, Ryuta Kawahara, Yohei Nakano

The museum of the globe

Yesterday I invited "Atelier Ten Architects" for my laboratory of Tokyo Metropolitan University, and they made a special lecture of "Architecture in physical world / virtual worlds".



They are "Real" architect that had produced many architectural projects in physical world, and also, they are "Virtual" architect in Second Life, too. In "Digital Design Competition 2007" (I was a jury member), they won the Grand-prix of competiton.



They got a cooperation by Japanese information-technology company "GMO Tea-cup communications inc.", and realized their idea in Second Life, "The museum of the globe (slurl)".



Surprisingly, this beautiful and strange structure was constructed by auto-modeling system. First of all, they prepared the expression for this shape by Excel. and next, auto-modeling system made everything automatically. This modeling process took only 1 or 2 hours.



I will make a collaborative work with them in "3D-Internet archive of architecture and city environment of Japan and Brazil" and "Kisyo Kurokawa in Metaverse project". I will announce about these project soon.

The 100th anniversary of exchanging between Japan and Brazil

The year 2008 is "The 100th anniversary of exchanging between Japan and Brazil". My - Hidenori Watanave Laboratory of Tokyo Metropolitan University's - proposal passed the examination, and became an official event of Nippaku 2008 (Japanese and Portugues).

My proposal is "3D-Internet archive of architecture and city environment of Japan and Brazil. " I am planning to do the work of "Reconstruction" of architecture by Oscar Niemeyer and the architect in Japan to Second Life and Google Earth. A movie below is "Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum" on Google Earth (This was created by someone).



In addition, I will produce "Conversation space" concerning "Brazil","Niemeyer",etc. by using ChatBot. A movie below is a sample of "Conversation space" by Koichiro Hajiri in Archidemo.



I will make a presentation of this project in FILE2008 Sao Paulo.

Cyberworlds2008 in Hangzhou

My submission to DMAMH'2008 (3rd Workshop on Digital Media and its Application in Museum & Heritage in Cyberworlds 2008) has been accepted. The title of my paper is 'Contents Oriented Space - Architecture and Environmental design in the 3Di space'. The main theme of the paper concerns 'Archidemo' and 'Digital Design Competition 2007'.

My presentation schedule in China is in the latter half of September, following FILE2008 (August 5, Sao Paulo) and SIGGRAPH2008 (August 11, Los Angeles). Thus, I am very busy. If it is possible, I want to do presentation in the metaverse.

Hangzhou is here.


大きな地図で見る

By the way, ACCEPT NOTICE says 'The papers will be included in the same Proceedings, which will be published by IEEE, and will be indexed by EI'.

Google One Green project

Google Japan launched 'Google One Green' project (Japanese only). It is a mashup site concerning global warming and where people can freely contribute the idea of global warming prevention.



I produced the Google gadget and geocoding system of 'Gaia Mapping 2008' by the NPO Gaia initiative.



I want to use the metaverse for such a usage.

ViZiMO workshop in Tokyo Metropolitan University

I held a special workshop of Japanese metaverse (3Di) platform 'ViZiMO' by MiCROViSiON Inc. in Tokyo Metropolitan University.

• updated in June 11 - The Metaverse Journal reffered this workshop.

Workshop theme was 'Translating real space into virtual space', that I wrote in Abstract of Archidemo. 18 students joined the workshop, and the period of workshop was three weeks. There were various variations of final output by students that used ViZiMO as tools of 'Movie (machinima) production', 'Game developing', and 'Producing the space with special physics'.

The following playlist covers all students' works.



We can construct 3d space including physics and various interactive events only with GUI without coding by using ViZiMO. It is the best 3Di platform for students, begginer, and general person who is not the high-skilled creator. MiCROViSiON Inc. is serving only a Japanese version now. However, I am expecting their progressing of an international version.

Participant:

The students of third grader class in Tokyo Metropolitan University

Workshop Leader:

Hidenori Watanave (Supervisor of Photon,Inc., Associate Professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Visiting Professor of Digital Hollywood University)

Jury members:

• Minoru Aonuma (Company Rep. of MiCROViSiON Inc.) and Associates
• Akio Fukano (Visiting Associate Professor of Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Fellow of Tokyo Institute of Technology)
• Yukihito Morikawa (Company Rep. of MuuMuu co. ltd.)
• Takanobu Migitera (Marketing Fellow of Connecty Inc.)
• Yumiko Sugiura (Journalist)
  

and Shinichi Kasahara (Professor) and Tetsuaki Baba (Assistant Professor) of TMU also participated in jury.

SIGGRAPH2008 in Los Angels

Archidemo and Digital Design Competition 2007 were accepted to be part of SIGGRAPH2008 (Aug.11 - 15, at Los Angeles Convention Center).　Reprint of mail as follows.

We are very pleased to inform you that your submission title: "Archidemo - Architecture in Metaverse", Submission Id: "latebreaking_0111" has been accepted to be part of the SIGGRAPH 2008 Conference in Los Angeles, California. A diverse group of leading experts have chosen your submission for presentation out of many that were received due to its high quality, interest, and impact on the SIGGRAPH Community.

Because the result announcement of the digital design competition was later than the deadline of SIGGRAPH, I entered our abstract in 'Late-Breaking Program'. There are 4 reviews, three are friendly and other one is very critically. At any rate, it is glad that the activity in the metaverse was evaluated. I have already decided to go to FILE2008 Sao Paulo (presentation is Aug.05), and if it is possible, I will go to Los Angeles in middle of August.

Virtual Residency Project

I was chosen as one of three participants of Location One » Location One Virtual Residency Project.

The "residency" will begin officially on June 1, 2008 and will conclude with an exhibition (virtual or physical, depending on the nature of the project) at Location One in November, 2008.

We will start "Virtual" artist-in-residence together on Next week. I plan to use 3DGIS and 3D-internet as a platform.

Hidenori Watanave (Tokyo, Japan)

• http://mapping.jp/archi/cat18/
• http://mapping.jp/index_en.html

Susanne Berkenheger (Berlin, Germany)

• http://www.berkenheger.de/index_english.html
• http://www.movement-for-account-corpses.de/
• http://www.movement-for-account-corpses.de/pr
• http://www.thebubblebath.de/
• http://www.worldwatchers.de/

Andy Deck (New York, USA)

• http://andydeck.com/

Oscar Niemeyer on Google Earth

I found Oscar Niemeyer's 'Niterói Contemporary Art Museum' on Google Earth.



It is User-Generated-Model on Google Earth, and everyone can fly into and walk through the Architecture. The Architecture with map and satellite image has a persuasive power, stronger than that in 3Di space.

I will make a presentation and an exhibition in FILE2008, and 2008 is Japanese Brazil exchange year. I will do the experiment of connecting and overwrapping 3DGIS and 3Di, as the application of design-method of Contents Oriented Space.

Editing and Creating buildings in Google Earth 4.3

I tried to edit and create buildings in Google Earth 4.3.



(Because I used slow PC, operation is awkward.)

You can delete buliding freely with right-clicking on 3-d model and select "hide building", and create new object with polygon menu. If you have Sketchup or other 3-d software, you can put more detailed object, too. Oh, it is metaversed!!

Google Earth will be widely used as a very strong, free platform in the field of the visual environment simulation.

Only a geostationary object can be put now. However, various interactions will be added by using the script such as kml and LSL in the near future.

Google Earth 4.3 1st try

I uploaded a movie of playing Google Earth newest version with my mushup contents "Train Mapping" (Japanese Only).



We can come and go very smoothly between "Macro<--->Micro". I had tried the mashup of Google Earth and Second Life (Japanse article) before, But This sense is quite different from it.



The interface that can shuttle freely from "Maximum" to "Minimum", or from "Far point" to "Neer Point" is very comfortable and impressive. This is a reason why people are strongly attracted to the map software such as Google Earth - It is not in present Second Life.

We should make the interface that draws out a body sensation different from the real world more strongly. The interface of Google Earth will become a hint for that.

FILE - Electronic Language International Festival

I received the notification from Sao Paulo - "Archidemo - Architecture in Metaverse" has being selected to be part of the 9th edition of FILE - Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo, in Media Art category.

The event will take place at SESI' Cultural Centre, located at Av. Paulista, 1313, Sao Paulo, Brazil. It will be hold from August 4th to 31st, 2008.



I will go to Sao Paulo on the other side of the earth from Japan. Ladies and gentlemen, let's meet in the locale!


大きな地図で見る

New Dance-Performance by Gekitora

Here is a new dance performance (motion) by Gekitora.



I reffered his works in this article. Afterwards, I took a capture-movie of the dance performance in "Costa del Número" as a collaboration with Gekitora.

This is a very conceptual work. "Costa del Número" was mentioned in "Virtual Interactive Architectures",

As the virtual has enabled communication between physical spaces for quite some time, this build becomes an interesting metaphor for the spatial/informational relationships between (physical <--> physical) and (physical <--> virtual) spaces.

In addition, our body sensation swings when non-physical dance motion is brought into the space that obscures the boundary of physical and virtual. This is an image taken a picture of by the aspect of one person (me). In adding the image from a multi aspect to here, another effect will arise. In next time, I will take a picture with a lot of spectators.

The discussion of this work is done in Dance-Tech.net.

"Phantom" Object in RL

I found a very interesting movie in a famous Japanese website yesterday.



Daily portal Z (Japanese only) is a comical site. It always experiments on very maniac themes, and makes the result public. In this feature, They experiment on "Walking straight" by the theme "Arriving straight at the sea" disregarding a usual road.

This movie looks like it was taken in a virtual space. The "pass-through" scene taken in the real world is very impressive though we are not surprised even if the same thing occurs in a virtual space. The space that Kimio Itozaki and I produced has the same atmosphere as this.



I wrote in Abstract,

There is very effective method - composing the space with “Navigation” by using “Material” from the real-world. The program ties the photograph and Movie.

In seeing Daily portal Z's work, I reconfirmed the importance of the above-mentioned method.

Study of super-wide angle interface

I set a prototype of super-wide angle interface in Archidemo.

"Costa del Número" by Hirotaka Tobi + Hidenori Watanave + Jiron Koyama

I am advancing the plan to exhibit past image-archives of SIGGRAPH in the In-world now. This is open to the public in this year's SIGGRAPH ASIA.

The angle of a super-wide angle might be necessary for the interface to access a huge image archive intuitively. It is a problem to seem that the object is transformed from us if it sets it to the super-wide-angle lens with Second Life. But this problem is likely to solve it by remodeling the client.

In addition, a more wonderful interface can be achieved by applying the controller of Nintendo wii, and the globe image screen, etc. I will produce with my students in Tokyo Metropolitan University and Digital Hollywood University, and moreover, I want to cooperate with game-interface researchers and In-world architects.

SIGGRAPH ASIA is held in Singapore in December this year. I report on the progress of this project by this blog.

Sunset in RL/SL

Now I live in Odaiba, Tokyo - here.
Both of SL and RL became sunset when I was working in SL.

Very beautiful, too. The color of SL in the evening looks like that of RL well, in Tokyo.