Nominated as a Finalist: FILE PRIX LUX in Sao Paulo

``Tuvalu Visualization Project" has been nominated as a finalist in FILE PRIX LUX, a media arts competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

• FILE PRIX LUX - Digital Language (Please see the 4th page of this website.)

You can vote your favorite work. If you want to vote ``Tuvalu Visualization Project", Please operate it along the following procedure.

1. Enter your E-MAIL address.
2. Select ``Tuvalu Visialization Project" in the pull-down menu.
3. Read captcha text and enter it in text-field.
4. Push ``VOTE".
5. Click the link in the notification mail.

We went to Sao Paulo for our presentation in FILE 2009 Sao Paulo in 2 years ago. Our presentation in YouTube can be seen here.

3DCG + Second Life Machinima

This is an unique example of the method of making movie using mashup of 3DCG + Second Life machinima.



This is a PR movie of the activity for public industrial-academic complex of Tokyo Metropolitan University. This was composed of 2 elements: 1.3DCG that used photographs of cities and campuses, 2.Second Life machinima that used photographs of researchers and works. Thus, these two elements are naturally united. This technique can be applied to other various usages.

Creators:

• Kenji Ishimaru (POLYGON PICTURES.INC.)
• Takashi Yamaguchi
• Hidenori Watanave (Tokyo Metropolitan University / Photon, Inc.)

Ultra High-Definition photo-overlays of Tuvalu on Google Earth

I uploaded a capture movie of Ultra High-Definition photo-overlays of Tuvalu on Google Earth. It is a content of Tuvalu Visualization Project. It was presented in 4K digital cinema festival of Digital Contents Expo 2009.

All photographs: (c) Shuuichi Endou / Tuvalu Overview

It is a sample of photo-overlays on google earth with beautiful photographs by Shuuichi Endou. I remember that super-high resolution (Ultra High Definition) photo overlay had been presented in the lecture of Mr. Michael T. Jones who is the Google Earth developer.

• Photographs: (c) Shuuichi Endou / Tuvalu Overview
• Contents creation: Hidenori Watanave Laboratory, Tokyo Metropolitan University
• Music: Kensuke Takada and Makiko Suzuki Harada

Ars Electronica Archive in Second Life (Complete Version)

"Ars Electronica Archive in Second Life" was produced for exhibition in "Technoclasm Cyber Arts Japan / Ars Electronica 30 years for Art and Media Technology" at Museum of Contemporary art Tokyo and The 13th Japan Media Arts Festival.



In this archive, users can browse images and webpages of Japanese winners of Prix Ars Electronica 1987 to 2007. And also, this archive support Livecam function (the scene of exhibition will be projected) and twitter search widget. I'm constructing new function contributing the chatlog in Second Life to twitter now.

SLurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/tmu/193/174/29



Credits:
Created by Hidenori Watanave + Hidenori Watanave Lab. Tokyo Metropolitan University (Music by Kensuke Takada, Supported by Yumi Akutsu, Ayaka Daimon, Yuki Nakamaru, Yurina Takata and Kazuya Kitahara)
Conception by Tomoe Moriyama

Ars Electronica Archive in Second Life

Updated 20100115: Live camera function, and BGM by K. Takada (a student in Tokyo Metropolitan University) was installed. This archive will be exhibited in mouse-looking mode with a controller of Playstation.



Updated 20100110: The media browser and Ars Electronica archives of 1987 - 1991 were included. >>movie

Updated 20100109: Viewing function of Twitter search result and contents of official website were included. >>movie

Updated 20100107: Japanese Artists' works of Ars Electronica 1987 were included. >>movie



Now we are developing "Ars Electronica Archive in Second Life" for our exhibition in "Technoclasm Cyber Arts Japan / Ars Electronica 30 years for Art and Media Technology" in MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART TOKYO.

• SLurl:http://slurl.com/secondlife/tmu/193/174/29

Now It is under construction, and will be exhibited in the museum, Feb.02 - Mar.22, 2010. We will introduce its progress report by this blog.

See also:

• SIGGRAPH Archive
• Laval VRchive

SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Presentation

Our 2 presentations at SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 are completed. We just uploaded our movies to YouTube. One movie of Sketches session is full version, but another one is a digest version, because of YouTube's limitation of time-length.


“Tuvalu Visualization Project"
Presentation by Makiko Suzuki Harada


"Educational Activity Using A Photograph Mapping System"
Presentation by Hidenori Watanave

Our exhibition in COP15 is now open

Exhibition of Tuvalu Visualization Project at NPO Tuvalu Overview's exhibit space in COP15 is now open. Mr. Shuichi Endo is on the floor though I was not able to go to the locale.



Those who come to exhibition can post messages from the screen of Google Earth. Afterwards, a blue line is drawn toward a person from the contribution place to Tuvalu. The line of the light of the message is wrapping all over the world. Let's participate by all means. >> Official Website

Selected as Jury recommended works of 2009 [13th] Japan Media Arts Festival

Tuvalu Visualization Project was selected as Jury recommended works of 2009 [13th] Japan Media Arts Festival. This will be exhibited at The National Art Center Tokyo, Feb. 03-14 2010.

The 13th Japan Media Arts Festival Fact sheet

[ Works Submitted ]

• Art Division: 1,169 works
• Entertainment Division: 622 works
• Animation Division: 473 works
• Manga Division: 328 works

Total: 2,592 works

[ Overseas Entries ]

673 works from 53 nations and regions,

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland (UK), Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, USA, and Venezuela(alphabetical order)

Google Earth Machinimas for Ajinomoto corporation

We - Photon and Polygon pictures, with Hidenori Watanave Laboratory @ Tokyo Metropolitan University - produced 2 machinimas for CSR and environment acitivity of Ajinomoto corporation (the largest food company in Japan). These are published on the official channel.

We used Google Earth for making these movies. We were able to produce dynamic movies with high quality in short terms. These will become examples of the method of movie producing.

These movies are in Japansese only. Even If you cannot understand Japanese, you can enjoy beautiful sequences and musics.

Second Life workshop by 3 universities in Japan

There are works of the Second Life workshop -起想転街 (Ki-Sou-Ten-Gai)- by Tokyo Metropolitan University, Miyagi University, and a digital Hollywood university. This workshop makes use of "Misunderstanding" that occurs on the Internet in consciousness. The process of the workshop is the following.

1. Photographs in Hachioji, Akihabara, and Sendai were taken, and shared with Picasa Web Album.
2. "Urban Myth" of each towns were twitted with twitter.
3. Towns each other were produced on Second Life by using twits and photographs .

These works are different from the sceneries of actual cities because they were made based on only information on the Internet. In a word, these are imaginary and informationized cities - "i-Cities". You can see all works in in-world and youtube.

『Letter from Miyagi』


『もしも伊達政宗が宮城県知事になったら。』


『宇宙人ヲタークの宮城県侵略』


『ささかま都市』


『秋の夜長の八王子』


『ハロウィンを中途半端に楽しむ日本人』


『Defended city ~守られる街~』


『八人の王子とフラミンゴ』


『アキババスターズ！』


『海底都市八玉子市』

Exhibition @ COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

Tuvalu Visualization Project will be exhibited in NPO Tuvalu Overview's exhibit space at COP15 - United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009, Dec.07-19.



This project will be exhibited in several places in 2010. More detailed information will be notified by this blog.

Tuvalu Visualization Project (Exhibition Edition)

We had completed our exhibition @ Digital Contents Expo 2009, Miraikan, Tokyo. We did the examination screening of super-high-resolution photograph on Google Earth in 4K theater with Shuuichi Endou (Photographer, Rep. of NPO Tuvalu Overview). It will be introduced at the next chance.



and now, we had uploaded "Exhibition Edition" capturing movie. This is including "Build the future with 10000 Tuvaluan" and "Tuvalu Mapping". You can browse all contents at official website.

"Tuvalu Mapping"was Updated

We updated "Tuvalu Mapping". We arranged altitudes of Placemarks, and applied the Photo-overlay-function of Google Earth. And, more dynamic inspection became possible.

• Google Earth data (kmz)

3200 Placemarks and 400 Photo Overlays are available now.

Produced by:
Hidenori Watanave Laboratory
Faculty of System Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University
(Makiko Suzuki, Yuichi Watanabe, Hidenori Watanave)

Supported by:
NPO Tuvalu Overview and Photon, Inc.

Tuvalu Visualization Project

Download Google Earth data (kmz)

Tuvalu Visualization Project is an art project visualizing information of Tuvalu on Google Earth. This project has been executed as a joint research of NPO Tuvalu Overview and Hidenori Watanave Laboratory @ Tokyo Metropolitan University from September 2008.

This project is composed of three elements.

• Build the Future with 10,000 Tuvaluans - The supporting system for the activity of Tuvalu Overview.
• Tuvalu Mapping - 3300 GPS photographs of Tuvalu on Google Earth.
• Tuvalu on Photosynth - Examples of artwork made by using GPS photographs.

The purpose of project is to disclose actual information about People and Scenery in Tuvalu to the world.

It is said that Tuvalu is exposed to danger of going under water by sea level rising because of global warming. However, we suppose that it is important to understand not only the problem of global warming, but also the real situation of Tuvalu. The Internet is an effective tool for collecting information, but it was difficult to obtain information of the real situation of Tuvalu from the Internet.

Therefore, we produced this project to present the real situation of Tuvalu, to improve the interest in Tuvalu, and to receive feedback from all over the world.

Photosynth of Tuvalu

We uploaded Photosynth(s) of Tuvalu.







There are typical 7 synthes of Funafuti available. (plug-in is necessary)

• South End
• Coastline
• Narrowest Point
• North End
• Runway
• Scenes of Tuvalu
• Streets of Tuvalu
  

As we wrote, we took 5000 or more pictures in Tuvalu including photographs on all roads of Funafuti. We are making much more synthes.

See also: Photosynth of Nakagin Capsule Tower

3200 Photographs with GPS of Tuvalu

We uploaded 3200 Photographs with GPS of Tuvalu as the first of the result of a joint research with NPO Tuvalu OverView.

It can be viewed with Google Earth and Picasa Web Album.

• KML for Google Earth
• Web album (Sky of Tuvalu)
• Web album (Eye-level #1)
• Web album (Eye-level #2)
• Web album (Eye-level #3)

These photographs can be freely used for a non-profit-making purpose. Please contact us when you want to use it for profit.




Photographs:
Hidenori Watanave Laboratory @ Tokyo Metropolitan University
(Makiko Suzuki, Hidenori Watanave)

Supported by:
Tuvalu OverView and Photon,Inc.

and also, we are making 3D photograph oriented space of Tuvalu by using Virtual Worlds. Experimental version that uses Microsoft Photosynth are open to the public.

The last day: Eclipse in Tuvalu

Today is the last day of our reserch. We take photographs of Eclipse in Tuvalu. 85% of the sun was lacked in Tuvalu.





And also, we took HD movies of Eclipse, we will upload it soon.

A perfect rainbow appeared on the opposite side of the sun.

The 6th day in Tuvalu: Mission completed

We completed the collection of 5563 photographs with GPS route in Funafuti.

• Almost sequences of all roads
  
• Partial coastlines
• Panoramic pictures of several places
• Inside of houses
• Coastline and planting in the south end of Funafuti atoll
• Sky and surfaces of ground
  

From tuvalu2009

And also, following videos.

• Fixed camera movies from insect view of several places
• Continuous sequences from north end to south end with special camera

A special camera is this. It is possible to take movies of both right and left sceneries on the road by using this.



We will share kml data (Placemarks and Photooverlays) on August.

The 3rd day in Tuval

Yesterday, we went Funafara, south-edge of Funafuti atoll by boat. We got GPS log and pictures on the way to Funafara.

From tuvalu2009

From tuvalu2009

From tuvalu2009

We plan to take geostationary frame HD movies, coastline, detailed alley, etc. while staying for more four days.

GPS mapping of Tuvalu

From tuvalu2009

Now I'm in Tuvalu with a student of Hidenori Watanave laboratory @ Tokyo Metropolitan University and NPO Tuvalu Overview.



We are correcting a lot of pictures, and we will make thousands of placemarks and photo-overlays of Tuvalu on Google Earth, and 3D photograph-oriented space in Second Life, and supporting+communication system of the activity of Tuvalu Overview. Tempolary situation of material collection is as follows.

From tuvalu2009

From tuvalu2009

From tuvalu2009

And I uploaded test version of panoramic picture of Tuvalu. This place is the narrowest point in Tuvalu. A violent open sea faces a quiet lagoon. This is a scene that symbolizes Tuvalu on the borderline between development and native exist.


You can scroll it.

It will be open to public in September 2009.