Hemisphere(s)

Hemisphere(s) is a proposed fully immersive spherical environment that interacts with its participants via 3D imagery and sound based on a “consciousness” formed by past memories. Only one Hemisphere actually exists; the other is a mirror image.

Inside the Hemisphere(s) installation, participants are seen in both infrared and visible light by multiple cameras from different viewpoints. The computers produce imagery based on models created from both present and past stimuli from the cameras. The computer render imagery for multiple projectors to produce overlapping images on the holographic surface from various directions, enabling the perception of 3D images of present and past participants. An analogous process produces sound based on input from a microphone array.

Stray diffracted light diffracted from the surface of the hemisphere is seen by the participants as ever-changing colorful abstract patterns on the surface of the sphere.

These patterns will both appear to be evidence of Hemisphere(s)' "thought" and will provide some randomness in the feedback to the system.

The role of "consciousness" is played by a separate Master computer, which calls upon various members of the array of sensory computers to remember past events and can transfer these events from one array member to the other. The Master is connected to the Internet, where anyone can try to influence its decisions without having any idea what the real effects are (since they only get a 2D web cam view). This can be considered analogous to prayer.

The system is comprised of loosely connected individual subsystems, some of which exist in the computer and others in the input/output loop, constrained by physical, perceptual and engineering limitations. The system is shaped by and shapes its environment. The system changes state in an unpredictable manner. The participants will presumably do the same.

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