The Walker Sculpture Garden, 1998
The Walker Sculpture Garden is an interactive map run through Cosmo Player that provides a virtual reality tour through the VRML Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Viewers move through garden pathways where they will encounter icons that leads them to further information and images of the sculptures in the garden. The project was designed to be an exploration of the possibilities of Web-based 3D environments.
This project seems to mirror many of the function of Google Earth that we utilized for a our final alternative mapping project. The site presents a digital space mapped out to represent an actual environment in nature. As we added icons or small tacks into our Google Earth map, the Walker Sculpture Garden makes use of the above icons to identify for users areas of interest that can be explored more thoroughly. Like the placemarks of Google Earth, these icons can be clicked on to bring up information in the form of text that describe the sculptures as well pictures and other media that allow viewer to interact and engage with the visual aspects of the pieces.
This project seems like an interesting and difficult endeavor due to the three dimensional nature of sculptures. It is one thing to provide what could almost be considered a travel brochure of campus through a particular lens definied by each student in our alternative maps - we were not attempting to engage viewers in the actual space of our map, but instead provide a mental and intellectual journey through a particular series of interconnected locations. Sculpture is obviously three-dimensional in nature, so to only display photos or revolving images of the pieces does not provide an accurate experience of the work. The online project also seems counter-intuitive to the physical reality of a sculpture garden. The sculpture gardens I have visited have been engaging and worthwhile for the full sensual experience they provided - there was sights, sounds and smells produced by the wildlife, but there was also the spacial dimension of moving in and around the sculptures in a physical environment that allowed me to fully immerse myself in their presence. Viewing these works online in what might be called a glorified and complicated slide show does not do justice to the true experience such works have the potential to convey.
This project seems to mirror many of the function of Google Earth that we utilized for a our final alternative mapping project. The site presents a digital space mapped out to represent an actual environment in nature. As we added icons or small tacks into our Google Earth map, the Walker Sculpture Garden makes use of the above icons to identify for users areas of interest that can be explored more thoroughly. Like the placemarks of Google Earth, these icons can be clicked on to bring up information in the form of text that describe the sculptures as well pictures and other media that allow viewer to interact and engage with the visual aspects of the pieces.
This project seems like an interesting and difficult endeavor due to the three dimensional nature of sculptures. It is one thing to provide what could almost be considered a travel brochure of campus through a particular lens definied by each student in our alternative maps - we were not attempting to engage viewers in the actual space of our map, but instead provide a mental and intellectual journey through a particular series of interconnected locations. Sculpture is obviously three-dimensional in nature, so to only display photos or revolving images of the pieces does not provide an accurate experience of the work. The online project also seems counter-intuitive to the physical reality of a sculpture garden. The sculpture gardens I have visited have been engaging and worthwhile for the full sensual experience they provided - there was sights, sounds and smells produced by the wildlife, but there was also the spacial dimension of moving in and around the sculptures in a physical environment that allowed me to fully immerse myself in their presence. Viewing these works online in what might be called a glorified and complicated slide show does not do justice to the true experience such works have the potential to convey.
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