fips
With computerized virtual worlds, we can experiment with spacetime structures, effecting alternate realities. fips is a quick guided tour through a particular experiment: the explicit discretization of experience. Against the trend towards greater continuity of experience in virtual worlds (higher screen resolutions, greater frame rates), fips slows things down and pulls things apart to get a closer look at discrete structures. The discrete elements, or quantal units, of fips are the frame, the pixel, and the sound bit.
Stills
Download
Provided are two movie formats for fips: QuickTime MOV and Windows AVI.
QuickTime MOV
Requires
QuickTime 5
>>
for playback. The movie has a stereo audio track, so speakers are recommended.
A subwoofer is a definite plus.
\/
fips_256x192.mov.sit
(13.7MB) <- mac
\/
fips_256x192.mov.zip
(14.5MB) <- win
After downloading, unzip or unstuff if necessary, then double-click on
fips_256x192.mov.
Windows AVI
\/
fips_256x192.avi.zip
(12.2MB)
Influences
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality. Whitehead sets forth his cosmology of a universe in a continual process of becoming. He suspects an oscillatory, or vibratory, mechanism. It is in these vibrations that the new transcends the given.
David Bohm, The Undivided Universe. Bohm attempts to ground quantum mechanics with an ontological basis. Citing Whitehead as an influence, Bohm proposes that the universe is in a continual state of folding and unfolding. Although I find his interpretation of quantum physics appealing, it seems other interpretations have taken precedence in the minds of many physicists. [ Peter Krauss sends a link to more info on David Bohm >> ]
Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Deleuze uses Henri Bergson's conception of a vibratory universe as a starting point to discuss cinema. It's a rich framework, as it allows Deleuze to get outside the cinematic frame without resorting to linguistic or psychological interpretations of cinema.
I find it interesting to note that all three of these texts also share another principal idea in commmon: that the universe is fundamentally an interconnected, indivisible whole (Whitehead's Creativity/God, Bohm's insistence on nonlocality, Bergson/Deleuze's Open/duration).
Credits
- Id Software >> -> Quake II
- Uwe Girlich >> -> Little Movie Processing Center
- bigOnes >> -> map vigO's Courtyard
Relata
Select Parks >> maintains a list of experiments with game engines. Click on the [ games development ] link.
Road
Part of the "Soft Cinema" film program at the Danish Film Institute, May 2003.