MOOve Performance where MOOve is a Multi-User Object-Orientated Virtual Environment.

A text-based interactive on-line work. "The Word:The Wall" operates within random, temporal and literary constructs. The participants have built a specific environment to heighten the performative aspect of virtual interactions. The standard Moove architecture has been redesigned and reprogrammed to utilise the arbitrariness of disrupted and disruptive narrative. In the room 'The Word', the wall is for writing on and the room repeats the messages in random sequences. Bots instruct newcomers and play the role of hosts. Clouds and magic carpets fly people about. The performers write on the wall, talk to each other and the room 'The Word' 'speaks' their writings. Quotes from conversations get written on the wall as do responses to previous conversations which the room reiterates. Thoughts and ideas swing about. Code gets rewritten on the fly to accommodate new needs or ideas generated from the circumstance. The three characters are as stolid and well-formed, as they are changeable and sporadic. Contradictions are allowed for in an environment where one can do and be many things in the one moment.

Performance Duration: 2/3 hours

Performers: Ann Morrison, Zina Kaye, Anna Cicognani, Honor Hagar

Virtual Characters: anmore, anti, creeper, isoma

with Real Life Assistance and Introduction to Audience by Kathy Cleland (Virtual character - spectra).

The MOOve environment has been long in development at Key Virtual Campus, Faculty of Architecture and Design, University of Sydney and was exhibited at Siggraph '97 by it's initial instigator Anna Cicognani.This performance has been in general development since April '97 and was specifically articulated in July '97. "The Word:The Wall" operated as an adjunct event to CODE RED an international conference on strategic interventions into the media, power, art and communication technologies held at The Performance Space, Sydney.

In this report I will discuss both the development and design of a Performance Space and the development and design of a performance within a MOOve

The project and the design of the Performance Space did not start from one fixed idea that was developed and seen through to the end. The project and the design evolved from an idea that wanted to work with the rapid changes possible within designing a virtual environment, where in a sense anything (or many other things) are possible. A gallery space may have moveable walls. A virtual space has moveable everything, and the potential is there to build anything one can think up, within the parameters of object-orientated programming (or within the limitations of one's teams programming expertise). Transformations transpire in rapid succession in this environment. There is no end to the process of continual adaptations and revisions that may occur. The end occurs when the 'inhabitants' no longer venture there, and hence no longer use and adapt the environment.

The resultant design and performance involved a journey through the individual spaces … a revelling in the other space that is virtual space. Each space had it's own story, it's own unique design process. In art reverential terms each space was an installation: a complete and whole environment that on entering affects its audience experientially. In this report I will discuss all spaces but will primarily focus on one of those spaces, The Word, with it's particular emphasis on both collaboration and The Wall. In a sense, all changes that occurred to the other spaces involved in the design, adapted and assimilated aspects of this collaborative design process, and vice versa. The processes of evolution of all spaces became intertwined and inseperable.

The 'cycle' involved in the design process is one of PROPOSE, USE, REVISE, USE, REVISE, USE. That is, a proposal for a possible working design is formulated, developed and instigated. Often this process is collaborative with much discussion both about the actual design and what it could be. Then whilst generating the design, technical details reinstitute a series of further discussions and pooling of resources and knowledge. The collaborators then work within and USE the design. They begin to work through the ideas they have designed the space for. Often difficulties arise, or unforseen needs or tangents of other possibilities develop at this stage through the USE of the space. The design is then Revised to incorporate these needs/tangents. The Revised design is then Used and the process continues as other needs and ideas for other possibilities arise. At certain and undetermined points or junctures within this process other new proposals get developed and included in this cycle. These new proposals can originate in a variety of ways. They may develop from the introduction of new people with differing needs and questions. They may develop from the genesis of new ideas from one or all participant’s reflection on the experience within the environment. Or they may generate from external experiences that alter perceptions of what is possible, a conference debating the nature of virtual space, reading, conversations, memories, looking over previous work. Then again they may develop over time from an increased understanding and a refinement of the questioning process between the collaborators. These new proposals cause a further renewal within the Use, revise, use, revise, propose, use, revise cycle. Unlike 'real life' where new developments need to be, as it were, set in wood and concrete, (and jack-hammered away to allow other changes), such a fluid environment allows recycling and rewording of the programming to totally reorder the order. This rewriting designs anew the nature of the objects and the structures contained within the environment/s, the environment itself, and the functions of all of these. The changes occurring in rapid succession with an infinite vista of ‘possibility’ make this a challenging, exciting, compulsive and highly creative environment to design within. The scope appears infinite.

1a. Initial Specifications:

 The term the 'Performance Space' will be used throughout this report as a metaphor to define the 'series of spaces' that comprise the performative environment that the work "TheWord:The Wall" eventually, and after many changes, takes place from.

Initially the first design was a dome-shaped room called the auditorium - a theatrical space to gather the performers together in, and to project the performance out in to the world from. The original ‘plan’ was to design a 'stage' and to in a sense' broadcast/project' from the 'stage' in the 'auditorium' onto a live audience in virtual space, and also in real space via data projector in an exhibition venue. The concept behind the initial design then, was to develop an environment that would extend and facilitate the arbitrariness and anarchic behaviour of the performers within a MOOve environment and to present this within the public arena. To present otherwise ‘private’, even secret lives and activities, and to design a space that would not only reveal, but also assist to develop the creativity and quirkiness of the characters and their activities.

As the work progressed the need for a projective ‘auditorium space’ declined, and the concept of the text itself as the initiator of space superseded, replaced and concocted development in other directions, determining different design outcomes, which I will discuss throughout the report.

Initially the activities are to formalise and extend what had already been occurring with the collaborators who had been meeting in an unplanned and spontaneous manner in this environment for many months. The activities include designing new spaces, problem solving possibilities and pooling resources, challenging each other technically, conceptually and creatively; as well as collaborating on notions of design and notions of performance possible from a MOOve space. These activities are then shaped and focused, both by the director and collaboratively, in order to design a performance space, and a performance, that writes the story (and extends the narrative) of the process and the products that these activities have devolved.

The Performance Space is to function as the virtual site for all collaboration and brainstorming of ideas to occur, and as the physical record of the progress of that collaboration. That is the performance space becomes what has been discussed and agreed upon. It is built as a direct result of that activity. It then shapes further possible activity by the nature of its ‘restrictions’ and ‘facilitations’, by what it prohibits and by what it readily allows, and by what it has been established it allows. By becoming a specific shape that houses the physical manifestations of a series of conversations, the site grows upon itself, establishes itself, and by its fast developing history determines what it can further become.

The space functions then as the holder of the history of agreements. The objects within the space function to contain this record. The recorder records conversations. The initial blackboard records the writing sessions. The function of the initial series of writings (a few lines from each, by a favourite author) is to find the common ground for discussion and to set a theme and a tone, a focus (and a sub-text) for establishing the pivotal conversations that will develop the performance activity. These functions extend as the design progresses.

1b. Initial Design:

The initial design comprises a large dome-shaped room (an auditorium), with an exit to an anteroom, that is to house various conversational robots. Inside the auditorium there is a blackboard for writing on, a recorder that records all conversations, an echoer to assist the individual programmers when working solo. There is also an exit to anmore’s office, where programming tutorial experiments such as magic carpets and boxes of buns lie.

Generic Classroom @sketch $classroom called The Auditorium (audi, au) with generic exits (ante) anteroom and (out) anmore's office.

A blackboard

Tape recorder and tape, COG, echoer.

The Auditorium is a large dome shaped echoing space. There is a blackboard centre stage, a tape recorder (recording), Cog (a conversational bot) (listening), an echoer (on), an exit (ante) to anteroom and an exit (out) to anmore's office.

B. USE – REVISE

1a. Revised Specifications:

On use and with much revision of the space in terms of function, design (and performance) the initial metaphors of Auditorium and projective space did not aptly apply to the evolving process. Audi implied the aural sense, which is not a part of this environment. To project outwards required the more formal establishment of ‘things’ to be projecting out both into and with. These metaphors unravelled to disclose that the three participants held a solid common commitment and preoccupation with text and language (both programming and literary). The revised design included a series of spaces built upon early collaborative experiences discovering and extending these commonalities. The initial space rapidly began to deal with and adapted to deal more with text and disruptive narrative. The design altered to allow language to take the primary place.

The blackboard was recycled and the writing environment became a sketchpad, named the wall. The Wall held within it the notion of a graffiti wall, holding short punchy sayings: sayings that stay in the mind from experiences, or readings or conversations. The Wall became the focal point for activity. Discussions would occur within The Performance Space (now named The Word, to emphasise that this was the medium we were primarily dealing with) and various short extracts from those conversations would be written on The Wall (by all and any of the three characters). The Performance Space, The Word was redesigned to become a ‘lively room’, capable of holding messages to be triggered on certain actions (like entering). These messages comprised an atmosphere that could be turned on and off, and set to run on at certain time intervals. The Wall was then programmed to have its written text automatically updated into the room messages. At the final count there were over 300 messages that would randomly play back when the atmosphere was on and somebody (anybody) entered the room, The Word. The entrance to The Word was named text. The entire emphasis focused on language.

There are now four separate spaces that are included within the ‘term’ The Performance Space.

Two other spaces were converted to lively rooms with themes: Creeper’s Lake held the theme of time, Anti-room held the theme of paranoia and psychoanalysis. Both contained room messages. The fourth room is designed as the introductory room,(the foyer) ‘anmore’s office’, and contained various pieces of programming and a cloud to fly around the MOOve in (also a ‘lively room’ and a generic tardis).

The activities to take place within The Performance Space built into a rehearsed and loosely scripted text for the performance. They include interaction with MOOve objects, navigation within and between the four environments, interaction with the room messages and interaction between the participants. (I will detail the script and actual performance in Part Two.)

The three characters meet at specified times and their activities have refined and focused. These include discussions and writing. The three characters write ‘sayings’, or copy and paste excerpts from actual conversation in the MOOve on The Wall. They redesign entrances and exits between their spaces. They continually redesign their rooms. Objects are moved to and fro between rooms. Room messages are continually updated. The inhabitants continually discuss and revise and rehearse the developing performance plot, entering and ‘performing’ in each space. Adapting and designing the parameters of the spaces and the contained objects to incorporate the new possibilities that arise with each session. Each spends time on their own working in and adapting their own spaces, and then using and revising the adaptations by ‘road-testing’ on each other in meetings. USE - REVISE - USE - REVISE, other proposals arise, USE – REVISE.

The Performance Space is to function as the site for a narrative of sorts, a journey between spaces, with mapped destinations and loosely constructed topics of conversations, with rooms that randomly intervene with prescribed text. Each of the four spaces within The Performance Space houses it’s own theme and it’s own activity plan. The Performance Space has become a series of spaces. As developed in the initial plan the developed themes and objects within each room function to contain and shape the possible experience of the participants and the audience. The history of the development is present within the room messages, which function as the sub-plot in a series of developed and developing plots. The random element functions to keep alive the spontaneity ‘usually’ present within MOOve encounters

1b. Revised Design:

There are now four revised rooms. The Auditorium (now The Word), Anti-room, Creeper’s Lake, and Anmore’s Office. There is an addition of a navigation tool, a flying tardis named Wafting Clouds.

The revised Auditorium becomes THE Word, (generic lively room) with a Wall for writing on, 2 clocks, and 300 room messages set to randomly appear. There is also a telephone and Cog, a conversational robot. Exits include anti (to anti room) and stairs (to Creeper’s Lake), and out (to anmore’s).

Everything begins again!

The Auditorium is recycled.

The room The Word is created, initially as a generic room, then as a @sketch $classroom, then as a generic tardis and lively room to enable a room that talks!

Cog remains, as does echoer.

Tele (a telephone has been developed and is part of the furniture - good for leaving quick communication messages).

Tape and recorder are still present but renamed to 'the walls have ears'.

A sketchpad named The Wall has replaced the initial blackboard.

There are two clocks upon other walls

A generic flying tardis and lively room called wafting clouds has been created

Exits include: [out] to Anmore's Office, [tunnel] to anti-room, [stairs] to Creeper's Lake, [float] to wafting clouds

Three other rooms get further developed:

Anti-room is a lively room that houses room messages that interrogate inhabitants. There is a phone (batphone), a seat (red futon), an echoer (echo&thebunnymen) , a lunch box (a flying machine), and a bouncing ball (james bond's balls). Gossip is a conversational robot. Exits include tunnel to The Word.

anti-room

a hidden room joined to the main arena. where plans are made.

Exits include: [out] to Office Area, [tunnel] to The Word

You ( :]) are here. anti (sleeping) is looking like a head on the floor.

You spy red futon, batphone [On Hook], gossip, lunchbox, echo&thebunnymen, box and james

bond's balls

Creeper’s Lake is a lively room with room messages primarily in the form of a talking clock and centering on TIME. There is furniture, calendars, tarot readers (Carrot Reader) and much more.

Creeper's Lake

Hic sunt leones.

This is the edge to the unknown.

The talking TIM is dictating time.

No transgression is allowed.

Shall you heart beat guide you in rhythm.

Exits include: [offices] to Office Area, [studio] to Creeper's PhD Design Studio, [staff] to Staff Rooms, [sneeps] to Sneep's Room, [live] to Alive!, [stairs] to The Word, [d] to mine

You ( :]) are standing here. Creeper (sleeping) is hanging in here.

You see slate, Creeper's Phone [On Hook], ghost, Carrot Reader, mixer, TIM, the calendar, and Weather (sleeping) here.

The furniture here is: floor, a sofa and a lemon.

You feel something cold around you.

Anmore's Office is the entrance foyer and serves as the introductory area, housing some basic programmed objects that are designed to give a fundamental understanding of the nature of the MOOve environment to the audience.

Anmore's Office

A large light spacious area with long windows. The gutteral cries of kurrawongs split the air.

Exits include: [Offices] to Office Area, [students] to Student Rooms, [text] to The Word

You ( :]) are here.

You see hear (recording), the record of hear, new and very long lounge, Box of Buns, anmore's help for newbies, magic polishing cloth, and echoer here.

anmore rolls, twists and turns in.

Wafting Clouds, a flying machine and lively room that houses a bouncing fireball and room messages on the themes of flying and floating and weightlessness. Used as the navigation tool between rooms in the MOOve.

A Flying Generic Tardis and Lively Room (with room messages)

you enter wafting clouds.

wafting clouds

You have reached nirvarna! Inside the softiest cloud, you float around on soft pieces of wafty white floaty stuff, you lie back, you feel weightless. To leave type out.

You ( :]) are here.

You see fireball here.

the light radiated through the fluffiness ... it came raining down

floating

The Design Process for The Performance space was an interesting one and evolved in unpredictable ways. The space that comprises a MOOve motivated the instigation of a navigational journey in order to communicate the nature of that space. The physicality of that space is too readily dismissed and too difficult to reveal without including the navigational element. The design process furthered the participants understanding of the nature of that virtual space and this heightened awareness led to formulating ever more designs. The amount of time spent within such an environment escalates rapidly with conversation and tasks mounting. The creative process is a compulsive, seductive and time-consuming one within a MOOve. The environment allows for multi-tasking and continual and rapid changes to be built upon, and built upon. Sporadic real life meetings in combination with frequent moo meetings became the most efficient mode for activity. Often discussions in real life were most useful for instigating proposals and proved particularly productive for teaching new skills between the three characters.

The spaces themselves evolved to incorporate the concerns of both the individuals involved and the group; an agreeable outcome.

Refinement of the design of the spaces and incorporating a time element into the features would be considerations for further design work with this project. It is difficult to predict the design elements as they generally stem from actual activity. In a sense it is easier to redesign the performance and allow those needs to dictate the design adaptations, beginning with required functions and activity. To look from the audience eye view into the space could prove to be a useful tool in shaping further design.