The Virtual Reality Art Installation Endocytosis: Evolving from a Flat Land into a Three-Dimensional World

Abstract

Virtual reality systems are an ideal platform for exploring spatial effects because of their ability to combine stereo imaging techniques and interactive real-time graphics. They allow the creation of artworks that, on the one hand, exhibit a dynamic organization of the environment’s spatial depth and, on the other, create an interaction with the stereoscopic optic flow. In this article, the author discusses the advantages of horizontal stereoscopic displays and describes how she has used the Responsive Workbench to display the evolution of a flat land into a three-dimensional world in her artwork Endocytosis. She uses endocytosis—a fundamental cellular trafficking process that moves material into the intracellular space—as a metaphor for this evolutionary process.