Prof. Elke Reinhuber

Elke Reinhuber is imagining a life on the Holodeck, where we can simply explorealternative realities. When immersed herself for the first time in the panoramic photographs she had prepared for a 360° environment, she knew that the heydays of flat screens and static photographs on the wall were gone forever – photography was finally not longer constricted by the limitations of the frame. In her work she explores different modes of presentation and strategies of storytelling to emphasise the parallel existence of multiple truths of the here and now. In regard of the content, her interests concentrate currently on the correlation between decisions and emotions, while exploring different strategies of visualisation and presentation. Reinhuber researches and teaches at the School of Art, Design and Media, NTU Singapore and just completed her first immersive S3D video installation. She holds a PhD from UNSW Art and Design, Sydney and has been invited to speak at international conferences and to exhibit her work in renown institutions such as V&A Digital Futures, London, GRID Biennial Photofestival Amsterdam, Fotomuseum Winterthur or ZKM Karlsruhe.

Synopsis

Be the centre of the universe – strategies and concepts to experience immersive media.

The 360° video »Secret Detours« served as an immediate approach to digitally preserve a Chinese garden in Singapore. Currently, my collaborators Benjamin Seide, Ross Wiliams and myself have developed a range of different versions in order to explore the screening possibilities and have adjusted both, the visual composition and the sound design accordingly.

»Secret Detours« was captured in a Chinese garden in Singapore, which opened in 1956 – quite old for the 53-year-old city-state. The garden is undergoing massive redevelopment, several old trees have been cut down, bridges and pavilions have been removed. Since it was important to act quickly, the garden was filmed as a spherical 360° video, not only for artistic but also for conservation purposes. Four dancers acted out a choreography by Susan Sentler to represent the cardinal directions of Chinese mythology, after which the garden was initially conceived. Although the visualisation gives an impression of being inside the garden, it is still a very static experience. Therefore we are currently working on a room scale model for VR that makes the garden accessible in virtual space, based on the floor plan and the photogrammetric recording of details.

Considering the respective iterations, the perception of the work and with it the experience differs hugely, depending on the particular presentation technique: whether the work is collectively viewed in a hemispherical dome, a cylindrical panorama, on a panoramic video wall, or with a range of different VR headsets.

As the technology of spherical recording and presentation is still very much in flux, due to the rapid developments and along with peculiar improvements by the industry. There are a number of aspects to further explore, in particular the connection of virtual representations in the real environment through mixed reality.