Transmodalities Trumbo, J. 1996. A Conceptual Approach to the Creation of Navigable Space in Multimedia Design, Interactions of ACM, July/August, ACM Press, New York, pp. 27–34. Varela, F. 1998. Construction du réel et affect: expéience du sujet, performances et narrations, In: Constructivisme et constructionisme social, E. Goldbeter-Merinfeld (Ed.), Bruxelles, De Boeack Université, pp.277–282.
Dante Tanzi works at L.I.M. (Musical Informatics Laboratory), Computer Science Department, Milan University, under the scientific direction of G. Haus.
The Space of an Audiovisual Installation within a Real and a Virtual Environment Dimitrios Charitos and Coti K Introduction This paper attempts to address the issue of the spatial experience in an audiovisual installation and particularly focuses on the issue of spatialising music. It documents the beginnings of an ongoing investigation into how such a spatialisation can be experienced in real and virtual space. This investigation was based on two audio-visual installations (‘Lego Kit Box’ and ‘Lego-Submersion v1.0’) created by the two authors, the former in real space and the latter in a virtual environment. An installation (Archer et al, 1996, p. 5) is a term used for describing ‘a kind of art making which rejects concentration on one subject in favour of consideration of the relationships between a number of elements or of the interaction between things and their contexts.’ The emergence of video art and more recently of interactive and multimedia art has ‘advanced the understanding of how the viewing of an art work progresses from the metaphysical, or psychological act, toward a perceptual understanding complete with physical experience and comprehension.’ (Huffman, 1996, p. 201) In the 1950s, John Cage had rejected the conventional conception of composition in music, as an internal relation of parts within a coherent musical whole. Instead he practised music-making, writing and installation as a process more akin to the chance encounters and stimuli that impinge upon us in everyday life (Archer et al, 1996, p. 26). His understanding of composition was more directed towards an idea of choosing randomly from among a set of possible options. This could be seen as ‘a shift from art as object to art as process, from art as a “thing” to be addressed, to art as something which occurs in the encounter between the onlooker and a set of stimuli.’ Underlying the issue of spatialising music is the relationship between sound and architecture. ‘Architecture is the art of design in space; music is the art of design in time… the properties of space and time are inseparable…. Without time and space matter is inconceivable. Space gives form and proportion; time supplies it with life and measure.’ (Martin, 1994, pp. 8–9) However, our experience of space cannot be isolated from movement and time. Although environments which are the result of architectural design
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