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Be Now Here is an installation about landscape and public
places. Visitors gain a strong sense of place by wearing 3-D glasses
and stepping into an immersive virtual environment. The imagery
is of public plazas on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's list of
In Danger places - Jerusalem, Dubrovnik, Timbuktu, and Angkor,
Cambodia – places both exotic and disturbing. The style is
ambient, as if the imagery is live.
For production, a unique recording system was built consisting of
two 35mm motion-picture cameras (for 3D, one for each eye) mounted
on a rotating tripod. The installation consists of an input pedestal
for interactively choosing place and time, a stereoscopic projection
screen, four-channel audio, and a 16-foot rotating floor on which
the viewers stand.
Be Now Here is an extension of several media trajectories.
One is of enhanced cinematic representation, such as the Imax-sized
projections of the Lumiere brothers in 1900 and the 3-screen triptychs
of Abel Gance’s Napoleon in 1927. Another is of non-narrative
cultural activism, such as the films of Godfrey Reggio and Tony
Gatlif. But Be Now Here also points forward: as a simulation
of what net cinema can be, it is both a regard and a provocation.
In 2008, a novel 3-screen version of Be Now Here was produced.
See also:
"Two
Unusual Projection Spaces"
Presence journal, Special Issue on Projection, MIT Press, 14.5,
October 2005.
Interactive
Be Now Here
by Romy Achituv (IDOnline.com Silver Award Winner), 2000
"Field Recording Techniques
for Virtual Reality Applications"
VSMM, Gifu, Japan, 1998
"What’s Wrong with
this Picture: Presence and Abstraction in the Age of Cyberspace"
"Consciousness Reframed" Proceedings, Wales, 1997
"Art ("and" or
‘versus’) Technology: Some Personal Observations"
Art@Science, Christa Sommerer, editor, Vienna and NY: Springer
Press, 1997
"A 3D Moviemap and a 3D Panorama"
SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 3012, San Jose, 1997
Be Now Here Trip Reports
Interval Research Corporation, 1995
Exhibitions
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, 2003
ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2002 - 2003
San Francisco Film Festival (with SF MOMA), 2001
Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, 1998 -1999
Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands, 1998
Art at the Anchorage, New York, 1997
Siggraph, New Orleans, 1996
Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 1995 - 1996
Credits
BE NOW HERE
Produced by
Interval Research Corporation, Palo Alto
with the cooperation of
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris
and
The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC
Concept and Direction
Michael Naimark
Principal Collaborators
Installation: Bernie Lubell, San Francisco
Technology: Christoph Dohrmann, Köln
Software: Wayne Burdick, Interval Research
Video: Charles "Bud" Lassiter
3D Projection: Pierre St. Hilaire, Interval Research
Audio: Jim McKee, Earwax Productions, San Francisco
Graphics: Amee Evans, Interval Research
Installation: Joe Ansel, Ansel Associates, Mill Valley
Additional Collaborators
Interval Research: Harlan Baker, Aviv Bergman, Paul Debevec, Lee
Felsenstein, David Gessel, Noël Hirst, Carol Moran, Lauren
Page, Sally Nathan Rosenthal, Steve Saunders, Yoav Shoham, Richard
Shoup, Rachel Strickland, Jacob Tuft, Bill Verplank, Leo Villareal,
Scott Wallters, John Woodfill, Ramin Zabih
Camera: Richard Hollander, Video Image, Los Angeles
Projection: Paul Wait, Realistech Solutions, Atascadero
Hardware: Mark Pauline, Survival Research Labs, San Francisco
Camera Rental: Cine Rent West, San Francisco
Film Processing: United Studios of Israel, Tel Aviv; Laboratoire
Telcipro, Paris; Monaco Labs, San Francisco
60 fps Film Transfer: Pacific Ocean Post, Santa Monica
Sync Box by Cinematography Electronics
Cameras by Arriflex
Lenses by Zeiss
Locations:
Giancarlo Riccio, Deputy Director, World Heritage Centre, UNESCO,
Paris
Peter Stott, Tufts University, Medford, MA, and UNESCO, Paris
Bernard Q. Nietschmann, U.C. Berkeley, and National Geographic Society,
Wash., DC
Jerusalem
Production Assistance:
- Tulia Galon, Tel Aviv
- Shlomo Davidian, Jerusalem
Yishay Mor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Jeff Rosenschein, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Dubrovnik
Production Assistance:
- Ivo Pendo, Dubrovnik
Dubravka Zyrko, Institute for Renewal of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Berta Dragicevic, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik
Srecko Krzic, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik
Pave Zupan-Ruskovic, Atlas Travel, Dubrovnik
Enver Sehovic, University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Timbuktu
Production Assistance:
- Gilles Tassé, Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories, Canada
- Sagaidou Haidara, Bamako
- Chérif Haidara, Sahel Tours Mali, Timbuktu
Cheicknè Sylla, World Education Organization, Bamako
RoseAnn Watson, World Education Organization, Bamako
Nancy Devine, World Education Organization, Bamako
Mary Jo Arnoldi, Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, Washington,
DC
Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
Angkor
Production Assistance:
- Tra You, Siem Reap
Chrouk Kim Eak, UNESCO, Siem Reap
Than Vuth, UNDP, Siem Reap
Meach Sam Ell, UNDP, Siem Reap
David Salter, UNDP, Siem Reap
Rich Geier, UNDP, Siem Reap
James Clarkson, Independent Geographer, Bangkok
San Francisco
Production Assistance:
- Chris Seguine, San Francisco, Interval Research
With acknowledgments to Baba Ram Dass
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