eRENA

Electronic Arenas for Culture, Art, Performance and Entertainment

Duration
1997–2000

During an extensive research project, the »eRENA« consortium concentrated on research into new forms of cultural experience, ranging from the entertainment sector to the visual and performing arts.

The main research areas were the variegated new planes of participation, interaction, accessibility and social involvement opened up by online worlds. The outcomes of »eRENA« include new techniques for individual and mass participation in producing and shaping the content of virtual arenas; new ways of structuring electronic arenas so as to afford different modes of interaction, navigation and communication in different virtual spaces or at different stages of an event; powerful new techniques for embodying humans and agents in electronic arenas; mechanisms to support dynamic crowd aggregations, new ways for groups and individuals to interact with shared and projected displays and technical support for building structured mixed realities out of boundaries between real and virtual space. 

The following projects were among those developed as part of the eRENA research program at the ZKM | Institute for Visual Media:

· Blast Theory: »Desert Rain« [1999]
· Michael Hoch: »Responsive Body Tracking« [2000]
· Ken Feingold: »Séance Box No. 1« [1998-99]
· Bill Seaman, Gideon May: »The World Generator/ The Engine of Desire« [1996-97]

Contributors
Partners

Partner-Organisationen:

· ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (DE)
· University of Nottingham (UK)
· KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology (S)
· GMD, National Research Center for Information Technology (D)
· Illuminations Television (UK)
· MIRALab, Univerität Genf (CH)
· British Telecom, Adastral Park (UK)
· EPFL, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (CH)

Sponsors

EU-Förderprogramm: ESPRIT-Förderprogramm für Informationstechnologie