Dramaturgy

lifeClipper3 has an interactive, game-like, non-linear structure. The visitor is represented as a real-time in-situ avatar (the extended visitor) and forms part of the game-world, which is composed of several types of elements and players: the terrain, the cosmos, climates, and creatures. The visitor can interact with the surroundings by changing position, direction of view and breathing behaviour.

The game-world is built from the bottom-up out of many components embedded in different systems. The three systems implemented in lifeClipper3 are: The location-sensitive system (fixed system); the iterative climate circle (periodic system); and the emergent ecosystem (chaotic system). Combinations of these generate a variety of possible outcomes and unpredictable, life-like experiences.

Since the visitors explore the space by walking through it and the technical equipment captures their position and direction of view, the spatial reference system offers the most obvious field for mise-en-scène and user interaction. This system allows us to make easily recognisable references to the real environment and to subdivide the park into four areas, each with unique characteristics.

The introduction of an overlaid virtual climate system with a cyclic iterative rhythm undermines the usual notion of time. It is subdivided into five consecutive related climate types and includes the emergence and disappearance of the third system.

The elements of the third system, the emergent ecosystem, have parametric, real-time controllable, as well as randomly-generated, properties and behaviour patterns. The virtual creatures (flora and fauna) have defined interactions, both amongst themselves and towards the visitor (avatar). Several generative algorithms are introduced:

• Swarms with references to the terrain and to the visitor and with built-in breeding functions.
• L-Systems for parametric, real-time plant growth.
• Voronoi-Systems for parametric, real-time treatment of the ground and other planes.