The Forest

Tamás Waliczky - Sebastian Egner - Jeffrey Shaw: The Forest, 1993, demo

After completing the computer animated version of The Forest, Waliczky started working on a second interactive version of The Forest in collaboration with Jeffrey Shaw and Sebastian Egner. Here, the animation becomes part of an interactive installation based on a flight simulator with a seat and a large screen monitor on the surface. A joystick mounted in the armrest of the seat allows the viewer to control the movement of the simulator while simultaneously moving through the forest on the screen in front of him. The flight simulator reacts accordingly, so that changes in speed or direction are experienced as a physical sensation. For this version, Sebastian Egner, who wrote the software and designed the platform's control system, also designed a new way of building the visual image - for technical reasons, it was not practical to use the previous solution. In the new version of the work, the drawings of the trees are not mounted on transparent cylinders, but are randomly arranged inside a large cube in which the camera is free to move in the direction chosen by the viewer. Theoretically, when the camera reaches one side of the cube, it moves to a new box of the same type with exactly the same trees; in reality, however, it re-enters the same cube from the opposite side. So this space also seems infinite.

The flight simulator version of "The Forest" is very different from other flight simulator works. It does not have a pre-recorded, linear structure like the technically similar installations in various amusement parks. It is not a computer game: there is no goal to be achieved (for example, an airport waiting to be landed or an enemy to be destroyed). Using the flight simulator version of "The Forest" is a meditative experience.

"THE FOREST" 1993

Interactive flight simulation plattform application, the interactive version of "DER WALD".

Common work of
Tamás Waliczky
Sebastian Egner
Jeffrey Shaw

Produced by Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe

Hardware assistance: M. Hauffen, Dr. R. Gruber, H. Bruckner, W. Wentzel, V. Kuchelmeister.

"Shepard instrument" adapted by P. Dutilleux

Reality Engine provided by Silicon Graphics, Karlsruhe

Copyright © 1993 Tamás Waliczky, Sebastian Egner, Jeffrey Shaw

"The Forest" (interactive cd-rom version), 1995

In the CD-rom version of "Forest", Waliczky uses the structure of the flight simulator interactive version, with only a few modifications dictated by the technical requirements of the medium. One significant modification is a further reduction in the number of colours, which minimises the amount of information and thus allows for higher projection speeds; for Waliczky, the size of the image format and smooth movement were more important than the wide spectrum of tonal shades. Instead of the grey tones of the original version, which give the impression of a photograph, he uses pure white and black, giving the new animation a distinctly graphic effect. The result is a kind of interactive illustration of the original animation, but with modifications it becomes an artwork in its own right.

Animation: Tamás Waliczky

Design: Tamás Waliczky, Anna Szepesi

Interface design: Holger Jost, Volker Kuchelmeister

Cd-rom adaptation of the work: Volker Kuchelmeister

Assisted by: Sylvia Molina Muro

Produced by ZKM, Karlsruhe

Copyright © 1995 Tamás Waliczky