Pop EVENT Siggraph 97, Los Angeles

Protocoll of a Live-Chat

Zooming in on Avatars

In this edited transscript of an on-line chat Pop~Tarts Huffman and Jahmann discuss Siggraph, VRML, female representation in computerbusiness and new possibilities in avatar design.

Kathy Rae Huffman presented the concept of Pop~tarts at the Siggraph-Panel "Community/Content/Interface - about creative online journalism". Margarete Jahrmann was at the same time in Slovakia at the VRML/Cosmoworld WORKSHOP "3D Avatars: Isolation - Communication". The following text is an edited transscript of a live-chat between TART Huffman and TART Jahrmann that was conducted during Siggraph 97.

Jahrmann: Are you really there in "the belly of the beast" where Hollywood meets the Infotainment industry? How does it feel to be a pop~TART in the middle of hackers and coders ...all there as prosumers at the ultimate computer trade show?

Huffman: To me, SIGGRAPH is the Moscow of conferences, its scale is overwhelming! It is so big, that only a few cities, with gigantic convention centers, can even host it. This year 55,000 + people attended. They take courses, go to panels, and of course the trade show is like a little Las Vegas (without the showgirls - now presenters wear datasuits for the demos). The panel presentations are held in vast halls, with about 1,500 chairs set-up in intimidating rows, in the traditional format except that the speakers have a 3 meter high image of themself projected simultaneously behind them. It's totally awesome.

Jahrmann: With all that data info, there must be some new input for Pop~TARTS current info.stream about the fe-mail data_set. Can you check-up on the developments in VRML and avatar design, because they will establish the respresentation of women online in the future. It might be a good idea to link some projects to our ongoing research.

Huffman: Well, let me say first, that this year in Los Angeles it was obvious to me, that--Real or Virtual--the computer graphics business is a MAN's world! The average visitor to SIGGRAPH was white, male and between 19-25 years old. OK, yes, there are women who attend, and there are also developments being made by women, but they were not very visible at this conference. This was an interesting observation, because even Barbara Mones, one of the organizers responsible for panel presentations, explained that the organizing committee was about 75% women. She had no clue why more women were not participating.

GVU's 7th Survey states, in the executive summary some interesting of Internet use and users, the following information was determined:

Nearly a third of the users (30.24%) report being in a Computer related field, with 24.48% being in Education, 20.61% Professional, 14.73% Other and 9.95% Management. European users were more likely to be in Computers or Education than their US counterparts. Women are less likely as men to be in Computer related fields (20.28% Female vs. 34.77% Male), but are equally likely to be in Management or Professional positions. Almost half of those age 19-25 are in Education (48.74%) (which includes being a student). Those aged 26-50 (35.23%) are more likely to be in Computer fields than any other age group.

GVU Users Survey

Jahrmann: Why should women even consider entering into this male conspiracy? And why should they even want to go to computer fairs like SIGGRAPH, where mostly commercial products are introduced anyway? What is the biggest deal at SIGGRAPH that might interest women?

Huffman: Well, there are definite interest groups for women at SIGGRAPH, and even though the trade show (which is called the exhibition) is exhausting, it is certainly of interest to all who work in software or hardware development. More to your question, one of the most female orientated topics seems to be VRML and avatar development, because it gives the possibililty not only for technical, but also for social construction. This is an aspect we can continue to examine.

Jahrmann: Did you meet anyone from WEAVE, who we have introduced already?

Huffman: One of the largest special interest groups to emerge at SIGGRAPH is the Virtual Reality Consortium, which is a private association of individual producers and companies.

WEAVE (Women Entering Avatar and virtual Environments) is a member of this consortium. I was happy to meet Wendy Sue Noah in person at their meeting.

The consortium held one of the first panels at SIGGRAPH, which was a real interactive experience. The audience was given noisemakers and plastic guns, and were given the responsibility to keep the 30 presenters within their 5 minute time frame. If a presenter went into overtime, he was "shot off the stage" by the audience, who was laughing like crazy. It was a rapid fire presentation, full of dense technical terms, presenting only the newest developments of each online or research facility.

Jahrmann: What were some of the highlights from the numerous Consortium presentations which might be relevant for the female avatar producer?

Huffman: Here is a list of great projects:

- VRML pioneer Garvin Bell's "sky paint" project for 3D panorama building (using the controversial Cosmo player) which Bell hopes can solve the black hole experience of VRML. (see the Cosmo Web-Site for this project)

- Lynn Hershman's "The Difference Engine 3" project, in collaboration with Construct (San Francisco) is an interactive multi-user environment for the new Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medien Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany, which was presented by Mark Meadows. The project will be premiered on October 18,1997 at the opening of the ZKM Museum.

- Biota, a California working group of the VR Consortium, presented the Nerve Garden, where you can plant a seed in Cyberspace using Java 3D scripts, in a communal garden environment. This could offer new organic avatar possibilities.

- Cybertown, a VR environment designed by two people, reported getting 8 million hits in one month, are looking for sponsors because they can't keep up with the project as independents. We wonder what is so special about this VR community, that so closely parallels the real communities we live in.

- The Irish Space Project, an educational VRML world for children is on view in Ireland through November 1997, at the County Kerry Museum in Tralee. The exhibition is called "Outward from Space, The Voyage of the Jeanie Johnston II", and gives some acknowledgment of the rare American female in space.

- Marie Stone of Xerox Parc introduced a Sound Navigation VRML front-end project. As one of the only female presenters, she also introduced the most intuitive navigation idea, which was difficult to present in the quick time frame.

- Mark Pesce, one of the original developers of VRML, closed the panel session by showing off his new company, BLISS, and announcing their radically low data rates for live video streaming and VRML applications.

VRML Meditation

The VR Consortium met a second time, more casually, in the Omni Hotel for demos and some membership promotion. Here I had the opportunity to meet people individually. First there was a presentation about the Consortium. The second part of the meeting was an interactive communication event, demonstrating the capability of VRML 2.0 to transmit sound in a 3D environment. The entire group was assembled on the floor, in a semi-circle facing a large screen. This group was represented as one giant clown face avatar. The connection was made to a participant in the mid-west, who had agreed to "chant" the seven Chakras of the body, in union with the consortium in LA. At each Chakra level, a new color was generated by the sound of the group. It was a real California experience, and typical of the Cyber-mysticism that is associated with Virtual Reality.

Jahrmann: Oh, it sounds like the "Virtual Reality Movement" is a new power base for the online community! The question "Is this a religious experience?" kept coming into my mind.

Huffman: Remember that VRML 2.0, which was only introduced in a Beta version at the SIGGRAPH '96 in New Orleans, has swept the graphics and online community with new and numerous applications for business development, games, 3D statistics and representation of data for scientific information, and medical uses too. It runs the gamut of one's imagination. It is a pretty hot topic but needs to be examined with these questions in mind.

Jahrmann: It seems to be one of the big challenges for the three dimensional face of Cyberspace, also, to be available to reach world wide users without high tech phone lines.

Huffman: Yes, that is a good European observation, but it was not really a big issue for the largely American audience. I also see a real challenge to be the shared space, and the community interaction that is possible. Here, the significance of female identity is essential.

Jahrmann: That is really true. Here in Slovakia at the 3D avatar workshop, of all places, I have had the opportunity to meet Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, who presented her pioneering programming and coding work. Her 3D virtual humans were presented at SIGGRAPH in 1995. Her work questions the physical body online, and what's important for her is to set high standards for self representation in the virtual enviroment. What I would like to do is examine the relationships between events like SIGGRAPH, the various art projects we are seeing, and questions we have posed about the data_set and avatar culture.

Huffman: Yes, let's take some of this information into our next pop report, and examine a group of female worlds, female coders, and female representation in the online world. We should include Lynn Hershman- Leeson, Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, the ElectraCity being created by Miriam English, and let's not forget Sandy Stone.

Note:

If you are inspired, VRML 98 will take place for the 3rd year in Monterey, California, February 16-19. The four day technical forum also has presentations and events. There is still time to submit ideas for panels and workshops.

Armin Medosch has reported on SIGGRAPH, and discusses VRML, 3D online interface solutions, and avatar research.