To view this piece, you will need a plug-in for your browser that will allow you to see 3D worlds and objects created in VRML (The Virtual Reality Modeling Language.) Several will work, but I recommend the cortona plug in as cosmo player is no longer supported.

[the perpetual bed] is about my 91 year old grandmother's experiences when critically ill and hospitalized. It is an online, virtual VRML world in which users can interact with each other from within a navigable, surrealistic narrative situated in the world of my grandmother's dreamstate. A hybrid between video, interactive art, installation, and animation, the relies on the movement of the user/viewer to encounter my grandmother's experiences with transparent yet tangible beings, memories, and places engaged with when hospitalized.

My goal is to tell a story in an altogether new way -- by allowing the user to move through a story, to "happen" upon a scene, and to find his or her own meaning in this ever-enacted place. In some versions, users can then leave their mark and become part of the story--leave hints, impressions, etc--for the next viewer. This residue becomes part of the world, ready for the next user to discover.

Please be patient during download. This version of the piece will initiate automatically. It does include sound, but in the cortona plug in, the sound is inexplicably sped up.

This project has been experienced internationally and is included in VRML-ART 2000, the only internationally juried show of VRML artwork. Other venues include the Web3D-VRML Symposium in Monterey California (2000) Siggraph (2000) and Alterites: Interdisciplinarite & Pratiques "Feminines" de l'espace Conference at Ecole d'Architecture Paris-Villemin (1999).

Parts of worlds from past performances will appear in the movie below.

The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a file format for describing interactive 3D objects and worlds. VRML is designed to be used on the Internet, intranets, and local client systems. VRML is also intended to be a universal interchange format for integrated 3D graphics and multimedia. VRML may be used in a variety of application areas such as engineering and scientific visualization, multimedia presentations, entertainment and educational titles, web pages, and shared virtual worlds.

For more information on VRML, check out the specifications at the Web3D group, http://www.web3d.org/ .

If you would like to read more about this work, download this document.