Gulliver´s World

Concept: Peter Freudling
Roland Haring
Helmut Höllerl
Horst Hörtner
Andreas Jalsovec
Hirokazu Kato
Christopher Lindinger
Christian Naglhofer
Dietmar Offenhuber
Nina Wenhart
Date: 2004

Enter the virtual reality of “Gulliver’s World” and become a part of it! On the 1st Level of the Ars Electronica Center, the borders between the virtual and real worlds begin to blur.

“Gulliver’s World” is an upgraded version of “Gulliver’s Box,” an installation that has been one of the Ars Electronica Center’s most popular attractions. Create your own fantasy landscape, design aliens and monsters, and let your very own virtual world come alive. Like in “Alice in Wonderland,” there are no limits placed on your creativity.

With the World Creator, a device that resembles a model of the planet earth, the user can freely position mountains, meadows and valleys around the globe. Each of these landscape objects is associated with individual characteristics that have a direct impact on the behavior of the figures that inhabit Gulliver’s World.

The user can modify existing characters any way he/she likes and assign specific characteristics to them. And those with their own individualized conception of a figure can access the Modeling Table equipped with plastic modeling material and a 3-D scanner. Via form and color, these characters are endowed with particular qualities and can thus interact in a wide variety of ways with the other figures in Gulliver’s World.

In the Greenbox, video sequences of visitors are recorded and then reproduced in miniaturized form on the play level. Moreover, anyone can create a life-size stereoscopic projection of him/herself and appear as an avatar on the play level. A “computer vision” system captures and analyzes the user’s movements and behavior and transmits this in real time to the avatar, which can thus directly intervene in what’s going on in the game.

With the Scoooter, visitors can take off on their own individual discovery tour of Gulliver’s World. You use the handlebar to specify in which direction you want to go. The forward motion is transmitted via a cylindrical roller.

Special thanks to Eric Sommerlade, UZR GmbH & Co KG