Hiroo Iwata
http://intron.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/

The “Media Vehicle” is on the go in real and virtual space simultaneously. On board, the driver experiences the environment as a combination of live video images and real movements. A wide-angle camera set up outside the “cockpit” sends live images into its interior. The vehicle’s four legs enable the driver to steer it in all directions.

“The Media Vehicle” opens up extraordinary, multi-layered experiences to its drivers—for instance, in the form of the “Cross-active System” in which one person sits in the cockpit and a second person outside the vehicle operates the camera equipped with a position sensor. The image and motion data from the camera are transmitted inside the vehicle, whereby the person inside gets a feeling like that of a marionette being steered by someone else.

The “Media Vehicle” is ready to hit the streets; thanks to its wheels, it can be driven like a car. If the camera is mounted on the underside of the chassis, the person inside can experience what it’s like to be an insect on the asphalt.

Hiroo Iwata was inspired to create this work by “The Ghost in the Shell,” a Japanese comic whose futuristic plot calls into question, among other things, the sacrosanctity of ones individuality and personality. It’s the account of the “Puppetmaster” who can hack into people’s brains and thus turn them into totally submissive, remote-controlled pods. Another narrative element is the “Fuchikoma”, a car that is simultaneously a terminal for accessing cyberspace. The “Media Vehicle” symbolizes futuristic modes of transportation like this one.