Viz professors' immersive exhibit featured at Swedish art festival

Visitors to the 2011 Luleå Art Biennial in Sweden are taking a virtual trip inside an underground ant colony in “atta,” an immersive installation developed by Carol LaFayette and Fred Parke, professors of visualization at Texas A&M.

Viewers at the biennial are donning Stereovision glasses to view four screens arranged in a semicircle while using a hand-held controller to navigate through the virtual colony, one of 26 pieces festival organizers chose from more than 260 proposals.

LaFayette and Parke were among four of the biennial’s artists to talk about their work during a June 19 preview of the event, which hosted a grand opening June 22 and will run through Sept. 14.

A [related story] (http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/newsletters/spring2008/stories/siggraphantproject.html) about “atta,” published when the exhibit was on display in Los Angeles at SIGGRAPH 2008, one of the world’s premier computer graphics and interactive techniques conferences, is available online.

Visit the Luleå Art Biennial [website] (http://www.kilenartgroup.org/) to learn more about the event.

Photos of “atta” at the biennial can be viewed on the Department of Visualization [website] (http://vvvvvv.viz.tamu.edu/?p=2383) .