Tunnel under the Atlantic

The Tunnel under the Atlantic, Montreal installation
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The Tunnel under the Atlantic
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The Tunnel under the Atlantic, Montreal installation
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The Tunnel under the Atlantic
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The Tunnel under the Atlantic is an experimental work using televirtuality that allows users situated on each side of the Atlantic Ocean, Paris and Montreal, to meet each others and to interact in a virtual space they have created together.

A person enters on each side of the virtual tunnel that links the Musée d'Art Contemporain from Montreal, with the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Then, the two users progressively move forward meeting each others. The way surface they open up in the process of forging, reveals the equivalent of geological strata, converted here into iconographic strata. These discoveries enhance the dialogue between the two protagonists. Thus, each participant shares a complementary part of the same musical composition. The meeting is done under canadian and french audience eyes, witnesses of the two explorers progression, thanks to giant screen.

Freedom of exploration is one of the major characteristic of Tunnel sous l'Atlantique. Tunnels created are likely to evolve in all sorts of directions : they can go up or down, turn right or left regarless of the angle rotation. In this way, users will be able to seek out fragments of pictures they have only seen certain details. It becomes obvious that such project presents an interactive relationship that clearly outshines the mere arborescence level.

Le Tunnel sous l'Atlantique reaches a higher degree of interactivity due to a " supervisor " program. More or less chaotic behavior are managed by monitors. Until the end, the system must administer three different types of data transmitted in both directions, Paris and Montreal : spatial coordinates and explorers orientations ; dialogue and comments sound of participants; and then, portraits of users at the meeting time (approximately 5 low-resolution images per second).

On both sides of the Atlantic, the Tunnel uses ONYX SGI station, Indy station, next Station, SGI digital camera, video projector, ISDN line and quadraphonic sound.

Description by Benayoun et al