The project “Virtual Knowledgespaces” evolved from a series of pilots for a virtual faculty in art and science called Global Threads with talks by Benoit Mandelbrot, Jean-Claude Risset and Miller Puckette on line for members of the MARCEL network. The pilots experimented to some degree with the multi-screen potential of Access Grid to begin working with the idea of several sources of information forming an online presentation. Mathias Fuchs was the artistic director of those pilots and his experience with UT in the past made him the logical choice for furthering this form of development through the ALTERNE project.

Telepresence thus brought together the artistic experience of Mathias Fuchs with gaming engines and virtual space, the MARCEL network developed by Don Foresta at the Wimbledon School of Art where it was brought to fruition and the virtual faculty project, Global Threads, a specialized project of the MARCEL network. The project consists of an exploration of: connectivity and social play of telematic setups in an artistic context.

We intend to explore sign making, telematic performance, multiple signification, the aesthetics of Mixed Reality.

The transformed look and feel of the users/ gamers will be communicated via streaming video and streaming audio to a telematic audience and at the same time it will be superimposed with player pawns and virtual environments of the game.