QuickTime Virtual Reality can put you there
Did you miss the Richard Avedon exhibit at the Center for Creative Photography? Have you seen a piece of prehistoric Southwestern pottery from the Arizona State Museum up close? Do you know what the deepest recesses of Kartchner Caverns look like, all lit up?
Gary Mackender photographs the US-Mexico
border fence just prior to the Day of the Dead
Gary Mackender can put you there.
As the supervisor and photographer for OSCR’s Virtual Reality Annex, Gary takes 360-degree portraits of places and things that preserve them for later study.
“A delicate system like Kartchner Caverns can’t take a lot of use,†explains Mackender, “so having us come in to document the site saves wear and tear on the fragile environment. They’ll let us light it up and take pictures just the one time, and then close off those areas again to protect them.â€
Mackender takes multiple photographs, then stitches them together into panoramic shots or into interactive computer objects called Quicktime Virtual Realities, or QTVRs.
Latin American Studies GTA Kylie Walzak wanted students to gain a better understanding of the political, geographical and economic impacts of the US-Mexico border fence. While it might be impractical to take every class down to Nogales, Mackender’s QTVR of the fence conveys some of the impact of the barrier between the two nations.
The US-Mexico border fence is a stark reminder of the separation between the two countries.
Another of the VR Annex's projects last semester was for Jaime Fatás Cabeza, an assistant professor of Translation and Interpretation, who asked Mackender to shoot courtrooms in the Arizona Superior Court. In the course of an afternoon, participants staged for the camera a typical courtroom scene with prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, jury, bailiff and court reporter. The QTVR will be labeled in Spanish and used by interpreters to orient Spanish speakers involved in a court case to what they can expect in an American courtroom.
A representation of the participants in a courtroom allows interpreters to explain
American justice procedures to non-English speakers involved in a court case
By going on location to shoot, Mackender places the viewer inside a virtual 360-degree panorama. But he can also provide all-around views of stationary objects. For Stuart Glogoff's "Through Our Parent's Eyes" local history project, Mackender photographed an old-style slide projector, or balopticon, once owned by Tom Marshall. Other object VRs he's captured have included skulls, fragile pottery, rocks and minerals, and archaeological finds.
In addition to providing VR services for academic projects, the VR Annex offers workshops and Gear-to-Go equipment loans to assist all members of the campus community with creating their own virtual reality projects. The software necessary for stitching the photographs together is available in all of OSCR's multimedia labs.
In addition to providing VR services for academic projects, the VR Annex offers workshops and Gear-to-Go equipment loans to assist all members of the campus community with creating their own virtual reality projects. The software necessary for stitching the photographs together is available in all of OSCR’s multimedia labs.
For more info
Virtual Reality Annex, available by appointment, 626-3007
OSCR’s multimedia labs
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