Confused reality at virtual fair

The French image technology on display left a few people confused. For starters, there were a lot of people who went to the exhibition with a preconceived notion of what they were going to see. “We thought it was about being a part of the images” was the first reaction.

But as people went around the place, the whispering started. “Is this how it is supposed to be?” was what everyone wanted to know. Unfortunately, there were not too many people to explain things. Outside each cubicle was a board explaining how the system worked. But coming out of the cubicle there were a lot of queries that needed clarification. Not many went up to thehostesses and asked for explanations.

Giant Mosaic is a projection of images against a musical background, the DNA Story is a 3-D digital film on cellular division and the Cyber Cube is inspired by geometry of chaos. No long queues here. The interactive displays on the other hand had a curious crowd peering over each other’s shoulder. Room of Desires and Paris-New Delhi Tunnel were interesting.

A lot of people walked into the Room of Desire because the name was intriguing. The board outside read: A dark room that (like a magic mirror) reflects completely a persons thoughts in the form of images and music on screen.

Rama Sharma, a freelance artist, agreed to be plugged in. For ten minutes, the screen in front of her was flooded with images — collapsing buildings, pigs, a horse running backward and someone peering into a microscope, among other things. Once the imagery stopped, the onlookers wanted to know how it felt.

“Well, I could relate to the void space and the horse bit. I also understood thebondage bit and trying to break free. However, I am not so sure of the rest,” Sharma says, after thinking it through. Everybody is not satisfied. So the fair girl tries to explain. “There are 17,000 images in the computer, all tuned to different frequencies. The images are projected according to the frequency a person triggers off,” says Shalini Chandran.The tunnel was also virtual experience. You stand on a board and enter Paris, through a tunnel. You definitely feel a part of this one.