a description highlighting the exhibit's physical characteristics and educational qualities, followed by a detailed accounting of the ways in which the exhibit satisfies the contest's judging criteria

Contest Entry Criteria Statement:

Walk-A-Thon

Exhibit by Garvie Garzo

(aka L. Garvie)

This is the second incarnation of an earlier exhibit prototype. Where the first may have suffocated under the weight of a great many conceptual layers, Walk-A-Thon strips away theory to reveal itself as a practical application for demonstrating the art and technology of digital compositing. The basics of the physical design are largely unchanged. A treadmill still serves the dual purpose of providing visitors with a predefined role to play while also functioning as a sort of  ‘X’ on the floor marking where they should stand, in turn enabling cameras flanking the treadmill to record the scene automatically.

The SL prototype can only simulate what in real life would be a unique and engaging experience: visitors could participate as the stars in a partly live action and partly prerecorded movie while watching themselves in the process on the screen in front. After having seen digital compositing in action, they can then go for a behind the scenes look at how this historically common but constantly improving technology actually works.

In SL the avatar walks on a treadmill and selects from four different preloaded sequences of images. In real life visitors would also select from different preloaded videos, but they would experience the extra thrill of seeing themselves live on screen as a part of the video as well. Visitors would be instantly and automatically part of the process of digital compositing, seamlessly fit into the movie they’re watching even while they’re watching it.

In keeping with the folksy Walk-A-Thon theme the videos could easily be gathered from volunteers or beginning videographers, perhaps featuring different routes around San Jose as a start. Maybe some Silicon Valley or Tech Museum ‘celebrities’ would agree to have their favorite ‘walks’ recorded. The films need not be professional quality; they need only provide the right framing for compositing exhibit users. In the Walk-A-Thon spirit, the exhibit features a counter to record cumulative miles walked. Each visitor can walk as long or as little as they like while still adding to the whole. Snippets from the individual visitor composites could be saved, made available for temporary download by visitors to cell phones or portables, and also compiled into a grand composite video for later display.

As a real life exhibit, Walk-A-Thon would present a simple visitor interaction with myriad possibilities for both ongoing education and expansion. It is the kind of exhibit that might begin as a new feature, but mature into an old favorite. 

Criteria Fulfillment:

• Walk-A-Thon was launched as a project on The Tech Virtual web site on March 27, built March 17- 28 and installed at The Tech in SL on March 28.  

• Walk-A-Thon relates to the core theme of technology in film by showing how film and video compositing works, and specifically the numerous improvements made possible with digital compositing. Visitors are able to participate in the use of this ubiquitous, but constantly evolving technology. 

• Walk-A-Thon offers room for a great variety of educational content. Visitors can see and experience what it’s like to perform in front of a green screen, learn how and what compositing is used for in movies and television and also why digitization has replaced the older forms of compositing. Even the algebra used to calculate the chroma range which digital compositing relies on might be of interest to some visitors. Behind the scenes visitors can also learn how to easily make their own video or still composites using a computer and a graphics program such as Photoshop. Depending on the content of the videos, there are also great opportunities for geographical or cultural education as well. In short, a real life Walk-A-Thon could be primarily an educational exhibit, but one so easy and fun to use that visitors wouldn’t perceive it as such.  

• Walk-A-Thon relates to the spirit of Silicon Valley on two distinct levels. The first is that it highlights the process of digital compositing as a major improvement on the older forms. Allowing more people to do more things cheaply and easily while getting better results is one of the fruits of the technological revolution that was cultivated in Silicon Valley. 

• On another level, Walk-A-Thon is an exhibit designed to invite visitors to use technology in an imaginative exercise, seeing themselves in different settings and contexts as individuals while still contributing to a whole or aggregate that ultimately transcends the boundaries of both mere individuals and also technology.