Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Example: Reflexive/Reactive Build






This build on Architecture Island (by avatar Theory Shaw) has utilized both scale and color shifting reactions to reflect avatar presence and proximity. This is more than simply a virtual structural reflex as he has managed to identify a functional purpose for this script as well.

The colored leaf panels become dynamic elements as they signal their function through both color and scalar differentiation. The leaf panels utilize two scripts which allow them to change in both scale and color based upon avatar proximity. As an avatar approaches a panel, the panel expands slightly and subtly shifts its color. These panels hang suspended in space more as screening devices than wall elements; another visual signal of their departure from traditional static architectures.

The dynamic nature of this structure becomes an active reflection of inhabited virtual space. These leaf panels also relate to the aesthetic concept of concealing and revealing. They are opaque to the degree that they offer 'privacy' to avatars in conversation but their reflexive/reactive nature also reveals both the presence and location of avatars within the structure.

While not necessarily falling into the category of interactivity, Theory has successfully integrated this reflexive/reactive element into an overall architectural device, that becomes functional as well as aesthetic.

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