From: Philippe Queau Subject: Imagina 95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can also get this information on the Web at... http://www.ina.fr/Ina/Imagina/95/imagina95.fr.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I m a g i n a 9 5 The fourteenth edition of Imagina will take place on 1st, 2nd and 3rd February 1995 in Monte-Carlo. Imagina is organised by : The Television Festival of Monte-Carlo INA Institut National de l'audiovisuel C Y B E R E R A The ages of writing and of images are now giving way to the cyber era, which both encompasses and surpasses them. Cyberspace is not merely a technical phenomenon, but a new form of writing out to conquer the world. Its digital alphabet is the universal lingua franca. Its terrain of action is the network of all networks founded, like Internet, in immense oceans of knowledge which percolate infinitely diverse currents. Finally, the virtual is its future. Cyberworlds will allow us to act more effectively on reality or even "augment" it, but will also incite us to flee reality via "reality parks", photorealist illusionism and virtual games. The cyber era inaugurates major cultural transformations and sets off quakes which will be still be felt long into next century. Moreover, it announces economic and social upheaval for which we are doubtless unprepared. The virtual annihilation of borders between countries, the gradual onset of radical forms of remote work (assisted for example by virtual 3D clone communities), and industrial exploitation of resources obtained by delocalizing capital and production capacity, will generate a frontal shock for organizations used to stable environments or material, tangible products. We are already witnessing virtualization of whole sections of the information economy. In a world increasingly prey to the immaterial, notions like the "value" of things or work must be keenly reconsidered. We are experiencing a profound revolution, which for the information world is comparable to the 19th century Industrial Revolution, provoked by sudden availability of abundant, cheap energy. Thanks to information highways and graphic interfaces such as those sampled via Mosaic and the famous World Wide Web, the world's entire memory will be readily accessible by everyone, everywhere and for a modest price. While the ensuing magnificent development opportunities should be appreciated, we must also guard against the emergence of new inequalities. Faithful to its method, IMAGINA will strive to emphasize some of the force lines of this virtual earthquake: by scrutinizing new ideas and images, we can discern the emergent contours of tomorrow's possible worlds, and thus act in time. Philippe Queau IMAGINA Program Chairman **************************************************************************** Conferences. A Three-days Conference on Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality, Special Effects, Cyberspace in Rainier III Auditorium, in Monte-Carlo. Simultaneous translation into French, English, German, Italian and Spanish. Wednesday 1st February Opening ceremony 10.00 to 10.30 am With : H.S.H. Prince Albert of Monaco President of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. Mr Jean-Pierre Teyssier President of the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel. Mr Dominique Wallon General Manager of the Centre National de la Cinimatographie. Mr Philippe Queau Imagina Programme Chairman. First session : Clones Communities 10.30 am to 1.00 pm. Clones are henceforth circulating in the networks, with more or less realism and functionality. People are already really getting married via interposed clones. Others are truly working in collective virtual environments. Firms embarked on virtualization are developing new cooperative work methods, as in the British Telecom project Virtuosi. Tomorrow's groupware will be virtual, and inhabited by clones with realistic facial expressions. Chairman : Steve Benford Department of Computer Science University of Nottingham England "Virtual Environments for Co-operative Work : Scalable Communication and Populated Information" Lennart Fahlen SICS Sweden "Virtual Environments for Co-operative Work : A Wide Area Multi-User VR System" Aimee Rosewall Cybermind USA "Cyber Wedding of Monika Liston and Hugh Jo" Gen Suzuki NTT Japan "InterSpace : Toward Networked Reality of Cyberspace" Keith Waters Digital Equipment Corp USA "DEC Face: An Automatic Lip-Synchronisation Algorithm for Synthetic Faces" Second session : Virtual Lifes 3.00 to 6.00 pm Animation is life. It is the soul of the virtual world. We are no longer limited to the conventional formula of "computer-assisted" animation. Enthralling research is taking place in the realm of "virtual creatures", capable of learning and evolving as a function of their own shortcomings, like babies who end up walking by dint of sheer stumbling. At the same time, geniuses of classical animation such as master puppeteers are the source of new inspiration. But the basic quest is always the same: to grasp life. Chairman : Danny Hillis Thinking Machines Corp. USA "Evolving Creatures Life" Ulrike Gabriel Otherspace Germany "Arena Life" Wes Trager Acclaim USA "Motion Capture" Sally Jane Norman "The Art of Puppets" France David Canfield Smith Apple Computer USA "KIDSIM (TM) : Child Constructible Simulations" Annie Dautane, Luc Froehlischer, Geoff Levner Medialab Paris France "Puppeteers at the service of Real-Time Animation" Thursday 2 February Third session : Virtual Society and Information Highways. 10.00 am to 1.00 pm Information highways already exist, as is borne out by their first "symptoms", namely Internet, Mosaic and the World Wide Web. Yet these highways raise numerous questions. How can the exponential growth of these networks be managed? What margin of maneuver do nations and states possess within highly evolving, delocalized, intrinsically competitive cyberspace? How can radical inequalities in terms of network access be avoided? How should we judge the development of so-called "crypto-anarchy"? Is "virtual democracy" possible? Chairman : Michel Carpentier CEE "European Strategy for Information Highways" Terry Weissmann Silicon Graphics USA "The Full Service Network" Leo Scheer France "Virtual Democracy" Timothy C. May USA "Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities" Michel Salmony IBM Germany "The German InfoHighways" Gerard Moine France Telecom France "France Telecom and InfoHighways" Drew Taubman Electronic Frontier Foundation USA "Cyber TV" Fourth Session : Virtual Games 3.00 to 6.00 pm New generations of virtual games will be endowed not only with the latest technical attributes, but moreover present conceptual innovations like those of "bio-games", which adapt to the player's personality and style. The end of the cold war has made resources of military simulation giants available for tomorrow's game decks. The game market already economically outweighs Hollywood. "Reality parks" or "on-line" virtual games will doubtless be formidable rivals for conventional mass media. Chairman : Yuzo Naritomi Sega Japan "The Strategy of Sega for Next Generation Games" John Snoddy Walt Disney Imagineering USA "The Aladdin Virtual Reality project" George Zachary Silicon Graphics USA "Home Interactive Entertainment : The Silicon Graphics Perspective" Rebecca Allen Virgin Interactive Entertainment USA "Demolition Man : the Making of an Interactive Action Movie and the Future of Games" Paul Palma Martin Marietta Information Systems Company USA "Real Time Hardware and Software Graphics Technologies - from the Battlefield to Entertainment" Philippe Ulrich Cryo Interactive France "Bio-games" Bruno Bonnell Infogrames France "The New Generation of Games" Friday 3 February Fifth session : Augmented Reality 10.00 am to 1 pm It is possible to augment reality by emphasizing it, by explaining it and by completing it through virtual images superimposed on certain details which, while real, nevertheless remain complex or obscure. This technique does not oppose real and virtual worlds, but fuses them in an intimate symbiosis. The surgeon, engineer or businessman can create neo-realities with varied, subtle, unexpected properties. For example, blind people can be made to walk in real-time generated sound landscapes based on their position, tracked with 30 cm accuracy by GPS satellites. Chairman : William Buxton University of Toronto Canada "Ontario Telepresence Project : Living in Augmented Reality : Ubiquitous Media and Reactive Environments" Paul Milgram University of Toronto Canada "Merging Real and Virtual Worlds" Michitaka Hirose University of Tokyo Japan "Synthesis of Realistic Sensations" Jack Loomis, Reginald Golledge University of Californy Santa Barbara USA "Personal Guidance for the Visually Impaired" Monika Fleischmann GMD Germany "Intuitive Interfaces and Responsive Environments" Bernard Peuchot Lasmea France "Virtual Reality as an Operative Tool during Scoliosis Surgery Friday 3 February Sixth Session : Tricks, Fakes, Special Effects 3.00 to 6.00 pm Everything is possible with digital images. There are no limits. Digital cinema provides absolute freedom in the composition of scenes, and computer graphics allow the creation of hybrid characters who are part real, part virtual, opening up the wildest flights of the imagination. At the same time, however, a new set of boundaries is emerging: how can special effects be obtained at the lowest cost, and why not in real-time, for example in the live broadcast context? Soon it will be impossible to have faith in any image. When will ethics of the virtual world become a real issue? Chairman : Richard Kunicki VAP GmbH Germany "ELSET : Electronic Set for Broadcast Studios" Pierre Pleven Symah Vision France "EPSIS : Real-Time Image Processing System" Didier Pourcel Gribouille France "Agarthian Chronicles : The first TV series with Virtual Actors" Jacques Stroweiss Digital Domain USA "Special Effects in True Lies" Xavier Nicolas, Jerzy Kular Ex Machina France "Special Effects for Movies and Rides" Thomas William, Christian Rouet ILM USA "Special Effects in Forrest Gump and The Mask" **************************************************************************** Round-Table Conference : Cinema. Full- day session organized with the collaboration of France Telecom and the Centre National de la Cinimatographie on the topic of : Cinema and New Technologies Thusrday 2 February Sporting of Monaco 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Simultaneous translation into English and French 1995 will be the Centenary of the Cinema. As a major crossroads of "new images" it was obviously imperative for Imagina to pay hommage to this prodigious invention, the first to offer inimaginable realms to the greatest possible numbers of spectators. But the way hommage is paid is at least as important as the actual gesture. It is tempting - and the very notion of "new images" seems to draw us into this trap - to see the cinema as a chemically and mechanically determined state of the image, rendered obsolete by modern techniques implementing electronic and digital processes. The cinema deserves a hommage of another kind : viewed in the context of an encounter devoted to tomorrow's images, this anniversary should allow us to reevaluate the cinema's fully intact and vital capacity to create. Ultimately this is the sole valid criterion, regardless of epoch, which justifies man's artistic relationship to technology. Independent of the technique whereby it is forged, and irrespective of the physical nature of the sound/image in which its world and our dreams are potentiated, the cinema was and essentially remains the passage from the imaginary realm to the work. As Andri Bazin so rightly emphasizes, the cinema was (and remains) first and foremost the materialization of wrought and projected images, of a certain idea or mental vision (the idea of an "integral realism"), within and through space/time. Such materialization occurs via keyboards and visual and auditory games, calling on technical devices provided by inventors and used by authors. This process is unquestionably timeless. Our hommage to the cinema will be neither an ephemeral tribute to the triumphant technology of a world condemed to extinction, nor the reactive, sectarian tribute of a cult of the icon which refuses to die. Nor will it be a technical recycling operation instituting a technology transfer from a henceforth doomed profession. On the contrary, this hommage will be a fertile encounter between cinema and new technology authors, to be held under the auspices of creation. **************************************************************************** Round-Table Conference : Medical. Full-Day session organized with the collaboration of France Telecom, FUJINON and PENTAX. on the topic of : Medical Imaging Friday 3 February Sporting of Monaco 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Participants : Doctor Bady Scientific Director of the Centre d'Imagerie Midicale Europien (CIME) Doctor Levaillant Scientific Director of the Centre d'Imagerie Midicale Europien (CIME) Doctor Rey Secretary of the European Board of Directors for Digestive Endoscopy Doctor Delmotte Manager of HIFI Communication, Lille Faculty of Medicine Introducing virtual images into the realm of rigorist medical thinking may well constitute a perilous form of integration. Indeed, the mental medical construction has proved itself via a timeworn litany proning nothing but facts, touch, and exploration. In short, the real, tangible world, devoid of oneiric delirium. Yet the image continues to act as an essential diagnostic and therapeutic tool. It invades our decision-making screens, undergoes technological evolution, and incorporates computer technology advances. Digitization, synthesis and virtuality thus become authentic services, allowing definitive saving of documents and iconographic data previously relegated to the farthest recesses of the deepest basements. It is not surprising to see "image creators" from the simulation and computer world invade the realm of medicine: vision of the body is also our everyday vision. Nevertheless, the diagnostic, therapeutic and training assistance provided by new technologies must avoid the pitfalls of mere play on images, or of commercial uses. The trap of simulation and virtual reality consists of imagining that we in turn are unreal and disincarnated, of imagining that shapes and curves have shaken off our mastery and are freely altering on monitors, far from the indispensable warmth of a flesh-and-blood, human relationship. This full-day session devoted to medical imaging - analogic and computer generated - will be structured around two major axes: The path adopted by the image from its creation (collection of images derived from real-time examinations performed on 3 sites) to its exploitation (image archiving, automatic analysis, remote file transmission by videoconferencing for diagnostic assistance, etc). Teaching with 3D computer graphics created to simulate surgical acts or reconstituted from standard X-ray images for spatial therapy. The session will end with a panel chaired by Alain Renaud, philosopher, grouping various medical and media experts on the theme of "new ethical problems related to diffusion and exploitation of the medical image". Only through such knowledge can we master therapy and safeguard ethics. **************************************************************************** Rencontres : The Art of the Virtual World In association with Mission de la Recherche et de la Technologie du ministhre de la Culture et de la Francophonie. Wednesday 1 February 3:00 to 6:00 pm Congress Center of Monaco Free Access The "virtual" world is a new state of the real world endowed with its own intrinsic reality, to be explored and exploited via genius and engineering. The virtual world interests artists keen to query the rifts and abysses of traditional categories. This panel will present some of the most vigorously debated tendencies of contemporary "virtual art": absolute subjective visualization and images out on the edge, art within networks and the art of networks, virtual sounds and reliefs, etc. Leading institutional initiatives will likewise be presented, with the emergence of various "virtual museum" concepts. Above all, the session will attempt to provoke a real, exploratory debate with the Imagina public, to define the most promising axes and identify collaborative strategies likely to gain the most benefit from new tools ensuring circulation and exchange (Internet, Mosaic, etc.). Chairman : Yves Michaud Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts France Michel Redolfi CIRM France David Blair USA Christian Hubler Knowbotic Research Germany Rita Addison USA Mario Canali Italy Christian Mvller Ars Electronica Center Austria Pierre Bongiovanni CICV France Maurice Benayoun ZA Productions France Jean-Frangois Colonna Lactame France Vincent Berge IBM France Nils Aziosmanoff ART 3000 France **************************************************************************** Rencontres : The Architect's Relation to Computer Graphics Organized by the Conseil de l'Ordre des Architectes of the Principality of Monaco. Thursday 2 February 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Congress Center of Monaco Free access After a screening of virtual images applied to architecture (a 1980-1994 retrospective), two speakers will comment on the new relations established between the Architect and the CAD world, in terms of work organization and in terms of the imagination and its translation into computer graphics. With the participation of : Yves Michaud Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts France Pablo Gil Architect, in charge of the CAD department at the Agence Dominique Perrault, Paris. Subject The Agency's experience organizing the project for the Trhs Grande Bibliothhque Nationale, with computer-assisted design from the initial sketch stage up to the final plans of the completed construction. Comments on the successive choices and implemented methods. Comments on the successive choices and implemented methods. Alain Sarfati AREA, Architect and Urbanist : Subject CAD as a communication tool, invention between Architects and Clients; Critique and Perspective, a modified viewpoint. **************************************************************************** Rencontres : Internet Now ! Organized in collaboration with Le Monde Diplomatique Thusday 2 February 3:00 to 6:00 pm Congress Center of Monaco Free Access The explosion of Internet services has been made possible by powerful interfaces allowing navigation in worldwide networks (Mosaic, World Wide Web, Archie, Wais, Gopher, etc.). New Internet standards are already being prepared (SIPP, IPNext Generation), together with new generations of navigation software staffed by intelligent agents (knowbots). At the same time, the development of electronic money (E-money), of coding and electronic signatures (DES, RSA, PGP), and the ClipperChip controversy prove that essential issues are at stake in terms of democracy. Will Internet aggravate or attenuate the cleavage between the "info-rich" and the "info-poor" ? Chaired and animated by Philippe Queau, Imagina Programme Chairman France David Chaum Digicash Netherlands Denis Huron France Christian Huitema Inria SophiaAntipolis France Roberto Bissio Instituto del Tercer Mundo Uruguay Carlos Alberto Afonso Ibase Brazil Ivan Grossi Cineca Italy Timothy C. May USA Ignacio Ramonet Le Monde Diplomatique France **************************************************************************** Workshops : Realism & Real Time For the first time, Eurographics is organizing a workshop on virtual environments entitled "Realism and Real Time" at Monte Carlo, in liaison with Imagina. 31st January and 1st February 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Hotel Metropole The main topics : immersion, navigation, interaction, feedback. natural phenomena in Real Time. visual effects. physical based, modeling and simulation. For information and enrolment : Eurographics Association PO box 16 1288 Aire La Ville (GE) Switzerland Contact : Martin Gvbel tel : (49) 6151 155 310 fax : (49) 6151 155 399 **************************************************************************** Competition The Official Prix Pixel-INA Selection will be submitted for public vote on the 1st and 2nd of February 1995. There will be two identical projections each evening, at 7:00 pm and at 9:00 pm. The prizes will be awarded on February 3rd, during the final Imagina evening. Imagina 1995 marks the tenth anniversary of the international Prix Pixel-INA competition. Participation has been constantly growing over these 10 years. More than 500 works were submitted this year. Leading audiovisual works using computer graphics techniques or digital special effects have been Imagina award winners. The greatest artists, directors and researchers, and the most talented students have thus won public recognition. Once again, this year's Prix Pixel-INA competition will thrill its public with new emotions, discoveries and surprises. More "Images beyond the imagination" are indeed in store. Prix Pixel-INA, a proven organization. Works presented to the public per category during the first two evenings constitute the Official Selection decided by an international jury consisting of: Philippe Queau Imagina Program Chairman, France Ulrike Gabriele artist, Germany Alain Chesnais Project Director, Siggraph Paris Chairman, France Takis Kyriakoulakos Post Reality Executive Director, Greece Michel Roosens Head of Imagique, Belgium After the projection, the public is invited to vote for the three best works per category. The votes are counted by computer: for each ballot paper, the work classed first obtains three points, the second two points and the third one point. The classification per category is obtained by adding the points. The public vote is a much appreciated Imagina characteristic. The public attributes nine Prix Pixel-INA in the following categories: Fiction, Simulation, Visualization, Art, Music Video, Special Effects, Advertizing, TV Credits and Content Graphics, Schools and Universities. Four other Prix Pixel-INA are attributed by the pre-selection jury: the Grand Prix Imagina, the Prix Pixel-INA for Research, the Prix Pixel-INA for 2D Animation, and the Prix Pixel-INA for 3D Animation. Technical quality of the projections, a recognized Imagina tradition, ensures optimal viewing conditions for the public, and respect for the actual works. Bourse de la Creation Paul Ricard. The Bourse de la Criation Paul Ricard is granted to a young European creator from the "Schools and Universities" category. Contact: Bernard Denimal Sociiti Ricard, France. Tel: (33-1) 48 53 11 50 Fax: (33-1) 48 53 89 00 Prix 3e Dimension de la SCAM. The Prix 3e Dimension de la SCAM is granted to a French computer graphics creator for a highly original work. Contact: Claude Rollin, SCAM, France. Tel: (33-1) 40 51 33 00 Fax: (33-1) 43 54 92 99 Mention Bande Sonore CST. A technical jury will be convened by the CST to evaluate sound track quality of the Official Selection, and to attribute a special mention for the best work. Contact: Daniel Le Conte des Floris CST, France. Tel: (33-1) 47 20 96 39 Fax: (33-1) 47 23 09 94 Autodesk. A professional jury will award a Schools and Universities prize and an Industrial prize to a work using 3D Studio and Animation PRO software. Contact: Ecoutez Voir Tel: (33-1) 41 06 90 90 Fax: (33-1) 47 39 26 95 Prix Fiction de la SACD. Contact: SACD, France Tel: (33-1) 40 23 45 16 Fax: (33-1) 45 26 74 28 **************************************************************************** Espace Image 1st, 2nd and 3rd February 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Sporting of Monaco Inaugurated during Imagina 1994, this site devoted to the image in all its forms will be reinforced, and will allow visitors to quench their thirst for images thanks to: Novel artists' installations, ludic or simulation based, which exploit the use of new technologies applied to the image. Cycle of programs presenting current developments, retrospective screenings and surprises, covering international production highlights. A viewing service, allowing the public to view all of the competition submissions for the Prix Pixel-INA. **************************************************************************** Espace Business 1st, 2nd and 3rd February 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Congress Center of Monaco The Business Space is a work space dedicated to professional users of new image technologies. This space has been designed to enable creators, directors, decision-makers and service companies to confront their ideas and projects, discover competence and know-how, and seek opinions and advice. The space is divided into two main areas : A reception structure for service companies, providing them with an effective platform for the IMAGINA event. An advisory structure organized by the SCAM (Sociiti Civile des Auteurs Multimidia) and the SACD (Sociiti de Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques). This space constitutes a totally new initiative in the IMAGINA context, and will doubtless prove an invaluable aid for professionals and visitors. **************************************************************************** Exhibition. Meeting place to share and exchange ideas, knowledge and experience. Unique European rendez-vous for animated image professionals, cinema professionals, software editors, hardware manufacturers, service compagnies, researchers and academics in the areas of computers graphics. Devoted to the latest innovations in virtual worlds, computer graphics and special effects, the exhibition is in steady developpement. The four thousand visitors during Imagina 1994 duly appreciated this know-how. Booth Reservation OCM 31, avenue Hector-Otto MC 98000 Monaco Contacts : Bureau Paris, France : Marie-France Chicanne Jean-Paul Gillet Tel.: (33-1) 45.23.08.16 Fax.: (33-1) 48.24.01.81 **************************************************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Philippe QUEAU IMAGINA 95, Monte-Carlo, 1-3 February 1995 IMAGINA Program Chair. 14th Forum on CG, VR, SFX, Cyberspace. INA Director of Research tel +33-1-49 83 27 14 fax +33-1-49 83 25 82 ..........IMAGES.........BEYOND..........IMAGINATION.......................... http://www.ina.fr s-mail: 4 avenue de l'Europe, 94366 Bry-sur-Marne FRANCE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------