20240917 - on Marcos Novak's Virtual Dervish and specture-world

is anything new these days? when I had an idea a while ago to make a 'specture-world', a group of interconnected virtual spaces to explore different digital species, their habitats, architectures and environments in each one, and let others build / add on their versions to this (hopefully) ever-growing spatial hive of places, I hadn't already read or remembered (?!?) Marcos Novak's "Dancing with Virtual Dervish" virtual world project from the mid 1990s. I've started a post-grad course (hopefully leading to a Masters, and fingers crossed a PhD) in Simulation and Immersive Technology (MSIT, though I'm in the GCSIT initially, graduate certificate which is four of the Masters' classes). This course will bring the human back into my thinking / research, whereas until now I've been concentrating on the species' perspective in specture, so I'm interested to see where things will lead. In week 1 we discussed Immersion, and the image of the whirling dervishes from Turkey was shown, as a non-tech example of immersion. After mentioning this to J, he suggested searching for Marcos Novak. This paragraph is close to what I was imagining, though mine would be an open world, where others could contribute / create should they want to. once again, this kind of archi-tectonic / theory is a definite influence - more research required!

"Dancing with the Virtual Dervish, in its present disincarnation, consists of a
growing number of "world chambers" that form a fully connected lattice, a
rhizome. All the worlds lead to all the other worlds. There is no narrative
hierarchy, no purposive spurring, no beginning or end, no closure. No genealogy,
no teleology, no eschatology: only ontology. Once inside these worlds,
in the midst of a tangle of technology, you are left to your own devices."

...

"The first history this work is concerned with is the history of space. Every
artwork projects a virtual environment, and Coleridge's willing suspension of
disbelief is required in order for the spectator to become immersed in a work's
particular universe. Virtual environments replace the spectator with the inhabitant,
and consequently the terms are reversed: the spectator does not suspend
disbelief, but rather the spectator-become-inhabitant is held suspended within
the arms of unbelievable space. Primary among the concerns of this project,
then. has been the concern of speaking through space, through liquid, virtual
space itself."

-- Marcos Novak in Immersed in technology : art and virtual environments by Mary Anne Moser and Douglas MacLeod, Banff Centre for the Arts, MIT Press, 1996.

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plus another Richard Serra quote, via Artbrain Volume 1 ::: the materiality of space is a key idea and foundation for digital works as well as Serra's monumental sculptures, so I tend to apply some of his ideas to digital materials also. see Serra on gravity
Space here has become a material for me. I’m trying to deal with the substance of space…. These pieces aren’t primarily predicated on your eye. As much as the movement of your body. They’re the least optical pieces I’ve ever made. They have very little to do with seeing something as a thing, as an object.
-- Richard Serra discussing Torqued Ellipses (1996), via (Artbrain Journal 1999)

(unformatted references)

Artbrain Journal. 2007. "Panel Discussion: Marcos Novak & Andreas Roepstorff." In #5 Conference of Neuroaesthetics (2005-07), Architecture and Architectonics. https://www.artbrain.org/journal-of-neuroaesthetics/journal-neuroaesthet....

Artbrain Journal. 1999. "Richard Serra and the Brain: A Form Not Seen Before." In #1 Introduction to Neuroaesthetic Theory (1997-99). https://www.artbrain.org/journal-of-neuroaesthetics/journal-neuroaesthet....

Markussen, Thomas and Thomas Birch. n.d. "Minding Houses." Intelligent Agent. 5(2). http://www.intelligentagent.com/archive/Vol5_No2_novak_markussen+birch.htm.

Monoskop. 2024. "Marcos Novak." Monoskop. https://monoskop.org/Marcos_Novak.

Moser, Mary Anne et al. 1996. "Dancing With the Virtual Dervish: Worlds in Progress." In, [Immersed in technology : art and ==virtual== environments](https://primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99421... Search Engine&tab=Everything&query=any%2Ccontains%2CDancing%20With%20the%20Virtual%20Dervish%3A%20Worlds%20in%20Progress) 303-307. MIT Press. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6300706.

Novak, Marcos. 1995. "# [ISEA95] Panel: Marcos Novak – Transmitting architecture: The transphysical city." ISEA 1995 - Symposium Archive. https://www.isea-archives.org/symposia/isea2013/presenters-2013/isea2013....

UCLA. n.d. "Marcos Novak." UCLA. http://oldcda.design.ucla.edu/Pages/novak.html.

Seeking to expand the definition of architecture to include electronic space, he originated the concept of "liquid architectures in cyberspace" and the study of a dematerialized architecture for the new, virtual public domain.
-- UCLA