michael naimark
 
Be Now Here

Be Now Here is an installation about landscape and public places. Visitors gain a strong sense of place by wearing 3-D glasses and stepping into an immersive virtual environment. The imagery is of public plazas on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's list of In Danger places - Jerusalem, Dubrovnik, Timbuktu, and Angkor, Cambodia – places both exotic and disturbing. The style is ambient, as if the imagery is live.

For production, a unique recording system was built consisting of two 35mm motion-picture cameras (for 3D, one for each eye) mounted on a rotating tripod. The installation consists of an input pedestal for interactively choosing place and time, a stereoscopic projection screen, four-channel audio, and a 16-foot rotating floor on which the viewers stand.

Be Now Here is an extension of several media trajectories. One is of enhanced cinematic representation, such as the Imax-sized projections of the Lumiere brothers in 1900 and the 3-screen triptychs of Abel Gance’s Napoleon in 1927. Another is of non-narrative cultural activism, such as the films of Godfrey Reggio and Tony Gatlif. But Be Now Here also points forward: as a simulation of what net cinema can be, it is both a regard and a provocation.

In 2008, a novel 3-screen version of Be Now Here was produced.

See also:

"Two Unusual Projection Spaces"
Presence journal, Special Issue on Projection, MIT Press, 14.5, October 2005.

Interactive Be Now Here
by Romy Achituv (IDOnline.com Silver Award Winner), 2000

"Field Recording Techniques for Virtual Reality Applications"
VSMM, Gifu, Japan, 1998

"What’s Wrong with this Picture: Presence and Abstraction in the Age of Cyberspace"
"Consciousness Reframed" Proceedings, Wales, 1997

"Art ("and" or ‘versus’) Technology: Some Personal Observations"
Art@Science, Christa Sommerer, editor, Vienna and NY: Springer Press, 1997

"A 3D Moviemap and a 3D Panorama"

SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 3012, San Jose, 1997

Be Now Here Trip Reports
Interval Research Corporation, 1995


Exhibitions

Naimark 1977-1997 Exhibition, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, 2005

Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, 2003

ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2002 - 2003

San Francisco Film Festival (with SF MOMA), 2001

Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose, 1998 -1999

Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands, 1998

Art at the Anchorage, New York, 1997

Siggraph, New Orleans, 1996

Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 1995 - 1996


Credits

BE NOW HERE
Produced by
Interval Research Corporation, Palo Alto
with the cooperation of
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris
and
The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC


Concept and Direction
Michael Naimark

Principal Collaborators

Installation: Bernie Lubell, San Francisco
Technology: Christoph Dohrmann, Köln

Software: Wayne Burdick, Interval Research
Video: Charles "Bud" Lassiter
3D Projection: Pierre St. Hilaire, Interval Research
Audio: Jim McKee, Earwax Productions, San Francisco
Graphics: Amee Evans, Interval Research
Installation: Joe Ansel, Ansel Associates, Mill Valley

Additional Collaborators

Interval Research: Harlan Baker, Aviv Bergman, Paul Debevec, Lee Felsenstein, David Gessel, Noël Hirst, Carol Moran, Lauren Page, Sally Nathan Rosenthal, Steve Saunders, Yoav Shoham, Richard Shoup, Rachel Strickland, Jacob Tuft, Bill Verplank, Leo Villareal, Scott Wallters, John Woodfill, Ramin Zabih

Camera: Richard Hollander, Video Image, Los Angeles
Projection: Paul Wait, Realistech Solutions, Atascadero
Hardware: Mark Pauline, Survival Research Labs, San Francisco
Camera Rental: Cine Rent West, San Francisco
Film Processing: United Studios of Israel, Tel Aviv; Laboratoire Telcipro, Paris; Monaco Labs, San Francisco
60 fps Film Transfer: Pacific Ocean Post, Santa Monica

Sync Box by Cinematography Electronics
Cameras by Arriflex
Lenses by Zeiss

Locations:
Giancarlo Riccio, Deputy Director, World Heritage Centre, UNESCO, Paris
Peter Stott, Tufts University, Medford, MA, and UNESCO, Paris
Bernard Q. Nietschmann, U.C. Berkeley, and National Geographic Society, Wash., DC

Jerusalem
Production Assistance:
- Tulia Galon, Tel Aviv
- Shlomo Davidian, Jerusalem
Yishay Mor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Jeff Rosenschein, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Dubrovnik
Production Assistance:
- Ivo Pendo, Dubrovnik
Dubravka Zyrko, Institute for Renewal of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Berta Dragicevic, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik
Srecko Krzic, Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik
Pave Zupan-Ruskovic, Atlas Travel, Dubrovnik
Enver Sehovic, University of Zagreb, Zagreb

Timbuktu
Production Assistance:
- Gilles Tassé, Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories, Canada
- Sagaidou Haidara, Bamako
- Chérif Haidara, Sahel Tours Mali, Timbuktu
Cheicknè Sylla, World Education Organization, Bamako
RoseAnn Watson, World Education Organization, Bamako
Nancy Devine, World Education Organization, Bamako
Mary Jo Arnoldi, Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, Washington, DC
Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley

Angkor
Production Assistance:
- Tra You, Siem Reap
Chrouk Kim Eak, UNESCO, Siem Reap
Than Vuth, UNDP, Siem Reap
Meach Sam Ell, UNDP, Siem Reap
David Salter, UNDP, Siem Reap
Rich Geier, UNDP, Siem Reap
James Clarkson, Independent Geographer, Bangkok

San Francisco
Production Assistance:
- Chris Seguine, San Francisco, Interval Research

With acknowledgments to Baba Ram Dass