This is what
she looks like.
Alice Sat Here
Ricco/Maresca Gallery
VirtuAlice
Chi97
This is what
she remembers.

This is what she is

VirtuAlice is a telerobotic camera (pointable over the Web and from touchpads in the front window) mounted on a wheeled electric throne, which visitors may ride around the gallery. Video images in real time are available to Web users, and to passers by, through the front window. The rider of the throne can see the image which is going out over the Web, on a small monitor mounted on the handlbars. The Web user can see the face of the rider, in the rear-view mirror.

This is what she means

VirtuAlice is a passage
between physical 
and cyber space. 
We converge from 
web-side 
and street-side, 
explore parallel spaces 
separated by glass, 
and peer through
the membrane 
at each other's 
representations. 
We control aspects 
of each other's 
environment and perform 
a collaborative dance 
in between. We
wonder with Alice 
at the keyhole to Webland, 
"What good are our heads
without our shoulders?"

N.Sobell/E.Hartzell

This diagram describes the anatomy of Alice Sat Here, an installation by Nina Sobell and Emily Hartzell (ParkBench) at Ricco/Maresca Gallery's CODE show Oct-Dec. 1995. Created at New York University Center for Advanced Technology in collaboration with David Bacon, Fred Hansen, Kimberly Neuhaus, and Toto Paxia.

Thanks

New York University, NYU Center for Advanced Technology, Professor Ken Perlin, Cynthia Allen, fly.net, MicroTouch Systems Inc., Joe Arcidiacono, Theo Crimona, Art Johnson, George Kondogianis, David Max, Daniele Russo, Randall Rustin, Eliza Schwarz, Professor Naoko Tanese, Professor Richard Wallace

VirtuAlice

In March 1997 we redesigned Alice, as VirtuAlice, and presented her at CHI97 (Computer-Human Interaction Conference) and Interfaces97. This redesign of hardware and software was done by Digital Image Design. Thanks to Roel Hammerschlag, Hai Ng, Juey Ong, and Brad Paley.

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