THE VIRTUAL ELECTRONIC POEM (VEP) PROJECT
Vincenzo Lombardo,
Andrea Arghinenti,
Fabrizio Nunnari,
Andrea Valle,
Heinrich H. Vogel
VR&MM Park and
Universita' di Torino
c.so Lombardia 190
10149 - Torino - Italy
John Fitch,
Richard Dobson,
Julian Padget,
Kees Tazelaar
Department of
Computer Science
University of Bath
BA2 7AY, Bath
United Kingdom
Stefan Weinzierl,
Sebastian Benser,
Stefan Kersten
Roman Starosolski,
Wojciech Borczyk,
Wojciech Pytlik,
Slawomir Niedbala
Instytut Informatyki
Politechnika Sl4ska
Ul. Akademicka 16 -
44-101 Gliwice
Poland
Fachgebiet
Kommunikationswissenschaft,
Technische
Universitat Berlin,
Einsteinufer 17c
D - 10587 Berlin -
Germany
ABSTRACT
This paper outlines a demonstration of the
reconstruction of the Po6me 6lectronique experience
using virtual reality and binaural audio techniques. Here
we discuss the genesis of the project, the search for
original material, discovery of clues for the
reconstruction of several sections of the artwork and the
creation of the VR/binaural installation within the
context of an interactive exhibition.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Podme electronique was an unique experience,
originating from the well circumstanced request made
by Louis Kalff, art director of Philips, to Le Corbusier
for the design of the company pavilion at the Brussels
1958 World's Fair. The whole project was initiated and
directed by Le Corbusier, who also selected the images
for the audiovisual show, while the organized sound
was composed by Edgard Var6se and the stunning
surfaces of the building were designed by lannis
Xenakis. The result was the very first multimedia
project to create a complete sound and vision experience
using a totally immersive environment, since the space
of the Pavilion hosted the audio and the visual materials
as integral parts of the architectural design (Figure 1).
Unfortunately, this visionary synthesis was ahead of its
time, and the Po6me 6lectronique was never repeated or
even attempted again: the Pavilion, the incredible
number of visitors (2 million) notwithstanding, was
demolished a few months after its inauguration, at the
end of the Exposition. The destruction of the Pavilion
turns the Po6me 6lectronique into a lost masterpiece and
a represents a serious blow to the cultural world. Today,
we are left with only fragments of the various
components, such as photographs and drafts of the
architecture, the projected video from the Philips
archives and the recordings of Varese's and Xenakis'
music. Nowadays, technological advances in virtual
reality and binaural audio make a recreation of the
Po6me 6lectronique possible in the spirit of a
Figure 1. The Philips pavilion at the Brussels World
Fair in 1958 (from [6]).
Gesamtkunstwerk. This paper describes a project that
demonstrates the application of a form of experimental
archaeology to the recreation of the Po6me 6lectronique
for a virtual environment.
There have been several attempts to reconstruct (at
least in part) the Po6me 6lectronique experience. There
are at least three commercial stereo versions of Varese's
music, and the Concertgebouw in Brugge, Belgium,
hosts a 14 channel version as a permanent installation
(realized by Kees Tazelaar). The experience has been
described in the TV documentary film "Var6se in
Nederland" by Willem Hering and Hank Onrust (VPRO
1998), the audio and visual aspects have also been
reproduced on DVD, in theatres and for live
installations [2]. There are current attempts to rebuild
the pavilion physically (htt://www.alice-eimdhoven.nl).
The novelty of the VEP project
I..
(http:j//ww.edu.vrmmr.it/vep) lies in the
reconstruction of the Po6me experience through an
immersive application that combines visual virtual
reality (VR) and binaural audio (however, see the
project in [9]). Although there have been other
computer graphics reconstructions of the pavilion and
the multimedia show (e.g., Piet Lelieur at Gent
University in Belgium, 2003), VEP is the first attempt
to provide a complete contemporary perspective on the
Po6me experience, both visually with a head-mounted
stereoscopic display that immerses the wearer in the
darkness of the pavilion, and aurally with binaural audio
