Mitologies: Medieval Labyrinth Narratives in Virtual Reality Maria Roussos and Hisham Bizri mroussos@eecs.uic.edu, bizri@evl.uic.edu Electronic Visualization Laboratory University of Illinois at Chicago 851 S. Morgan St., Room 1120 Chicago, IL 60607-7053 USA +1.312.996-3002 +1.312.413-7585 (FAX) February 28, 1998 Abstract Advances in technology have made it possible to create vast, rich, and architecturally intricate virtual worlds. The Mitologies project is an attempt to utilize this technology as a means of artistic expression and for the exploration of historical, political, musical, and visual narratives. Mitologies draws inspiration from a large pool of literary and artistic sources by capturing their intertwining relationships in a cinematic form, hence making connections to the strong narrative tradition of other media, such as film and literature. Introduction Advances in technology have made it possible to create vast, rich and intricate, architectural virtual worlds. The Mitologies project is an attempt to utilize this technology as a means of artistic expression and to explore historical, political, musical, and visual narratives. Mitologies draws inspiration from a large pool of literary and artistic sources by capturing their intertwining relationships in a cinematic form, hence making connections to the strong narrative tradition of other media, such as film and literature. Mitologies is the culmination of an extensive body of work, both as an art project and as a software design prototype in virtual reality. The thematic content of Mitologies draws inspiration from medieval and on to contemporary literary endeavors. The work is loosely based on the Cretan myth of the Minotaur, the Apocalypse, or Revelations, of St. John, Dante's Inferno, Durer's woodcuts after the Apocalypse, and Borges' Library of Babel. Music from Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen is used as a motif to structure the narrative. The work explores the enigmatic relationships between these sources and captures them in a mise-en-scene that is rooted in the illusionistic narrative tradition of other media. As a design prototype in virtual reality, Mitologies is an artwork created for the CAVE(tm), a multi-person, room-sized virtual reality system developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) of the University of Illinois at Chicago \cite{cruz-neira. The CAVE is a ten by ten by ten foot room constructed of three translucent walls. A rack Onyx with two Infinite Reality Engines drives the high resolution stereoscopic images which are rear-projected onto the walls and front-projected onto the floor. Light-weight LCD stereo glasses are worn to mediate the stereoscopic imagery. Attached to the glasses is a location sensor. As the viewer moves within the confines of the CAVE, the correct perspective and stereo projection of the environment are updated. This presents the user with the illusion of walking around or through virtual objects. Four speakers mounted at the top corners of the CAVE provide audio. The user interacts with the environment using the 3D wand, a simple tracked input device containing a joystick and three buttons. The want enables navigation around the virtual world and manipulation of virtual objects within that world. Mitologies also runs on the CAVE's smaller, more portable cousins, the Immersadesk (tm) and Immersadesk2 (tm). The characteristics of the above technology were taken into consideration when deciding to develop Mitologies . The CAVE provides an appropriate virtual reality platform mainly because of the non-intrusive nature of its hardware and the ability to provide a group experience. This is of great importance to a digital work of art as emphasis can be given on the work without worry of the technology overpowering it. Description of the Virtual Experience The word Mitologies derives from the Greek word ``mitos,'' the thread Ariadne granted Theseus to help him find his way out of the