Project ALICE

Prof. dr. Matthias Rauterberg had a genius idea for researching aspects of cultural computing. Implementing a real-life installation after the narrative of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. By going through this installation, passing the different main stages, the user is assumed to undergo a similar experience as Alice did. It is expected that this is such a shocking experience, that the user will mentally change. The worldview has been shaken up. I was project lead and developer on it. I got the project off the ground and found the sponsors, and led the sessions in the project space with Tijn Kooimans, Dima Aleieskoe, Jun Hu, Matthias Rauterberg, Ben Salem and others. I specifically worked on the Shockwave Multi-User Status (SMUS) server to connect with all the computers with hardware sensors in a network. The user is tracked and his behavior so that the server could anticipate and create appropriate response. Furthermore I was involved in thinking and realizing the general concepts for each stage, such as the CAVE (cave automatic virtual environment) with its sliding doors and controllers, the stair lift, walk in the park and chat with Cheshire cat. Many different aspects of technology, research and disciplines were asked of me, which was great. The state of the user is measured via a questionnaire in the first stage and again after the last.

The stages are, in order: 1. in the park, 2. down the rabbit hole, 3. eat-me and drink-me in the hall, 4. the pool of tears, 5. advice from a caterpillar, and 6. chat with the Cheshire cat.

The project’s own site is still standing: alice.id.tue.nl.

The installation, on film

Team

Geert van den Boomen, Ton van der Graft, Christoph Seyferth, Marco Combetto, Dimar Aliakseyeu, Tijn Kooijmans, Jun Hu and Matthias Rauterberg.