New media in situ: The re-socialisation of public space

Five recently created artworks described in this paper constitute experimental research frameworks for revitalising strategies of representation by addressing the issues of inhabitation and the sensorial in virtual environments. Their immersive architectures provide a modular interactive cinema with digitally augmented full body engagement and offer new opportunities for rendering the experience of culture and heritage. Place-Hampi, Hampi-Live, The Eye of Nagaur, T-Visionarium and UNMAKEABLELOVE are set inside four originally conceived immersive display systems: advanced visualisation and interaction environment (AVIE) Place, EoN and Re-Actor. Each of these artworks elucidates the singular qualities of physically located and socially shared new media experiences, which are both complimentary to and distinct from those experiences generated in cyberspace. The works demonstrate singular solutions to current challenges in the fields of cultural heritage, the navigation of massive multi-modal databases, interactive cinema and the evolving relationship between human and machine agents. The text frames these works in terms of cultural imaginary, co-evolutionary narrative, prosthetic vision, re-combinatory narrative and complicit agency.