Benoit Espinola

“New Atlantis” is the code name for a 3-year research project by the TransAtLab program (see below). It is a multi-user cross-platform open source online world inspired by Second Life, adding audio work possibilities. From 5 January until 16 January 2009, the group created a workshop to start the software development (client and server). In this workshop we built up the client-server basis and created some sound and 3D objects.

I worked on the pathfinding model for the sound (how it goes from the source to the listener via different spaces and apertures). The pathfinding algorithm is not yet implemented but it will be part of my future activity in 2009.

Ricardo Garcia and I also worked on Spheric, a hollow sphere that absorbs sound. Ricardo made the 3D object and I programmed its Pure Data patch.

More about TransAtLab :

“TransAtLab is a program of collaborative research and educational exchange in electronic art, including sound, interactivity, immersive environments, telecommunications, kinetics and robotics. Founded in 2005 as a partnership between the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ecole Superieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence and the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art Villa Arson, Nice, the project brings together the research efforts and expertise of the three institutions in a common academic network. Components of the project include student exchanges, faculty exchanges for lectures and workshops, long-term collaborative research projects in electronic art, and research in the use of telecommunications and hypertext technologies to support distance learning and the development of shared curriculum initiatives.” - Extracted from TransAtLab website.