The synthetic cameraman

"The Synthetic Cameraman" is a full-screen, real-time, 3D graphics simulation that critically challenges the notions of remediation, processuality, linearity, and creative agency in computer-generated virtual environments. The application is rendering a virtual scene depicting a volcanic mountain landscape with a centrally located volcanic cone that is violently erupting with pyroclastic flow and rocks of different sizes being expelled as molten lava rivers are traveling down the slope forming a lava lake at the foot of the cone. The visual aspect of the phenomenon is enhanced by deep sounds of rumbling earth and rocks hitting the bottom of the caldera and falling down the slope. The viewing takes about 3--5 minutes and is divided into three sections with the middle section constituting the core experience where the control over individual elements in the scene is given over to the algorithms. The weather conditions, eruption, and the settings of virtual camera - its dynamic movement and image properties - are procedurally generated in real-time. The range of possible values that the camera is using can go beyond the capabilities of physical cameras, which makes it a hypermediated representational apparatus, producing partially abstract, semi-photorealistic ever changing fluid visuals originating from a broadened aesthetic spectrum. The algorithms are also controlling various post-processing effects that are procedurally applied to the camera feed. All of these processes are taking place in real-time, therefore every second of the experience is conceived through a unique entanglement of settings and parameters directing both the eruption and its representation. Each second of the simulation as perceived by the viewer is a one-time event, that constitutes this ever-lasting visual spectacle. The artwork can be displayed in a physical setting using a TV / projector or in a virtual setup as a continuous image feed (stream) produced by the application.