Virtual sculpture 'growing' within a computer-generated environment is just one of the possible creations of CSIRO's new artist-in-residence.

The Australia Council and CSIRO announced today the first artist to benefit from the new scheme.

Valued at $35,000, the year-long residency will enable artist Horst Kiechle to work with the Canberra-based virtual environments research programme at CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences.

Announcing the grant, Dr Ron Sandland, Chief, CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences said, "Mr Kiechle will work with a team who are developing and evaluating the uses of virtual reality technology in displaying and interacting with scientific and industrial data. Mr Kiechle will be contributing his skills to the problem of incorporating perceptual aspects of data display."

"We expect that, by exercising our virtual reality system with novel data and scenarios, he will extend our understanding of the capabilities of such systems. Having a scientific/development team interacting at several levels with Mr Kiechle should help us tease out and focus our ideas."

John Rimmer, Chair of the Australia Council's New Media Arts Fund, said "the Australia Council welcomes this substantial financial and technical support from CSIRO. The partnership forged between the arts and industry will open up an exciting creative dialogue tough."

Mr Kiechle said he hopes to gain a better understanding of advances in physics-based computer simulation through the residency.

"CSIRO's virtual environment facilities will make it easier for me to create and visualise my sculptural environments which will form the basis for Web-based VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) artworks and theatricaln performance works."

"VRML is a means of sending three-dimensional environments through the Internet - parts of which can also be animated. A person browsing on the Net can explore these environments by interactively moving around in the space."

"I am excited at the prospect of adding such a dynamic dimension to my webpage - the opportunity to create a growing, mutating and reacting sculptural environment surpassing the current possibilities in hardspace."

Media Enquiries:
Jane Silversmith (02) 9950 9009
Graham Reynolds (CSIRO) (06) 216 7009