At the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo, an interdisciplinary team of professors and their students from the departments of English, Art and Design, Architecture, Computer Science, and Graphic Arts and Communication have designed an interactive new media theater called the CompuObscura, a device that updates the concept of the camera obscura and connects it to other CompuObscuras around the globe through Internet II technology (Internet II is a faster version—twice the throughput—of the current Internet that is currently restricted for use by select research centers and major universities in the USA).To inform the development and design of the CompuObscura, the Cal Poly faculty and students have collected this technology invention, development and testing process into a research collective called the Lumiere Ghosting Project.

While the CompuObscura is a fairly complex technical device, and the Lumiere Ghosting Project is a complicated combination of research, pedagogy, usability testing, and program management, the ultimate goal for all these projects is fairly simple, and somewhat light-hearted—they both revolve around play and experimentation with emerging digital technologies.

     
  Image of Charlie Chaplin looking down at a visitor leaving the CompuObscura. Taken by Cal Poly Architecture class students using class-created model and slide projector, Spring 2004.  
     
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