Time´s Up developed SPIN as an interface to interactively explore virtual 3D-worlds without VR-headset. A hollow, translucent sphere of three meter in diameter lies on bearings so that it can get rotated around all axis. It is designed to let a person enter and walk inside of it which will make the sphere spin. Transmitted to a computer the corresponding walking distance and direction navigates a set of four virtual cameras through 3-D scenes. Their real-time rendered viewports get projected onto the sphere´s outside as seamless 360 dome projection so that the person inside will experiences a perfectly immersive coherence of body movement and panoramic sight.

For the interdisciplinary art event Crash Test Dummy – the new European “Self” in a bio-political crash test in Budapest and Munich the project Body SPIN made the virtual worlds become driven by unconscious body signals of the person inside the sphere. Pulse and breath frequency were transmitted via data-vest and with the bio-feedback interfering with the environment the virtual worlds become walkable psychograms. Accordingly each visitor´s starting world was chosen due to a psychological questionnaire about personal needs, fears and feelings about social security.

The virtual worlds challenge the proband in different ways: they can be claustrophobic, vertiginous or abstract, hard to navigate or easy to get lost in. This can happen easily when there is no up and down and every surface can be walked the way insects do. All worlds become harder to deal with the less the test person will manage to stay calm. They do not have a precise goal. For the visitor it is hard enough to bear the confrontation and keep going.

In the first place the visitor has to learn how to orient and move within them since there is no up and down. Instead, the proband will stick to any surface like an insect. Via data-vest each proband´s pulse and breath are registered and evaluated to alter the world, on purpose or involuntarily. There is no defined goal to achieve but to bear the confrontation.