Description Wield celestial forces in a field of stars in the universe of Cosmic Sugar. Experience deep states of flow as you paint, swirl, and dance through gravity-defying, three-dimensional light shows of your own making. Freeze the particles in time and turn them into high resolution prints or export them as point clouds to use in your own 3D artworks. History An art tool like no other, Cosmic Sugar was brought to life as a brainseed of David Lobser, founder of light.clinic, the indie creative tech studio. First conceived at a music hackathon as a midi-driven, personal VJing tool, it was gradually ported to VR. With encouragement from mixed-reality industry leader, Jaron Lanier, Cosmic Sugar was released publicly and the reaction has been positive from its users. “I’ll keep working on it forever, I can’t see it aging and I hope it’s as relevant a million years from now as it is today,” says Lobser. Features 100,000 particles on Quest 2 1,000,000+ particles on PC (a better graphics card = more particles) Forces: - Gravity - Anti-Gravity - Swirl - Tornado - Sun - Torus - Ripples - Noise Drawing: - Spray - Line - Line Between Controllers - Curve Between Controllers - Floor - Spiral - Starburst - Customizable Point Cloud Save high resolution snapshots. Save and load particles and view them in a web portal. Design Principles The user experience design behind Cosmic Sugar was originally inspired by sound ceremonies that use gongs, singing bowls and chimes. The idea was to allow users to visualize the energy they are creating by using sonic wands in a virtual universe. The particles that manifest in real-time are ethereal clouds, but, like dark matter, are bound by underlying structures. Cosmic Sugar rewards time and practice with unfolding details and endlessly unique interactions. Beginners without practice in an artistic medium will also be able to generate beautiful experiences. Audience Artists and illustrators Creative people with or without artistic skills Performers Meditators Kids pick up Cosmic Sugar the easiest because they are already tuned into play and exploration. They mash at the buttons, but rather than fixate on the interface, they explore and as one nine year old at the People’s Film Festival put it, “I feel like a God!”. Flow One of VR’s most distinct features is its ability to completely isolate the viewer and immerse them in a synthetic world. This means that when the viewer is in a comfortable environment, they will not be distracted and can suspend their disbelief to melt into the virtual world they may find themselves in—this leads to a greater degree of engagement and flow. “Flow” is a design term defined by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Csíkszentmihályi found some key factors that accompany an experience of flow: - Attention: VR is a medium which forces a focusing of attention into the VR world. - Direct and immediate feedback: Cosmic Sugar provides highly sensitive and detailed controls which encourage play and combinations. - Sufficiently challenging task: Users challenge themselves to create more detailed and beautiful creations as they learn how to use the instruments. - Sense of personal control: Cosmic Sugar gives the superpowers. Users report feeling like Harry Potter, even gods. - Intrinsically rewarding: Cosmic Sugar is an art making tool, there is nothing to accomplish and nothing to fail at, it is a universe that exists for its own sake. Cosmic Sugar is ephemeral and ever changing. Each experience is unique and cannot be revisited, making every moment precious. Exhibits Cosmic Sugar has shown at Burning Man, The Electric Daisy Carnival, Luxury Escapism, The People's Film Festival, Hyperspective, Pioneer Works and others. Contributors David Lobser - Creative Director, Lead Developer His work revolves around the creation of luxurious “senscapes” to elicit healing, out-of-body experiences through emerging technologies. With over two decades of projects bridging art and innovation, his interest in using new media to create beautiful, hypnotic imagery is centered on changing the mind states of viewers to elicit calm, focus and creativity. Nate Turley - Designed the compute shader rendering pipeline. Kristofer Schlachter - Coined the name. Scott Garner - Loading, saving web based point cloud visualizer. Technology Virtual reality is a necessity for the Cosmic Sugar experience. Cosmic Sugar was designed for high end headsets where it easily supports a million particles or more, but it works wonderfully on mobile headsets, such as the Oculus Quest, as well. Contact info@light.clinic