Faculty and students at ACCAD represent a community of researchers and artists, using technology in a wide variety of applications. The technologies with which they work evoke a variety of different and sometimes competing perceptions of the realities that are being envisioned. The opportunity exists within the Center to discuss and debate these perceptions with colleagues in the academic environment. This project proposes to extend this opportunity to other members of the community, in order to shift the question of "What is reality?" to the broader and sometimes more appropriate question of "What representation of reality is this?"

An exhibition has been designed that provides the means with which to stimulate these discussions. It reflects the eclectic nature of the Center itself. Artists and technicians have collaborated in presenting their interpretation of an aspect of the exhibition theme in formats consisting of computer generated imagery and animations on video, multimedia installations, computer simulations, and telecommunication systems. Included in the exhibit are demonstrations of applications of the technology, as well as innovative works that accomplish the goal of the project. It goes beyond the applied demonstrations by incorporating exhibits that include interactions by which the observer can actively experience, seek and express his/her viewpoint on the perceptions that are presented.

At the present, the exhibit includes computer or technology based art by artists from Ohio, several states, and 2 foreign countries. These artworks include interactive experiences as well as more traditional gallery hangings that are consistent with the theme of the project. Several national supercomputer laboratories have submitted work in the realm of scientific visualization that shows the impact of the technology on how we visualize the physical world around us. Examples of work from several major film studios and production facilities are used to show how motion pictures and television advertising rely on the technology to create an artificial world in order to portray their message. Students and faculty from the University have been commissioned to produce exhibit components that deal with diverse topics such as "the demise of the photograph as proof of reality", the role of the technology in archeological reconstructions, digital alternatives to physical models, and the broader issue of perception as a human attribute.

The physical exhibit is divided between three locations in the Columbus community: the Wexner Center for Contemporary Arts, the Ohio's Center of Science and Industry, and the Martin Luther King Performing and Cultural Arts Center. Each of the three sites will have a subset of the entire exhibit, and they will be electronically linked so that a visitor to one site can experience content of the exhibit which is located at one of the other facilities. The exhibit is scheduled for the month of April, 1995 at these locations.