The Visualization (Viz) Studio has seen technology maneuver through time, with the walls changing as much as the technology changed itself. What now comprises the Viz Studio at one point used to be four different rooms, each with a different purpose. There was one room for ArtsEngine, one room for a 3D rendering but non-VR computer lab, one room that held the soldering station that now rests in Fab Underground, and finally a small room in the back which housed a large SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc) computer. This refrigerator-sized computer used to be in charge of controlling the MIDEN, and at the time, was the most advanced of its kind. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, anyone who wanted a graphic super computer wanted an SGI computer: a company that at the time dominated the market for its high-speed rendering of 3D graphics.
With all of the technology and the days before wireless, the Viz Studio and MIDEN were planned ahead, leaving one-foot of a raised floor to manage all of the wires in the space. However, now the MIDEN is able to compute the equivalent speed and faster without the SGI, and uses merely five PCs in-room to control all its graphics. Additionally, the Viz Studio now sits as a big workspace and classroom for all, without much need of the one-foot space under the floor to hold cables. Although the cables are mostly gone, the raised floor remains as a lasting reminder of the technology that helped shape the Visualization Studio into what it is today.
Photo Credits: Duderstadt Center Visualization Studio
Article by Emma Powell