Alive on the Grid is a networked virtual reality art show that was first demonstrated as part of the 2001 Ars Electronica Festival[1]. It is effectively a group show - within the overall virtual world were ten distinct pieces by contributors from several institutions. It is also a shared world, in that participants at seven international sites visited the common environment together; visitors from the different sites saw, manipulated, and interacted with the same virtual objects, and were visible to each other as 3D avatars. The environment was created to be shown in CAVEs [2], ImmersaDesks [3], and similar projection-based virtual reality displays.
There have been several virtual reality artworks created in the past as shared, multi-user worlds; however, due to the many difficulties involved, very few have attempted to function as widely distributed environments over the Internet. The typical form of a shared VR art environment has been a pair of users at a single site together; for example, Videoplace [4] can take the images of two people and put them together to interact. Placeholder [5] similarly allowed a pair of participants to enter the space at one time; however, by letting them leave marks and recordings in the virtual space, a sense of many more visitors being there over time was created. The HiPArt project's Artworld [6], a collaborative space constructed by a large group of New England artists, can operate over the Internet; the dynamics and interaction within the environment are kept relatively simple, such as keyframed animations activated by users' presence.