Lecture 1 –

 After reading Brenda Laurel’s guidelines to VR I was honestly a bit confused. I had to reread it over to fully understand what her viewpoints were. One key point that I realize really helps immerse the viewer into the virtual world is audio. Being in a artificial environment audio is one way to trick the user into believing there is a depth and tracking the user’s direction such as playing the audio louder if they are facing one predominant side over the other can create this sense of depth. 

Lecture 2 –

 This week’s lecture we talked about the many ways that media can be immersive. I never thought about how engagement is really key to being fully immersed into something. After reading about Brenda Laurel’s viewpoint on engagement I realized she is 100% correct about what that term meant. I thought back to even something as simple as ice breaker games during school. If all the students were truly engaged and took the games seriously, then it would’ve accomplished the teacher’s goal to get us comfortable and befriending one another. However, I personally never took it seriously so as a result I wasn’t giving myself over to the teacher’s “game.”

Lecture 3 –

 This week’s lecture was a recap on Brenda Laurels Computers as Theatre chapters 1-3. Laurel talks about how computers is similar to theatre, and she listed examples such as her personal experiences with theatre and from Aristotle as well. I found all 3 chapters kind of boring and hard to grasp, especially since Laurel repeated herself for awhile. I did find Anezka’s lecture interesting when she talked about the origins of VR, and how the technology has actually been around since 1980s. Also VR was used in arcades and they’d be these huge machines, but after awhile it never caught on until recently when the resurgence of VR’s popularity has hit the mainstream market again. 

Lecture 4 –

 During lecture this week we talked about what were the key components that make up a narrative. It’s comprised of the exposition, inciting incident, a rising action, a crisis, a climax, a falling action, and the denouement (resolution). Also what I found interesting from the reading was about how users often believe “social media disconnects us from the world.” I personally think that statement is true yet false. Social media can connect us and share parts of our lives with people living on the other side of the world, yet it can be a double edged sword as well. I have seen how social media can consume some people’s lives and people rather live their lives through a smartphone screen than actually be doing the activities they post about. I just believe we as users should be conscious of our consumption of social media and technology and know how to use it in moderation.

Lecture 5 –

This weeks lecture was about Live Action Role playing a game called “Good to Great.” When I first entered the building I was confused as to why so many of my classmates were standing outside the lecture room. Then when we entered the class we were greeted by overly enthusiastic students chanting “good to great.” I was definitely confused and almost questioning if I was even in the right classroom. The LARP was set in an “office” environment where we were split up to different offices. We played office games and made small talk by the “water cooler.” I wasn’t really engaged during most of it and until when I became the employee of the month I started to open up more. Afterwards, I realized we were playing a simple LARP and Nick made a good point about how if we had a closed of state of mind we were never going to let ourselves be fully immersed in the game. I realized first-hand that willingness to engage is crucial for immersion in anything.

Workshop 1 –

 Our group project proposal was centered around VR storytelling and animation. My group originally came up with two different stories, but both contained themes of love and death. We decided to model the characters as simply as we could since Marlise was the only one that really know how to use Unity. Although the unity lessons throughout the weeks did help a bit. 

Workshop 2 –

 This week we learned more about Unity’s assets and how to model a scene/terrain. We also learned about how to write basic scripts for transform rotations. I also found it interesting when Anezka talked about how AI are the future we are progressing towards. Awhile back I saw a video about a robot named Sophia gaining a citizenship in Saudia Arabia. Whether it was a publicity stunt or not it scared me a bit how lifelike she was and made me question what is the purpose of giving AI citizenship to a country. Does that mean that robot can feel human emotions and contribute to that country just like any other citizen?

Workshop 3 –

 This week we discussed a variety of live performances during lecture today. I never really understood the reasoning or desire to partake in performance art pieces, such as Marina Abramovic’s piece at the MoMA. Marina sat in a chair and stared at the person who was sitting across from her for hours on end. People lined up for hours to experience sitting across from her and I guess this type of unnerving engagement is a work of art, but to me this type of art same with abstractionism goes over my head sometimes. I do think it’s funny when after awhile they considered Marina as an art piece, and they only viewed her as a human being only after when she moved. 

Workshop 4 –

  In discussion we discussed Jordan Belamire’s My First VR Groping article. I thought it was interesting how the class’ opinions was torn on whether Jordan’s experience was considered sexual assault. We also talked about possible solutions such as banning/flagging a player as a possible solution, however that can’t be the end all solution. A possible scenario could be if we allowed players to ban one another it is very possible that could incite bullying within the VR space. After reading the article I felt disgusted that only after Jordan spoke during the game was she targeted as a result of having a feminine voice. That’s why personally I never feel comfortable playing multiplayer games with voice chat, because of the fear of being sexually targeted for being a girl.

Media Analysis 1: Theatrical Immersion

 This was the first group doing their media analysis and it was about immersive theater. The groups brought up similarities and differences between witnessing and participating. They made the argument that on some occasions witnessing is just as immersive as participation using the experience of Clouds Over Sidra. 

Media Analysis 2: VR Animation

 This was my group’s topic and we went and experienced Zero Days and Dear Angelica through the Oculus Rift. My favorite personally was Dear Angelica and I found it most successful in terms of immersing the viewer using narrative animation as compared to Zero Days. I believe whether an animation is successful is when it can fully trick the viewer that the artificial world in VR is real and the viewer is incorporated into that as well. I think why Dear Angelica is particularly successful is because at first I was acutely aware of the abstract drawing style, and that it was a cartoon basically. However, as the story progressed I soon forgot I was watching an animation, and truly believed the characters were as much as alive as I was. Zero Days was a bit lackluster for me since even though I could turn 360 there was nothing ever going on behind me or on my sides. The camera was very fixed to the center of the screen and this experience didn’t utilize as an effective audio narrative as compared to Dear Angelica. 

Media Analysis 3: The Displaced and Clouds Over Sidra

 This media analysis was about immersive journalism and both groups talked about two films: Clouds Over Sidra and The Displaced. One group made a strong argument about how Clouds Over Sidra was good for storytelling purposes, but lacked real authentic journalism. Clouds Over Sidra dumbed down the experience of the many Syrian refugees and another argument was how it can be a bit tricky incorporating this type of journalism with VR because it could lead to desensitizing the viewers when it comes to serious topics of war and violence. 

Media Analysis 4: Walden

This game shows how games don’t need to be fueled solely by realistic violence to create a successful game. In the game players can appreciate and be engaged in the environment of David Thoreau during his 1845 social experiment living at Walden Pond. The user is allowed to find items, explore nature, and learn about philosophy – while on a journey for self-reliance. 

Media Analysis 5: Work by Nonny de la Pena

  This week both groups talked about the two works by Nonny de la Pena. The works both touch upon themes about social justice and using virtual reality as a tool to bringing awareness to the people. The works were called Hunger in LA and Out of Exile, and I actually experienced Out of Exile first-hand with Anezka. The experience was quite frightening to witness especially when the argument between Daniel and his parents escalated to physically violence. I was standing in between the two characters and had to step back because I actually thought Daniel’s mom would hit me. I think the most effective part of Nonny’s works is how she used actual audio from Daniel’s incident to recreate the story. Definitely, Daniel’s story was emotional and heartfelt, however I found the ending a bit disorientating when four individuals including Daniel was placed around me, each telling me their own stories. I had to physically turn 360 to hear and see everyone’s stories and I became a bit dizzy as a result.