Describe your VR experience at Speculative Culture: To start off, I find it amazing how we’ve gotten to the point where there are entire exhibits centered around virtual reality. I spent the first half of my time at the Speculative Culture exhibit watching screens that displayed what VR users were seeing through their headsets (living through them since the gallery was fairly busy when we went and there weren’t a lot of available headsets). I was eventually able to try out the VR experience created by the American women who traveled to Iran and then wasn’t allowed back into the country afterwards due to Muslim ban Trump set up. It was made so that users had to stand up and make certain hand motions in order to interact with it. Although I found this particular piece interesting, I noticed that the headset was strung to the ceiling at a height that was a bit taller than myself (making the experience slightly uncomfortable since it wasn’t adjustable), you had to make the required hand motions multiple times before the sensors would recognize and process what you were doing, and after a while I started to get dizzy. The next VR experience I tried out, though, was a lot more enjoyable. Created by the man from South Africa, users were asked to sit down on a bean bag and put the headset on. At first I wasn’t sure if something was wrong with the system and/or the headset I was wearing. While other VR installations instantly started playing a built in simulation once the headset was on, this one first took me to a home screen, a remote in my hand. It felt more like a game than anything else. Scrolling through apps on the simulation, I came across one that was meant to scare you. Next thing you know I was placed in a haunted house with all sorts of things hanging from the ceiling that I kept bumping into (sound effects were included). There was a dead body on the corner of the room, and at one point the walls started moving in (making the room smaller and smaller) until I had no choice but to confront the dead body. It seemed as though the corpse was just inches from my face, and there was nowhere to go. Ultimately I got creeped out and took the headset off, but it was a thrilling experience nonetheless. Thinking about the exhibit overall, the idea that interior designers could potentially create spaces using virtual reality as “models” was interesting.
Name some other ways you can be taken to another place, without actually physically being there. What are some specific personal examples?: People can be taken to other places (without physically being there) through their senses. For example, every time I smell my grandfathers cologne I’m taken back to the area right beside the front door of my childhood home (a place where he hugged me many, many times, either when coming or when going). When it comes to sound, I’m taken back to the backseat of my mother’s car every time I hear the song The Pretender by Foo Fighters (a song she and I love to sing along to on full volume). One way I’ve seen a person’s senses inttentionally take them to another place is the case of the ride Soarin’ at Epcot. On this ride, not only is there a huge screen in front of you displaying the view of someone on a hang glider, but there are certain scents sprayed into the space throughout the ride at certain points (sense of smell) as well as fans that blow wind at riders (sense of touch).
