Chapter 19: Immersive Environments

VR is transitioning between sci-fi to entertainment fact.

Ideas were made popular by works like Star Trek and The Matrix

Defining VR, Immersive Environments, and Location-Based Entertainment

*VR: an extreme version of cyberspace into which one can be fully immersed. Requires special hardware. HMD+Headphones+Gloves or BOOM (binocular omni orientation monitor) or the CAVE, which surrounds the user with rear view projection screens and stereoscopic glasses.

*Goal of VR+Immersive environment: give users the impression that they are in a real physical space, although it is artificially created.

*Some VR is not an Immersive environment, and an Immersive environment is not necessarily VR in the case of ridefilms.

*Location Based Entertainment: VR or IE encountered at theme parks, museums, aquariums, etc.

Most VR is confined to research divisions of academic, military, or industrial organizations.

Origins of VR: training pilots in 1929->Sensorama (arcade game) in 1962->Myron Krueger in 1974 as a doctoral disseration, and in 1983 in a book "Artificial Reality"->Jaron Lanier founded VPL Research, coined term "Virtual Reality"->1989 Nintendo Power Glove, a high end version was used by NASA (first VR device available to consumers)->the CAVE 1992 @ siggraph (VR theater with rear projectors and 3D glasses, accomodated multiple users, no bulky hardware, designed for scientific visualization)

VR for Artistic Expression and Storytelling

First expressive work: Ashes to Ashes incorporated dance, music, and narrative accounts of survivors and witnesses of 9/11

Creating a Narrative Path: Think of the experience you want to share, the utilize everything at your disposal to get the point across. Try not to design with the 6 walls, try to make the walls disappear. For AtA, there were 4 phases of the story, anticipation, terror, shock, and release.

Virtual Temple Project: 3D tour of an Indian temple. Highly detailed 3D modeling and characters. Currently still in progress, but intended to add storytelling in the future.

Other Experiments in VR: The Thing Growing-interactive fiction in which the participant is intended to go though a difficult relation ship and struggle. Memory Stairs- a spiral staircase in which each step represents a different stage of life.

Other VR uses: Teaching and Training, Psychotherapy, Promotion

In Entertainment: DisneyQuest (indoor theme park with a bunch of VR stuff from HMDs to CAVE environments)

Challenged in creation for VR: Entirely new paradigm, participant is inside the experience rather than something in front of them. VR is technology centric as of now, so focus is on scientific interests. Creators have no models to draw upon, not many successful examples. No aesthetic grammar, no recognized way of dealing with creative issues.

Immersive Environments: less dependent on cumbersome devices, lots of military interest.

Walt Disney's Imagineers use a form of immersive storytelling tailored to theme parks when creating new rides. DRU, an animatronic dolphin successfully convinced adults that he was real through the use of real-time puppeteering.

VR has great potential, but it is too expensive right now in order to be feasible.

Project Ideas

If I understand correctly, the goal of the project is to make the painting feel alive without losing it's authenticity. Taking a level design approach to this, I can think of three ways to easily add life to the painting.

1: Add History

Project Idea-Boomtown Chronology

For this project, we would show how the town evolved to the way it is in the painting. It would start as a crossroads, then as time passed, and oil was found buildings would start to show up. After that, more and more people and buildings would appear until the painting is at its current state. For example, one day might focus on the bar fight, another would focus on the movie showing, and another on the fire in the background. A narrator or text would explain each day and how it relates to the time period and painting. After the initial playthrough of the chronology, the viewer would be able to manipulate a slider to return to any of the previous events. By adding history to the place, the viewer will have a deeper understanding of what is going on the painting, and may become more interested in the time period because of it.

2: Add Character

Project Idea- Character Stories/Journals

For this project, the goal would be to bring life to the space by allowing the viewer to see the scene from the point of view of the different characters in it. Each character would have a story or journal associated with them the explains their backgrounds, personalities, and current motivations. Interaction could take place within a 3D representation of the painting, or on a 2D digital replication. In the 3D environment, the player would interact with characters by controlling a disembodied camera, moving up to a character and pressing a button to bring up a screen with the character's story or journal. In the 2D environment, the viewer could simply mouse over the character to bring up their story screen. There is also the possibility of this story containing original artwork, movies, or audio clips to enhance the story. Once the viewer has read some of the stories, they will understand more about the people of the time; their aspirations and personalities, and thus gain a deeper emotional connection to the painting.

3: Add Agency

Project Idea-Player controller story creation

In this project, we provide the basic backstory of the painting, and then allow the player to write about what they wish. They can click on an object (much like tagging in facebook) to bring up a text box. They can then fill that text box with whatever they want. If the player wants to write about characters, buildings, history, visual aspects of the painting, art techniques, etc. they can write whatever they want. Self expression is a good way to get the player to invest emotion in a work, but the only drawback is that they have to make the decision to invest it. If the player feels no connection to the work, they will not be inclined to write about it. On the other hand, if they feel some connection to the work, the investment of their time and energy will compound their interest. Because of this shortcoming, it might be best to combine this idea with one of the previous ideas.

Although these could be seen as three separate projects, they could also be combined into one large project. It might be ambitious, but I think the combination of history, character, and agency will go beyond the minimum requirements of the project, and result in a noticable effect on the viewer.

Assignment 1: Framing and Metaphors

Book: Return to Wonderland

The frame used in this comic is a modification of the Wonderland myth originally created by Lewis Carrol. The difference between the frame of the original myth and the frame of the comic is that the environment is extended into the 'real world,' it takes place in modern times, and it is intended to be a horror/fantasy rather than just fantasy. Since the frame is present in the wonderland environment as well as the real world, the roles and metaphors are seen in both settings. The roles in this frame are generally equivalent to the characters in the original work, so some of these roles include Alice, the white rabbit, the mad hatter, the cheshire cat, the red queen, and the carpenter among others.

Since this adaptation of Carrol's myth is a horror, many of the roles are twisted to match the frame. For example, in the original myth, the cheshire cat is a slightly overweight housecat who provides helpful and intentionally cryptic hints, and is usually portrayed as a trickster. In Return to Wonderland, however, the cheshire cat is a huge tiger, who still speaks cryptically, but instead of offering advice, it kills things. It still retains the feature of not really taking sides and speaking cryptically, but instead of being a trickster, it's simply hungry. Another role that was modified from the original is the role of Alice. In the original, since many of the characters were not explicitly malicious, Alice was never really threatened and as a result had an inquisitive nature. In Return to Wonderland, the character in the role of Alice is named "Calie," (which is an anagram of Alice), and because she is in a hostile environment, she has a tougher disposition in addition to being inquisitive. For example, in one scene with the mad hatter, Calie is drugged and the hatter is trying to rape her. Calie takes immediate action and grabs the closest hard object to bash the hatter with, but instead of running away, she decided to teach the hatter a lesson and proceeds to severly maim him for his actions. This kind of scene would obviously never played out in the original framing of the myth because of the lack of the horror element.

Many of the metaphors in Return to Wonderland involve dreams. In the first issue, Calie mentions a feeling of living in a dream, unable to wake up; in the second issue, she makes a similar reference upon entering wonderland. Other quotes from the second issue include "Maybe we're all just characters in somone else's dream," and "Maybe I'm dreaming you." These are all metaphors likening dreams with our perceptions of reality. Other metaphors liken different activities to games. Sometimes phrases like "Get your head into the game," and "let's play," are used when no game is involved and the speaker is actually referring to the events at hand, and given the horror frame, usually refer to something life threatening and macabre. In the fantasy framing of the original work, similar metaphors were used, but had a slightly different tone because many of the events that were being referred to were silly or nonsensical. With the change of the myth's frame from fantasy to horror, even with keeping the roles and metaphors the same, it creates a setting that allows for completely different events, interaction, and overall tone.

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