Lumar-LookingOutwards05

A lot of my ideation and thinking process for our FaceOSC project was affected  by/inspired by what I saw (or didn’t see) at weird reality’s VR salon. I’ll admit, I was a tad disappointed in some of the works – it felt as if the medium wasn’t being used to it’s fullest extent; it’s a complete 3d immersive environment, but some were such…passive viewing experiences that it was hard to say at all if the content was augmented by its medium or  if the content would’ve been equally fine as 2d or regular 3d movies. I wanted to be surprised within a modular environment – I wanted to turn around and see something new – if it was a building,…I want to know what made the VR experience better than simply walking through the actual building.

That being said, all the works were still wonderful to see! I am very grateful to have gotten the chance to go!

I got unity and tried some photogramming of my own this week!

remake

But anyway! Mars Wong. Dang. He’s only a freshman! I still haven’t gotten over the fact he started on the VR/Game design scene as only a 9 year old, and later on with a Fjord internship as a 9th grader. What on earth was I doing at that age? …typing very slowly that’s what.

http://m4r5w0n6.com/games#/interrogation/

This work I find especially interesting because after fiddling around with photogramming and unity, this piece doesn’t seem particularly arduous to do – so why do I think it’s worth mentioning? It’s a one day project to recreate an interrogation room environment/feel. With fairly simple techniques, but a really clever usage of the tools available, the deliverable definitely achieves its objectives. I bring this up, because there’s a difference between what can be done and what should be done. Some of the pieces in the VR salon felt incredibly computationally complex, but that complexity did not always translate proportionally to a more developed interaction or benefit artistically.

I liken it to traditional artists that create hyper photorealistic portraits. In that, the extra effort put in the technical execution of the portrait doesn’t generate net benefit to the piece as art – really, why bother with photorealism when a camera is so much faster? In this, I think hyperrealism is like using technology just because one ‘can’ and it is left unconsidered.

The pregnancy vr piece was my favorite. There’s the aspect of the unexpected and unnerving in it that really uses the VR medium well to achieve the effect. I wish I had gotten a chance to experience Mars’ archery game; the full body immersion/pieces wherein the user could be an active participant within the environment were always the best;

http://m4r5w0n6.com/games#/archery/

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