Conduct Research – include academic references, art works, literature, products in the market, anything that you think is part of the ecosystem of what you are working on

Pick at least one academic paper, post a link and your response to its claims/insights

Create a mood board combining visual research and takeaway quotes, ideas, studies. Post it to your thesis journal

Write a ‘Dream Review’ of your project

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Here is the link to the article that inspired me: “Behind the Curtain of the “Ultimate Empathy Machine”: On the Composition of Virtual Reality Nonfiction Experiences”.

The essay gives a general overview on the current state of VRNE, Virtual Reality Nonfiction, its history, its method of storytelling, perspective(gaze), ways of interaction, formats, audio design, manipulation of time, technical limitation, and etc. In the beginning of the essay, an important question was posed, whether the virtual reality technology is truly an “ultimate empathy machine” as it seems to be, whether its 360 degree viewing format really defeats the traditional two dimensional film and achieve an ultimate “realness” in allowing the audience to immerse in the story.

Contrary to this pre-conception, throughout the essay, the author displayed extensive data analyzing the trend in VRNE. According to the data, the amount of content that attempts to directly fulfill this ambition of presenting embodiment through first person perspective is actually very small: “Less than one in five of the titles we reviewed were presented entirely in the first-person perspective.” Instead, most content producers tend to make their audience in VRNE passive observant, while presenting an omniscient point-of-view in most works, as the author describes as “a tendency to rely on the omniscient viewpoint, where the story is simply explained to the viewer who looks on passively from afar.”

Based on these findings, the author suspects that this contradiction to the ideal of the “Ultimate Empathy Machine’ might be a result of lacking technical maturity in this emergent medium, which made content producers less confident in making more first person works. However, thinking upon that, I feel that, although the 360 degree nature of VRNE seems to suggest an innate passiveness of the medium, the kind of passiveness demonstrated in past VRNE works actually bring us very close to an “Ultimate Empathy Machine.” I remember the first time viewing the 360 VR documentary “After Solitary.’ Though through viewing it, I was acting as a passive observer, I felt as if I was take on a tour as the protagonist’s friend into his hidden past, something that I can imagine and walk through with him but never experience it the way he did. I think that is a realistic form of empathy. If I were to experience it as a fully first person perspective, I think I might instead have the full freedom to experience the place for myself, instead of having empathy for the main character.

mood board

 

 

 

 

 

Dream Review

Between Me and You(imaginary, working title) is a VR documentary that takes the viewer to explore the full effect of human trafficking. Places have stories to tell. Places embody the people who live in them. Places carry people’s memories and proves the traces of their existence. In an effort to convey the immense hole that human trafficking left on families, the project utilizes 360-video to immerse viewers in the homes of victims. Guided by the voices of the survivors or the parents of the survivors, the 15 minute experience allows the audience to understand the horrific trauma left by human trafficking.