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Everyday Windows

Ilana Pecis Bonder, Nicolás Peña-Escarpentier

A set VR experiences to reflect on the sociopolitical aspects of everyday sexism

https://github.com/nicolaspe/everyday_windows

Description

Sexism, harassment, abuse… They all have been historically regarded as personal issues, relegating them from the public discussion, and diverting attention of their status as sociopolitical systemic problems. We want to show what happens behind the doors (or windows, in this case), what women go through and how society as a whole contributes to the expansion of these issues.

Guided by the prompt “touch a window and use me to explore the stories behind” under a VR Cardboard, users select a window -lined with conductive fabric and wired with a capacitive sensor- which lights up the room showing the shadows of the characters inside. Then, the specific scene loads in the VR headset, so the users can immerse themselves in the daily experience the character goes through.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Extra

Nicolás Peña-Escarpentier, Stephanie Hagemeister

In an era of information bombardment, do we reflect on what we’re being told?

https://github.com/nicolaspe/extra

Description

An open newspaper with four changing projected videos of different highly streamed media content (political news, advertisement, celebrities, etc) emulates the bombardment of information we’re subjected to every day. The content is too small to be seen accurately from far away, and the superposition of sounds makes it incomprehensible. But as soon as someone comes close to try to understand the presented “information”, the newspaper closes, eliminating the videos and replacing them by white noise. This state persists until we step away for a while (a few seconds), only to start again.

This project wants to create a reflection on the “click-driven” format of current news media. The focus is not on giving accurate information, but on generating traffic and revenue. Our society has become accustomed to this format, accepting the content we’re fed. But, on a closer inspection, we realize this content is non-existant.

This also incorporates a reflection on the lack of accountability of news media. Apart from feeding us with empty content, any confrontation is futile, as they go back to their usual operation as soon as the user goes away.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing