Author: Alex Markova

P1 Idea:

What is the world?
My preliminary idea (which is subject to change) is to create a world/environment of an abandoned water park. Conceptually, it would allude to the global water crisis and envision a post-apocalyptic future where such an artifact of short-sighted human entertainment becomes a habitat for new life forms of the future (but I don’t know what those could be).

How is it different from the one we live in?
It is deserted, quiet and human-less. The massive structures of the waterpark are stripped of their original purpose and become strange and absurd.

What do you do in this world?
*I am struggling to answer this question because I am not committed to this idea at all, because it mostly appeals to me visually rather than conceptually. I am not sure what kind of narrative I could create there to fill it with content and opportunities to actually do something on this world.

I will definitely keep looking for other ideas and will need to let my imagination go more crazy! 🙂

The pictures below belong to Aziz Jamal, a Saudi multidisciplinary artist. This work is a series of 3 videos called 1056% (commissioned by the Saudi Art Council, 2019).

And here are some images of creepy abandoned amusement parks.

Reading Response 1

Murray’s chapter on “From Additive to Expressive Form” reminded me of the literature and general content of one of the classes I have taken previously at NYU Gallatin, where we learned about and created our own non-linear storytelling narratives and literature. In particular, the example of Zork was one of the main case studies we have referred to throughout the course. Now, it is exciting to use the same example and compared to VR.

It is quite impressive how this reading holds up to this day despite so may developments to multimedia technologies in these years. The author’s breakdown of digital environments is applicable to VR technologies as well.

The four principle properties in relation to VR:

  1. procedural: I think the back-end components of VR are algorithmic and, therefore, procedural. If it is a game environment, the gameplay can have its own procedures and a storyline.
  2. participatory: VR is interactive and engaging, even if the participation is passive (if you are just “walking” around the virtual world, you inhibit and explore it, if that makes sense)
  3. spatial: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. VR is quite literally provide an alternate reality/space.
  4. encyclopedic: the VR world provides a lot of multimedia information. There is a lot of potential there on how to utilize that media, whether it is image, interaction, animation, sound, etc. , to create a a complex immersive environment and storytelling.

The first 2 properties refer to interactivity and the other two refer to the immersiveness, which I perceive as essential components of a VR experience.

Lab 1: Intro and Bonsai Exercise

During our first lab session on Wednesday 01/20, I have started out with Lab:Intro because I do not have proper Unity experience. Although I have taken a class 2 years ago that included a short intro to Unity, I have completely forgotten what we did there 😀

I have finished the short intro videos during our class time, however, I wanted to also complete the goal-oriented bonsai exercise at home to feel more confident with the software. Below is a screen recording of my final result and a screenshot from somewhere along the process.

Building the environment.