Cutting the cord
https://www.facebook.com/LindaRicciBlog/posts/2018140374873339
Sex slaves, Isis, & VR: oh my!
I was completely and utterly blown away by Kent Bye‘s “Voices of VR” podcast that interviewed directors Céline Tricart and conflict journalist Christian Stephen about The Sun Ladies VR 360 video / VR experience.
It’s about the Yezidi women who were taken as sex slaves after Isis invaded their towns and killed all the men. Some managed to escape from their ordeal and are now trained fighters hunting the men down who did it to them, intent on rescuing as many other women as they can.
VR at its best: used to communicate a powerful story, in a way that can’t do anything less have a massive impact on you the viewer. VR will enable storytelling and journalism on an emotional scale previously unimaginable; here you get to not only watch the women, but be in the thick of the fighting, experiencing the drama nearly first hand (without the danger!).
I really think VR has the potential not just to entertain, but do far more in terms of enhancing empathy than it’s ever been possible to do before. Possibly one that really will help humanity build bridges in an increasingly crowded and shrinking world, where lots of people with different ideas and experiences are bumping into each other.
Listen to the podcast, watch the trailer (below), and if you can – seek out the VR experience. It’s an incredible story.
Five day VRaycation
I spent five full days over New Year’s playing with an HTC Vive. Which is interesting in NYC apartment, since half the furniture had to be moved to make room for the motion tracking units mounted on two spindly tripods! As an artist as well as a tech enthusiast, it was an interesting experience. So much to try out.
I have a book’s worth of impressions and opinions coming out of the experience, but quickly – my favorite: hands down, Blortasia by Kevin Mack, a neuroscientist and artist. It’s a psychedelic drift through an ever changing, pulsing, organic color blitz. Absolutely, mind bogglingly, surreally, beautiful. I love that he’s not adapting something to fit into VR, he’s actually designing something for the medium; one of the few, I think, who “gets” it.
His work is inspired by transcendent visions, nature, and technology, and is informed by research in a wide range of fields from neuroscience to artificial life. Not to mention, I’m guessing it’s a lot like taking mushrooms! Blortasia is being used in therapy and it’s effects are the subject of a medical research study. Now *that’s* a use for VR I can get behind.
The other favorite was (of course – as an artist): Tiltbrush. But I wasn’t as in love with it as I should have been….it’s purely a paint stroke program (I called it “the MS Paint of VR”) and I really missed being able to create actual solid objects. Perhaps a hangover from my CAD roots – nevertheless, I persisted, and determined to grok the program as best possible, after a while realized how to get the most out of it (hint: don’t try to be precise).
Here’s a glimpse of one of the worlds I created – a flock of beautiful glowing birds. I made another with huge pulsating jellyfish hanging from the sky, so you could stand in between the tentacles; that one’s for another day.
That book-length blog post is coming, about everything from the experience to the content, user interface to opportunities – just wanted to jot down some initial thoughts to start.