Underneath Reality
Thesis
Jan 23 - Jan 30
Notes:
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Research about circular economy
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Make more dramatic the alarm part of the prototype
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Research about sustainability
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Aesthetics instead of price (culture)
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What is a good use of VR technology?
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Watched: Saving capitalism and Dirty money
Advisor: currently looking for an advisor
The final demo will be done by end of February
The final paper will be done by the end of March
Jan 30 - Feb 6
This week I download and edit some videos for the VR film about advertisement and the bad use of technology in our society.
Advisor: Justin Hendrix
First meeting (30 minutes)
Advisor Notes:
Books to read
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The Marvelous Clouds - John Durham Peters
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Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years - Tom Standage
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The Victorian internet - Tom Standage
Ideas for the VR film
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Different paths in VR (good and bad) (empathy machine)
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Direct brain computer interfaces. What is beyond VR?
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More historical content, make them think of something they haven’t seen before.
Links
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/technology/early-facebook-google-employees-fight-tech.html
http://captology.stanford.edu/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/books/review/writing-on-the-wall-by-tom-standage.html
Feb 6 - Feb 13
I did another iteration of the prototype. This time the VR experience is more artistic and surreal. The following video shows some part of this new idea.
prototype 2
Draft Outline
Background
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The human condition and technology
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Philosophical Foundation
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Technology and Power
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Alienation
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Virtual Reality (VR)
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Solution
Methodology (Arts-Based / Artistic Research)
Project description
Findings and discussion
Conclusion
Future Plans
Links:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/eja149/blogs/elizandrews/2009/11/arts-based-research-an-overview.html
Feb 13 - Feb 20
Accountability partner meeting notes:
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Change some of the ads videos. Only use the bad and annoying ads. This will make it more chaotic.
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Add more videos to the walls. make it claustrophobic.
Prototype: This week is I did most of the coding part relating to the interactions that you can do at the experience.
Prototype 2.1:
Improve landscape (grass, foliage, and lake)
Added collisions between objects
Added switch to open the door
Prototype 2.2:
Added video texture with sound to objects
Edited lightning in the level
Prototype 2.3:
Interactive door (with sound)
Added ambient sound to the forest
prototype 2.1
Prototype 2.2
Prototype 2.3
Paper progress...
Feb 20 - Feb 27
Todd notes:
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Curate ads and match with objects
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Tell the story with the objects or characters
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Create a narrative that connects each scene of the experience
Inspiration:
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Michael Moore. Capitalism: A love story
About Tobacco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsHHOCH4q8
Controversial ads: United Colors of Benetton.
Ideas:
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Add loading screen with narrative message
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Change the switch for a doorknob and use a wood texture for the door. This will make it more intuitive to interact.
Second meeting with Justin Hendrix (30 minutes)
I show to him the second prototype for the first time to get some feedback and to explain him the idea behind the experience and the choices that I made for the narrative aspect. The following ideas will be implemented in the next iteration according to his suggestions:
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For the second scene, you could add some animals to make the environment more natural. and for the third one, you could add people to make it a little more realistic.
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Change the way to interact with the objects in the first scene to improve performance.
Feb 27 - Mar 6
Prototype for Science Fair.
Prototype 2.4
Mar 6 - Mar 13
Third Meeting with Justin Hendrix (45 minutes)
He brought David and Rob from AFVR to playtest my VR experience. They had some useful feedback about the technical and narrative part of the project. I will incorporate some of the ideas and not all of them due to time limitation.
Todd notes:
Use sublevels. Load at the beginning and toggle visibility.
Edit sound: making it more directional.
Change Hands
Change teleporting beam
Illuminate plants at the end.
Inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtCOdjx_cEI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeddBkLI2So
Prototype 2.5
prototype 2.6
prototype 2.7
Mar 13 - Mar 20
Inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm3euZS5nLo
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcuse/#OneDimThiDemRejDem
This week I start editing the paper. Adding references and citations. I wrote some of the project description.
Mar 20 - Mar 27
Final adjustments for the prototype before user testing.
Mar 27 - April 3
This week I did all the user testing for the results, I got really interesting comments that back up my project. I also wrote about the project description and proposal and goals of my project. I will finish writing the paper next week and start preparing for the defense.
April 3 - April 10
Thesis Finished