Contextual and theoretical studies: Politics of Mediated Reality

In class we looked at the work of forensic architecture I have had the pleasure of seeing their exhibit in London where they recreate 3D environments using the footage gathered in a forensic investigation . They used VR to help visualise time sensitive actions, placing witnesses back into the perspective of there scene and help grow a better understanding of events that unfolded. I find it to be a very interesting use of the technology and its ability to seemingly effortlessly peace together the narrative of these events could be used to better the investigation prosses.

The Vox video bellow goes into so basic details about how AI has race based biases. systemic racism has been an issue plaguing society from the very beginning and requires a lack of thought it is the opposite of racism as it takes more effort on the part of the creator to think of how there systems are used by everyone not just people similar to themselves weather that be those of same race or being able bodied . Its not easy to create systems that include everyone into the design process but it is necessary. Facial recognition can often be under trained on underrepresented groups leading the ai not to recognise there skin colour or face structure.

Hyper reality plays with the idea of a truth where especially in online social media, an example can be told as something that is real and that isn’t the “truth” or howl-truth but from those living in the “lie”.

People use VRChat as an “escape” from reality. away to distance themselves from the truth of there life that may not be to there liking. There are

At first I miss understood what was meant by hyper reality and assumed it meant very realistic. instead of it actually meaning so when I went to find examples i was look for applications like Flight simulator and comparing them to more abstract games like super hexagon but derived from that to make an app useable and interactable come from connections the user makes to there life Esperance and reality .

Cheating the algorithm and Ai

The next american president is a work of art by Gretchen Andrew that uses the title of the piece to hijack google search results to relinquish political presence. She uses her collage’s as a vessel to manipulate search engines. This shows that algorithms and ai can be taken advantage of by altering there data set . I had the thought that whilst training face recognition if you blended the face of humans and 0.0001% of a prawn and slowly raised the percentage of prawn in the image set if eventually the computer wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a human and a prawns face.

Contextual and theoretical studies 2: Affordance

Something in your game might look like it does something but when the player goes to interact with it doesn’t do anything. To avoid this create signifiers. If you continue to use a similar material on objects that you can use. Button prompts and lights up halos work to that same effect.

If you want your player to go somewhere in your environment you must use signifiers such as open paths. lit up parts of rooms or obscure sight with particle effect or fog to motivate curiosity.

If you want the player to not go somewhere. make it less interesting placing fewer assets and creating short deadends.

If you want the player to go somewhere later create an interaction but leave hints in sparking wires that need to be fixed or a lock that is clearly presented.

Objects afford certainly learnt interactions in life pushing buttons is a great example as well as looking into a lense like a telescope. every time I see a telescope in VR I look down at it and am disappointed when the lens is a flat low res texture.

Contextual and theoretical studies 2:

Colour

Color symbolism chart infographic with 40 different color meanings

I found this great recourse of colour meanings on www.color-meanings.com. Colour can go beyond what colours compliment each other and another layer of skill is to incorporate

  • VR In tandem with film has the overall look and feel shaped by people incharge of set design, costume design, composition and cinematography. Its been metioned before but the actual framing of a shot in VR is far more subjective than that of film due to the ability for VR’s audiance to be free to move ther
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNXNEs2eBkg
  • looking at how a productions design can change its themes and feel of the production
  • Does your audience understand your character and how quickly can they do so. tell this through how they have interacted with there environment
  • Example. we looke at how promotional art for”Gloomy eyes” promotional image used the rule of thirds to create. However we didn’t realy dive into how this differs when craeting a immersive world rather that 360 contains multiple instances of the rule and how. an element on the right of a frame can be easly view on the left of the audiances view with the audiance having controll of the camera. This requires the worlds to be desingended in a way to considers foot trafic and things that draw the players attention creating paths, lighting, sound that draws the users attention to composed sense within the environment that adhere to an aesthetic design principle.

I found this diagram presenting conflict in literature made by u/Are_We_Cooleo on Reddit using league of legends storylines.

Contextual and theoretical studies 2: Shapes, lines and props

Shapes

Looking at how shapes could be used to convey character round shapes appear more comforting and natural to people where sharp edges seem more threatening antagonistic and mechanical. 

These ideas are altered under different contexts though, a circle inside a circle is often used to convey a viewpoint like a spy camera or peephole, turning a circle into something much more uneasy. I find it to be more interesting is when you challenge conventions. Let’s say you have a character that is meant to be the personification of the Deadly sin of Greed. Often the popular archetype for this design would be large overweight fatness as an indication of gluttony and evil but if you wanted to challenge this the character could be emaciated and skinny to indicate insatiable hunger. Both do a similar job but are depicted in an opposite shape and form. This isn’t limited to characters and applies to objects and environments too. It’s hard to deny the Evilness of the foreboding triangle though.

Lines

The directions of lines can convey a lot to an audience. parallel lines convey order and with an abundance of non-parallel lines can create an aura of chaos.

lines that are vertical present power, control. horizontal lines can resemble stability and set the scale by marking the horizon.

lines continue on in the mind’s eye and can be used to draw the viewers eye to parts of the frame past the termination of the line.

Compasition

The size of an object on a 2d frame changes in size and presence through distance from the camera and the size of the object. In VR you can tell this apart very easily without context clues. To create depth you can ad smoke and particle effects to fill the space between objects. You can accomplish traditional film shots such as close-ups to VR by bringing characters and objects physically close to the viewer. You can also create scale by changing the angle at which the user tilts their head.

Contextual and theoretical studies 2: 360 Gaze (10)

This final week before the end of the unit we dove into a little bit more art history.

1787. Robert Barker “The Panorama” | by Esther Bang | Medium
The Rotunda in London’s Leicester Square was purpose-built for the exhibition of panoramas

Some classic immersive art like panoramic paintings such as those made by Robert Baker. A classmate brought up that they had visited some similar paintings that had blended with 3D objects in the space merging the line between the paintings and the audience.

This brought to mind virtual reality pop-ups and arcades that use objects like boxes to create the boundaries of the play area, in reality, matching those in the virtual reality or having real sand beneath the user’s feet. Also, the Meta (Oculus) Quest 2’s new passthrough feature where the line between AR and VR is blurred with MR.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Caspar David Friedrich -1818

We Looked at Romanticism and how paintings that portray this art movement prefer to depict scenes in a way that emphasises emotional feel and impact. With few concerns on how plausible it is in our reality only that the viewer has suspension of disbelief and that the scene maximises its emotional feel.

In an exercise, we thought up a “never ended VR story” based on this Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.

I wrote “The man climbed down from the craggy rocks making sure not to dirty his freshly washed clothes. As he makes his way down into the fog he falls on his knees scuffing and tearing his trousers. He wades through the fog searching for his lost lamb. Sometimes finding a gap in the fog. He would clamber up out of the fog to listen for the lambs cry’s that are dampened by the fog. He worries that if he tears up his clothing he would have to retreat home to put on a new set of clothes before coming back another day to return the lost lamb to its herd. He rushes because he worries that predators will find the lamb before he does. Returning home would allow the opportunity to rally help from his family and friends in a search party before setting out. Collecting supplies to aid in the search for the lost lamb.”

I liked the idea of Gamifying this narrative into some sort of Rough-lite game. personally, I find the setting of misty Craigs very familiar to the emotional mimics the emotional response I have to my Scottish home. In thinking about creating such a scene I had an idea for a perspective change in VR.

Continuing to use the painting as a reference, You see the man as an NPC. He has a pair of binoculars around his neck just the same as you the VR player. As you pick up your own binoculars he mirrors your hand, not one to one with your controller but in Keeping with the binoculars target. looking where you look matching your gaze. Bringing up the binoculars to your face would narrow your peripheral vision and as you remove the binoculars it transitions the man to your First-person perspective.

I went looking for tutorials for how to do binocular effects however the only examples I have found at this time are for scopes on guns and that seemed like a bit of a Cunningham’s Law. I’m looking for more of a transitional effect like the ones used in Tender Claw games.

I’d love to try and come up with more unique and specific techniques for transitioning perspectives in VR.

I should also note that I found Frederick Kiesler’s remarks about infinite space (here) ring true to the power of VR and I think he would be a fan.

Edit: I need to look into first and second-order reality more because I didn’t quite understand the distinction.