Joseph Sweetser VR Thesis Book

VIRTUAL REALITY FUTURESCAPING Joseph Sweetser

TABLE OF CONTENTS THESIS STATEMENT 5 INITIAL RESEARCH 6–17 THESIS POSTER 18–23 BRAINSTORMING 24–25 HISTORICAL RESEARCH 26–31 PRINTED PIECES 32–33 VR ENVIRONMENT 34–41 THESIS EXHIBITION 42–43 THESIS ESSAY 44–63 COLOPHON 64

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THESIS STATEMENT For my thesis, I’m exploring how Virtual Reality may radically change the way we interact with the digital world. While interaction with anything digital usually happens through a 2-D screen, VR allows for interaction in a 3-D space, letting us reach out in a completely new dimension. I’m exploring how some typical digital items, like portfolio websites, might change the way we interact as they evolve in this new 3-Dimensional space.

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INITIAL RESEARCH When starting out research for my thesis, I focused on mapping out the current landscape of Viral Reality, as well as focusing in on specific aspects of it such as Virtual social spaces like VRChat. During this phase, I created research boards, a field guide, personas, landscapes maps, journey maps and experience maps. This research led me through the uses of VR, to social spaces, and finally to the future-scaping of everyday VR use.

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Statistics (Look into sources)

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https://kommandotech.co m/statistics/virtual-realitystatistics/#:~:text=Key%20vi rtual%20reality%20statistic s%20for,VR%20users%20in %20the%20world.&text=42.

9%20million%20people%20 in%20the,once%20a%20mo nth%20in%202019.

Possible source? https://www.ccsin sight.com/researc h-areas/virtualand-augmentedreality/

https://my.cc sinsight.com/ reportaction/ D14715/Toc

Viewing Angle Comfort Levels

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Game

40 Fantasy Worlds

Viewing Angle Comfort Visualization

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Landscape Mapping Entities

Space

Documentaries

Educators

Nature scenes

People

Rehabilitation

Students

Education

Therapy Training

Tourist attractions

Phones

Portable HMD

Tourism

Homes

Places

Art installations

Video Players

Showrooms

Hospitals

Meditation/ Relaxation

Web browsers

Technology

Activities

Google Voice recognition

Applications

Software

360 Cameras

Oculus (Facebook)

Cameras

ers

Valve Controllers

NonEuclidean spaces

Head Mounted Display

Sony Playstation

Leg tracking

Eye tracking

Games

Hand tracking

Opportunities for empathy Head tracking

HTC

Microsoft Computers

Operating Software

Tech innovators Prototyping

Researchers

Office Spaces

Landscape Mapping Research

Designers Simulated real-world spaces

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Experiential

Hospitals

Google

Nature Scenes Patients

Tourist Attractions Tourism

Innovative

Educators Students

Meditation/ Relaxation Therapy/ Rehabilitation

Phones Cameras

Schools

Space

360° Videos Web Browsing

Simulated Real-world Spaces

Education Training

Documentaries

Office Spaces Designers

Portable HMD

Oculus Valve

VR Landscape

Prototyping

Escapist

Games

Sony Playstation

Applications Software Controllers Fantasy Worlds Non-Euclidean Spaces

Technology Places Companies Activities People

Researchers Tech Innovators

Eye Tracking Head Tracking Hand Tracking Leg Tracking

HTC Computers

Gamers

Showrooms Homes

Microsoft

Operating Software

Landscape Map

From this initial research, I created a variety of pieces to visualize my findings.

I created a landscape map laying out the relationships between technology, companies, people, places, and activities in the field, and categorizing them by type of experience.

I also created several pieces exploring the effect Virtual spaces and environments have on us. These included a field guide investigating how both digital and VR spaces affect the way we interact with others, and a journey map detailing the process of having social experiences in a VR Environment.

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Journey Map Sketching

SCHEDULING SOCIAL EXPERIENCES AS AN INTROVERT IN-PERSON VS. ONLINE

IN-PERSON SOCIAL EXPERIENCE WHEN? Using phones, computer

Alone, at home

FREE TIME

WITH FRIENDS?

WANT TO BE SOCIAL? (IN PERSON)

WITH STRANGERS?

PREPARATIONS What do I wear?

Should I eat before I go?

Am I hosting at my house?

What do I need to bring?

How am I getting there?

Half hour Stress, Apprehension

FINAL PLAN Date/ Time of hangout arrives A few hours/days

Time and place are decidied.

Everyone agrees upon the details.

Anticipation, Excitement, Anxiety

SOCIAL SPACE

TRAVEL TO

interaction with friends Excited, Having fun, high energy

By car? Public transport? Carpool?

Meetup spot? At my house?

How far away is it?

How long to get there?

Half hour to a couple hours Stress, Apprehension, Nervousness

INSIGHTS

Texting/ Messaging.

Who? Who’s free?

How many people?

When are they free?

Excitement, Hopeful

A few hours When to leave?

Space closing?

Tired, low energy?

Are you satisfied? Disappointed?

Should you do this again sometime? Did you meet any new people? Someone you’d want to hang out with again?

Someone you want to avoid?

Get someone’s contact info?

Does anyone have more time?

PICK TIME Does this time work for you?

How much time can everyone spend?

Does it work for everyone else?

Who do you leave out if not?

Excitement, Indecision

WHERE? WHAT? Somewhere private? Public?

What do you want to do?

Where do you want to go?

What time is it open until?

Public: Stress, Anxiety, Reluctance Private: Relief, Excitement

TRAVEL BACK Car? Carpool? Public Transport?

Half hour to a couple hours Relief, Content

BACK HOME

ONLINE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE WHEN? Alone, at home

FREE TIME

Texting/ Messaging.

Who? Who’s free?

How many people?

Excitement, Hopeful

Using phones, computer

WITH FRIENDS? WANT TO BE SOCIAL? (ONLINE)

WITH STRANGERS? SOCIAL SPACE

Decide to leave?

Tired, low energy Satisfied? Disappointed?

Should you do this again sometime? Did you meet any new people? Someone you’d want to hang out with again?

Someone you want to avoid?

Get someone’s contact info?

interaction with friends Half hour to a couple hours Excited, Having fun, High energy

Change Activity.

Relief, Relaxed

Exhausted, Satisfied, Relieved

WHERE? WHAT? Somewhere private? Public?

Where do you want to go?

What do you want to do?

What can you do online?

Just chat? Video Call? Games?

Watch Movies? TV Shows?

Public: Stress, Anxiety Private: Relief, Excitement

ALREADY HOME Rest & Relaxation Tired, Low energy, Relieved, Content

Room for Spontaneity Do something else?

Bounce to the next space?

Do I have more time to spend?

Stress from public space?

Rest & Relaxation Tired, Low energy, Relieved, Content

Exhausted, Satisfied, Stressed

Majority of time spent planning, waiting, or traveling.

A lot of anticipation or stress because of the waiting.

Travel times can vary wildly.

Richer interaction, verbal and nonverbal.

INSIGHTS

Less time commitment.

No time spent travelling.

Less time spent outside of the space.

Less decision making outside of the space.

No worry about the space closing.

Less time for Anxiety and Anticipation.

Journey Map Comparing Real & Virtual Social Spaces

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IN-PERSON SOCIAL EXPERIENCE WHEN? Using phones, computer

Alone, at home

FREE TIME

WITH FRIENDS?

WANT TO BE SOCIAL? (IN PERSON)

WITH STRANGERS?

PREPARATIONS What do I wear?

Should I eat before I go?

Am I hosting at my house?

What do I need to bring?

How am I getting there?

Half hour Stress, Apprehension

Time and place are decidied.

Everyone agrees upon the details.

Anticipation, Excitement, Anxiety

SOCIAL SPACE interaction with friends Excited, Having fun, high energy

By car? Public transport? Carpool?

Meetup spot? At my house?

How far away is it?

How long to get there?

Half hour to a couple hours Stress, Apprehension, Nervousness

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FINAL PLAN Date/ Time of hangout arrives A few hours/days

TRAVEL TO

INSIGHTS

Texting/ Messaging.

Who? Who’s free?

How many people?

When are they free?

Excitement, Hopeful

A few hours When to leave?

Space closing?

Tired, low energy?

Are you satisfied? Disappointed?

Majority of time spent planning, waiting, or traveling.

A lot of anticipation or stress because of the waiting.

Travel times can vary wildly.

Richer interaction, verbal and nonverbal.

Should you do this again sometime? Did you meet any new people? Someone you’d want to hang out with again?

Someone you want to avoid?

Get someone’s contact info?

Does anyone have more time?

Exhausted, Satisfied, Stressed

PICK TIME Does this time work for you?

How much time can everyone spend?

Does it work for everyone else?

Who do you leave out if not?

Excitement, Indecision

WHERE? WHAT? Somewhere private? Public?

What do you want to do?

Where do you want to go?

What time is it open until?

Public: Stress, Anxiety, Reluctance Private: Relief, Excitement

TRAVEL BACK Car? Carpool? Public Transport?

Half hour to a couple hours Relief, Content

BACK HOME Rest & Relaxation Tired, Low energy, Relieved, Content

This journey map compared the experience of scheduling social experiments as an introvert in a real life setting, and in a virtual, online setting.

ONLINE SOCIAL EXPERIENCE WHEN? Alone, at home

FREE TIME

Texting/ Messaging.

Who? Who’s free?

How many people?

Excitement, Hopeful

Using phones, computer

WITH FRIENDS? WANT TO BE SOCIAL? (ONLINE)

WITH STRANGERS? SOCIAL SPACE

Decide to leave?

Tired, low energy Satisfied? Disappointed?

Should you do this again sometime? Did you meet any new people? Someone you’d want to hang out with again?

Someone you want to avoid?

Get someone’s contact info?

Change Activity.

Relief, Relaxed

Exhausted, Satisfied, Relieved

INSIGHTS

interaction with friends Half hour to a couple hours Excited, Having fun, High energy

WHERE? WHAT? Somewhere private? Public?

Where do you want to go?

What do you want to do?

What can you do online?

Just chat? Video Call? Games?

Watch Movies? TV Shows?

Public: Stress, Anxiety Private: Relief, Excitement

ALREADY HOME Rest & Relaxation Tired, Low energy, Relieved, Content

Room for Spontaneity Do something else?

Bounce to the next space?

Do I have more time to spend?

Stress from public space?

Less time commitment.

No time spent travelling.

Less time spent outside of the space.

Less decision making outside of the space.

No worry about the space closing.

Less time for Anxiety and Anticipation.

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After doing ethnographic research on real, digital, and virtual reality social spaces, I created a trifold field guide analyzing the spaces and comparing their differences.

For VR spaces, I analyzed the game VRChat.

Taking place in a simulated, virtual environment, VR spaces lie at a unique crossroads between physical and digital spaces. Social interactions include verbal, nonverbal, and physical communication.

Despite not being physically in the same environment as other people, participants can still communicate physically through the movement and interactions of their avatars, models that act as a substitute for people’s bodies in the VR space. As for interactions, participants engage in both emotional and a sort of simulated physical intimacy where you are in proximity of others avatars. They make themselves emotionally vulnerable, however, there is no physical vulnerability despite the opportunity for simulated physical intimacy.

The ability to remain anonymous is also a possibility in these VR spaces.

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HELLO VIRTUAL WORLD

A FIELD GUIDE TO:

VIRTUAL SOCIAL SPACES

VIRTUAL SOCIAL SPACES JOSEPH SWEETSER

Social Space Field Guide: Side 1

VR spaces have the benefits of both physical spaces, like physical intimacy and nonverbal communication, and digital spaces, like an opportunity for anonymity, convenience, and physical safety. Taking these insights in mind, I began researching how social spaces themselves are developed, choosing to dive specifically into the construction of convivial spaces. When reading Henry Shaftoe’s Convivial Urban Spaces, however, I realized the main component of convivial spaces is that they are constructed very gradually over time as the space itself evolves, and are rarely engineered completely from the start. With this newfound knowledge, I decided that an attempt to try to design a VR social space from the start would be an extensive and fruitless effort, paling in comparison to those types of VR convivial spaces that have evolved naturally over time such as VRChat.

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THREE TYPES OF SOCIAL SPACES PHYSICAL

VIRTUAL REALITY

The real world, In a physical space. Social interactions include verbal, nonverbal, and physical communication. Participants interact physically and emotionally and are vulnerable physically and emotionally.

In a simulated, virtual space. Soc bal, and physical communication and emotionally but are only vuln the user to interact anonymously.

DIGITAL In a digital space; through text, voice, or video. Social interactions include verbal and limited non-verbal communication.

Participants interact emotionally and are vulnerable emotionally.

They also allow the user to interact anonymously.

VR Social spaces sit in a unique p both physical and digital social s and physical interactions of a phy users in a state of physical vulner the option of interacting anonymo

Social Space Field Guide: Side 2

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cial interactions verbal, nonvern. Participants interact physically nerable emotionally.They allow .

position that combines aspects of spaces. They offer the nonverbal ysical space without placing the rability. They also allow users ously like other digital spaces.

OPPORTUNITIES UNIQUE TO VR UNINHIBITED EXPRESSION VR spaces give people the opportunity to interact online in a simulated, physical space. Whereas people can take up any avatar and have their real identity remain anonymous, there are fewer reasons to be scared of judgement. This allows people who normally hold back aspects of their personality in public spaces a way to express themselves in social spaces more freely and with fewer worries.

CONVIENIENT INTIMACY While VR is unable to completely replicate the intimacy of real, in-person interaction, it does allow a more intimate and personal interaction between people than through more traditional digital spaces. Just like how texting keeps people connected who can’t always meet in-person, VR offers a lot of that same convenience with much more intimate interactions.

IDEAL ENVIRONMENT With the spaces themselves being simulated, VR gives people the opportunity to interact anywhere they desire. In cities, mountaintops, space, and even fantasy worlds that don’t exist in real life, people have the opportunity to travel anywhere. This allows people to adjust the environment to their needs and comforts to create their ideal social space.

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Final Thesis Poster

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THESIS POSTER In the beginning weeks of Thesis, I worked on creating a poster to encapsulate the idea and feeling of my project. This is the final as well as some of the process.

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Poster Sketches

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Poster Roughs

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Poster Refinements

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Final Thesis Poster

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Brainstorming Sketches

Exhibition Plan Sketches

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BRAINSTORMING At this point, I began brainstorming about a potential Virtual Reality space I could create.

Here are a few of my sketches made during this process as well as some planninng for my thesis exhibition space.

Brainstorming Sketches

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HISTORICAL RESEARCH Afteer finishing my poster, I began doing some research into the history of virtual reality and computer graphics. Using sources like Melvin L. Prueitt’s “Computer Graphics: 118 Computer Generated Designs” to inspire the look and part of the conceptual side of my thesis work.

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These early digital artists often had backgrounds in science or mathematics as opposed to traditional art training, and even back then, they had to fight for the recognition of their artistry. From the birth of digital art to today, digital artists have had to argue for their craft to be elevated to the same amount of recognition as the traditional arts. In Melvin L. Prueitt’s Computer Graphics: 118 Computer-generated Designs from 1975, he says, “Some critics would contend that computer-generated art is not art at all since the artist is not in intimate contact with his creation.”

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Prueitt also talks about how digital art has brought power to the “passive artist,” someone who has an emotional connection to or passion for art but does not have the hand-eye coordination or skill to bring their ideas into fruition with traditional tools. The computer allowed these people to use mathematics and plotting to explore their own ideas of art and beauty. This idea and definition of a “passive artist” serves as a valuable historical connection to my work.

Now these passive artists can explore their artform, and thanks to the technological breakthrough of virtual reality, they can now view their work as if it were in the real world. With virtual reality, they can reach out and interact with their works, obtaining that intimate contact that critics said was missing to acknowledge their work as legitimate art.

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VR Headset Infographic

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PRINTED PIECES After researching the history of computer graphics, I used that inspiration to decide the look and feel of the printed pieces that would go with my thesis exhibition.

VR UI Research Poster

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VR Gallery Space Example

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VR ENVIRONMENT From my brainstorming and historical research, my project culminated into creating a VR space that allows artists to interact with and hold digital pieces in a way that only Virtual Reality allows, taking the form a portfolio gallery to showcase artists’ work.

The gallery setting serves to elevate the work, legitimizing all artwork by displaying it in this professional setting. It exists to draw upon the history of this narrative of digital art, and to future-scape the field of virtual reality, and its potential use as the technology becomes a bigger part of our lives.

Movement Provider Scripting Process

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Button Scripting

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This project was a large undertaking to create an interactive Virtual Reality environment.

Having never worked with VR or virtual environments before, a lot of time was spent learning how to create one. I chose to work with Unity and did a lot of research learning the program, simple coding, and how to work with shader graphs.

Shader Graph

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Button Changing Script

Viewers within the environment are given the opportunity to reach out and grab any piece showcased, and move and rearrange them in any way desired. Viewers are also able to grab a pen and write or draw on the gallery walls and pieces. It is my effort to future-scape the landscape of VR, and explore how it may be used by all artists, and how it might change the way we think about a typical web page by creating it in a 3-D environment. Framed as a virtual portfolio site, this piece allows artists to elevate their work by showcasing it in the setting of a gallery, as well as encourage viewers to interact with and rearrange the work in a way that is not possible in a real life gallery.

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In Process Buttons

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Virtual Reality Portfolio Gallery

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THESIS EXHIBITION

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As a graphic designer, my work can often vary widely in terms of content, form, and style depending on the project. Despite this, it will still carry a few signatures of my hand.

My work is playful design, using a lot of bold, often primary, color palettes, geometric shapes, and usually draws heavily from Swiss modernist design. Swiss Modernism is a style of design utilizing minimal, clean, sansserif typography, and a heavy use of grids, providing structure and cohesiveness for projects with many different parts.

One method unique to my process is a deep delve into research at the start. Much of the work I create is often a result of extensive research on a subject, and, depending on that subject, it can take on several forms. Research can be visual in the form of observing and sketching like the figure drawing of my table tennis olympic icon set.

Observing and sketching led to an interest in different techniques and strikes of the game, informing the work to focus on those aspects of the game. Careful observation also led me to notice the motion of both the players and the ball, allowing me to put emphasis on these arcs of motion in the work. Research can also be based around a historical style, such as a culture or movement. This type of research can be seen in my egg calendar which draws both its content and its visual language from diner culture in the 60s. Everything from shape to type choice, to color was considered based on its relation to this visual culture. One last basis for my research stems entirely from curiosity. This is where I got the idea for my 44

THESIS ESSAY incense watch app. In brainstorming ideas for a time-telling app, I became curious to know what some historical methods of timekeeping were. This led me to the practice of burning incense to keep time and set alarms, which formed the concept for that work. Passing curiosities or questions, when looked into thoroughly, can form the basis of an entire project.

Another part of my process, which is inherent to the design process is iterative work. My process is usually broken up into rounds.

After the brainstorming and sketching process, particularly when working with logo design, I go through several rounds of creating, getting feedback, refining, then going back to create more and repeating those steps. This comes from the importance of having different options or solutions in design, especially if the project is working with a client. These rounds of design often dictate much of the working process, and are how I schedule out the length of a project and pricing for client work.

Having deadlines and schedules are important to this process because iterative design can be repeated forever, so it is imperative that you know when you can create to your heart’s content, and when you need to push the project forward into the next steps.

Besides the initial pencil sketches and brainstorming, most of my work is made digitally through the adobe suite, using programs like InDesign and Illustrator.

Final pieces can range anywhere from digital mockups, to laser prints, risograph prints, 45

bound booklets, posters, typefaces, or an entire brand design with guidelines. Much of this design work has their historical roots back in the printing press. Some of my work, a personal manifesto about content, even draws direct inspiration from the Gutenberg Bible, one of the first books printed from a press, as well as other publications made during the Private Press movement of Europe. Study of publications from this time period reveal the masterful skill in which printers used type with intention placed in every small detail such as spacing, line length, leading, scale, white space, and others. This was due to the process of having to manually set each letter, or slug, of metal type into a lockup before printing. This amount of careful consideration and attention to detail in typography is something I strive for in my work.

Content is often a difficult thing to pinpoint in my own work because much of the design process, and therefore content, is often a collaborative effort from working with clients and other designers. Whenever I do decide upon or create content in my pieces, I often make work drawing attention to the unusual and the subtle. Drawing attention to the unusual is important in much of my work. Discovering a strange or overlooked subject and returning with knowledge to present is rewarding. This reward is heightened tenfold if I can present whatever I find with a touch of humor as well. Focusing on the subtle has a similarly rewarding feeling in bringing attention to something hidden in plain sight that has much more depth to it than originally suspected.

Interest in the subtle may be why I like to work with typography and letterforms.

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This interest of mine is why I make the type of work that I do. I want to show people the intricacies of the world; the strange, obscure, and the unexpected. Exploring the depths of overlooked or disregarded subjects, then displaying them for people to interact with, and sometimes hopefully smile or laugh with, is the main motivation for my work.

My thesis work explores Virtual Reality, drawing on historical and contemporary inspirations to future-scape the landscape of its use in everyday life. My process began as a deep dive into research of the Landscape of Virtual Reality. This began with immersion into aspects of the technology itself, its current uses, potential future uses, and what effects It has on people. Within my thesis, I am creating environments that are both completely digital and in conversation with real types of spaces. The culminating piece of my research is a VR environment showcasing pieces of my portfolio in a gallery setting.

Viewers within the environment are given the opportunity to reach out and grab any piece showcased, and move and rearrange them in any way desired. Viewers are also able to grab a pen and write or draw on the gallery walls and pieces. It is my effort to futurescape the landscape of VR, and explore how it may be used by all artists, and how it might change the way we think about a typical web page by creating it in a 3-D environment.

Framed as a virtual portfolio site, this piece allows artists to elevate their work by showcasing it in the setting of a gallery, as well as encourage viewers to interact with and rearrange the work in a way that is not possible in a real life gallery.

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For my thesis work, my inspirations vary widely. My main inspiration comes from a personal interest in emerging technologies.

New technologies often bring excitement, and sometimes worrying, to the table in terms of uses and implications for the future.

Those technologies that offer up a whole new landscape of opportunities excite me and demand my attention, making my mind wonder about all sorts of possibilities on how they might change our lives now and in the near future. Even technologies that might inspire more worry than excitement—things like facial recognition, genetic modification via a new technology called CRISPR, and AI—demand my attention, perhaps even moreso, to stay aware and informed.

Of these emerging technologies, the one that has most informed my work is VR, or virtual reality. VR is a technology that allows total immersion of sight into an environment or space completely separate from your own. This gives us the ability to carefully handcraft entire environments and spaces down to the smallest details without having to find a space to build it in real life, and without even having to follow certain laws of reality such as physics. The environment exists seemingly on a parallel plane of existence in the digital realm, allowing you to occupy any virtual space from almost any real space.

The potential applications for this type of ability are incredible, many of which are already starting to be put into use. One such application being tested is using VR for various types of therapies. In one study, Immersive VR therapy was tested against kinesiotherapy for amputees suffering from phantom limb pain. The results showed that immersive VR therapy was more effective in 48

relieving physical pain than traditional kinesiotherapy. This study suggests that VR can have potential medical applications in its use for pain relief for patients with phantom limb syndrome. Another study tested VR’s potential use in treating anxiety. Their results showed that VR exposure therapy was a more acceptable method of exposure therapy to patients, and was an easier method for therapists. It even suggests that further research should be done and that training in VR exposure therapy should be offered to studying therapists in graduate programs. VR is already showing promise for its medical and therapeutic uses, something that initially caught my attention when researching for my thesis work, and put me on track for exploring VR environments as a medium.

While I was aware of potential applications in the medical field, I was curious about how VR might affect us socially. At this point, my personal interests in gaming and gamingculture directed me where to search next. I was aware of an online community centered on a game called VRChat, which is essentially a massive online chat-room that takes place in VR. From here I started to dig into both VRChat itself and social spaces in general, and how they both operate. Through some ethnographic research, I delved into physical, digital, and VR social spaces, and discovered a few insights into the ways that they function.

The particular space that I used to analyze physical spaces was the Graphic Design studio at Maine College of Art. In physical social spaces, participants are interacting in a real-world space, using verbal, nonverbal, and physical communication. There is a direct one49

to-one communication between people with only the interpretation of others affecting what you might be communicating either verbally, through speech, or nonverbally, through facial or physical cues. In these spaces, people engage in both a physical and emotional intimacy. As a result of this, people also put themselves in a position of physical and emotional vulnerability. In addition, little to no anonymity is possible in these spaces.

As for digital spaces, I analyzed the official MECA Discord server. Discord is an application that functions like a chat room, allowing people in a particular server to talk through text channels and voice channels, and to share images and links. Digital spaces, by comparison, are usually a bit more organized than physical spaces. They are often organized into different channels for talking and discussion topics. Here, participants can only communicate verbally, through text, emoticons, or voice. Users in this type of space engage in emotional intimacy, putting themselves at an emotional vulnerability. Compared to physical spaces, these digital spaces lack any sort of physical intimacy, and therefore, participants are removed from any physical vulnerability. Anonymity is also much more feasible in this type of space.

For VR spaces, I analyzed the game VRChat that I mentioned earlier. Taking place in a simulated, virtual environment, VR spaces lie at a unique crossroads between physical and digital spaces. Social interactions include verbal, nonverbal, and physical communication.

Despite not being physically in the same environment as other people, participants can still communicate physically through the movement and interactions of their avatars, 50

models that act as a substitute for people’s bodies in the VR space. As for interactions, participants engage in both emotional and a sort of simulated physical intimacy where you are in proximity of others avatars. They make themselves emotionally vulnerable, however, there is no physical vulnerability despite the opportunity for simulated physical intimacy.

The ability to remain anonymous is also a possibility in these VR spaces.

VR spaces have the benefits of both physical spaces, like physical intimacy and nonverbal communication, and digital spaces, like an opportunity for anonymity, convenience, and physical safety. Taking these insights in mind, I began researching how social spaces themselves are developed, choosing to dive specifically into the construction of convivial spaces. When reading Henry Shaftoe’s Convivial Urban Spaces, however, I realized the main component of convivial spaces is that they are constructed very gradually over time as the space itself evolves, and are rarely engineered completely from the start. With this newfound knowledge, I decided that an attempt to try to design a VR social space from the start would be an extensive and most likely fruitless effort, paling in comparison to those types of VR convivial spaces that have evolved naturally over time such as VRChat.

At this point, I decided to shift my focus to something simpler, but still integrated within my research. In these VR social spaces, how we interact with people is affected by how we interact with the technology. Many of the user interfaces I’ve seen in VR rely on traditional 2D UI principles. This feels like a missed opportunity because of the unique 51

possibilities for 3D interaction that VR allows. Because of this, I decided to focus on the interactions and interfaces between people and VR. UI design and its principles are based mainly around two dimensions, but with the introduction of virtual reality, it has the opportunity to evolve into a completely new plane. In my work, I explore the future of how user interfaces may evolve into this new, 3-dimensional plane of interaction.

Working with an emerging technology that is still making its way into the mainstream, I felt it was important to research the history of the steps taken in creating the technology.

For Virtual Reality, the history that I am in dialogue with is the emergence of computer technology. In this context, I investigated how my work relates to both the creation of the first interactable VR headset and the early stages of computer art and graphics.

One of the earliest virtual reality headmounted displays was the Sword of Damocles created by Ivan Sutherland in 1968 (Figure 1).

While not the first exploration into immersive screens and virtual reality, it is the first machine to have head tracking technology. This important distinction separates it from other experimental virtual reality technologies by introducing a layer of interaction. Instead of merely sitting and experiencing as with other VR technologies at the time, you are able to direct the action. The simple motion of rotating your head directly affects the virtual environment. The machine itself was hung from the ceiling by a mechanical arm and only allowed for simple, wireframe objects and environments to be seen.

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Figure 1: Ivan Sutherland, Sword of Damocles, 1968

This technology relates to my work because it took the first steps towards interacting with virtual environments. Now, instead of merely being able to affect the environment by changing our perspective and observing, we are now able to, quite literally, reach out to these environments. By exploring the relationship of our interactions with virtual reality now, my work is in direct conversation with this interactive technology of the past.

My focus on interfacing with the virtual world is a continuation of the efforts of those like Ivan Sutherland.

In addition to the Sword of Damocles, my work is also related to the first experiments into computer art and graphics. Early forms of computer art were made during the early stages of computer technology. Much like how I am working with VR as it is making its way into the mainstream, these first digital artists were working with computers as they were.

Computer art made in the late 60s consisted mainly of 3D wireframes planes and basic shapes. Often they were graphics functions and equations transposed into a 3D plane 53

before rendering them. Other types of digital art moving into the early 70s started using algorithms to create abstract, geometric graphics, recreate photos out of patterns of lines or shapes, and even create short films.

Some of the major artists of this movement consisted of Lilian F Schwartz, Melvin L. Pruett, Charles Csuri, James Shaffer, Otto Beckman, CTG Japan, and Herbert W. Franke.

Charles Csuri and James Shaffer’s Hummingbird, 1967 (Figure 2) in particular explored similar ideas to my work. Hummingbird is an animation in which a pixelated drawing of a hummingbird forms and proceeds to break apart, reform, and warp around in perspective and space.

The animation draws attention to the ability of the computer to take a 2D image and warp its apparent perspective, causing our point of view to shift around a 3D space while maintaining the image. This piece explores and experiments with placing a 2-Dimensional drawing into a 3-Dimensional space. It explores how the computer might change how we viewed images and artworks as they evolved

Figure 2: Charles Csuri & James Schaffer, Hummingbird, 1969, Animation

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Figure 3: Melvin L. Prueitt, Computer Graphics: 118 Computer-generated Designs, 1975

into another plane. This is the same concept that is informing my work, exploring how we view images might evolve due to emerging technology.

These early digital artists often had backgrounds in science or mathematics as opposed to traditional art training, and even back then, they had to fight for the recognition of their artistry. From the birth of digital art to today, digital artists have had to argue for their craft to be elevated to the same amount of recognition as the traditional arts. In Melvin L. Prueitt’s Computer Graphics: 118 Computer-generated Designs from 1975 (Figure 3) , he says, “Some critics would contend that computer-generated art is not art at all since the artist is not in intimate contact with his creation.”

Digital artists had to defend their craft to have their work even be considered art by critics.

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Prueitt also talks about how digital art has brought power to the “passive artist,” someone who has an emotional connection to or passion for art but does not have the handeye coordination or skill to bring their ideas into fruition with traditional tools.

The computer allowed these people to use mathematics and plotting to explore their own ideas of art and beauty. This idea and definition of a “passive artist” serves as a valuable historical connection to my work.

Now these passive artists can explore their artform, and thanks to the technological breakthrough of virtual reality, they can now view their work as if it were in the real world. With virtual reality, they can reach out and interact with their works, obtaining that intimate contact that critics said was missing to acknowledge their work as legitimate art. VR is the next stepping stone for digital artists to have a more intimate relationship with their craft and their work.

My work explores how our interactions with technology and the digital realm will evolve into an entirely different dimension with VR. Drawing upon the history of VR and digital art, it seeks to bring us into a more intimate relationship with the virtual world.

My work is also in dialogue with other experimental VR art installations and projects in the contemporary. It focuses on how VR can affect the way that we interact with technology and digital worlds in the 3-D, virtual translation of a portfolio website.

Other artists working in this context explore parallel topics like how VR affects the way we experience stories, and navigate spaces both real and virtual.

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One artist working in the context of VR in relation to stories is Mexican filmmaker, Daniel Quintanilla. In his VR video piece, At The Periphery 2018, (Figure 4) featured in the Making Migration Visible: Traces, Tracks & Pathways exhibition at Maine College of Art’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA),

Figure 4: Daniel Quintanilla, At The Periphery, 2017, Virtual Reality Film

viewers are brought on a tour through different areas that immigrants in Maine might occupy.

In the experience, you are transported through a blueberry camp, community farm, and a restaurant. In these spaces, there are seemingly no people around, but in the headset, suggestions of human forms appear just outside of sight in the peripheral of the viewer wearing the headset. But, when the viewer turns to look at the shapes, they vanish, and are impossible to get a good look at. In this way, the installation explores how VR can be used as a storytelling element. Using the ability to put objects in the peripheral vision of viewers, it speaks towards the invisibility of migrants.

While this is different than exploring virtual reality’s impact on interaction with technology, it is still exploring how VR can affect the way we interact with storytelling media.

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Another artist who is working within the same context is American performance artist and musician, Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947). In her piece, Chalkroom, 2018 (Figure 5) viewers navigate through a dark and dusty VR environment covered in chalk drawings and words. Her piece explores how VR can heighten interactivity in an environment. At different points throughout the experience, words and letters will rise off of the wall and interact with your hands, spinning around them in a ball of light before returning to the wall.

On a literal level, this piece changes the way that we interact with stories and writing.

Instead of merely reading the writing, the viewer is able to conduct it around them, moving it around with their own hands.

This is similar to the idea of my piece in which every piece within the portfolio site and every image and drawing in the virtual studio is interactive and movable.

Figure 5: Laurie Anderson, Chalkroom, 2017, Virtual Reality Experience

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Figure 6: David Alabo, Lovecraft Country: Sanctum, 2020, Virtual Reality Environment

Both Anderson and I are working with VR’s ability to heighten interactivity within a piece, putting viewers in control of some aspects of the pieces.

One artist working in the context of making completely digital spaces is David Alabo with his work for HBO’s Lovecraft Country: Sanctum 2020, (Figure 6). He created an entirely digital environment of a giant skull in the middle of a desert with praying hands and a crown of floating orbs. For the live virtual reality event, participants would, in virtual reality, walk through the desert and up and into the skull. This environment was based off of another piece of his (Figure 7) which is a digital poster made from a render of the same skull in the desert. Alabo’s original digital piece was turned into a traversable environment. By using virtual reality, Alabo took a previously completely digital space that would only be viewed on a 59

Figure 7: David Alabo, Untitled, 3D Model Render

screen, and transformed it into an interactive environment. This is the same goal I have with my thesis: turning something that was completely digital and screen based before into a 3-dimensional, traversable environment.

This idea of traversable environments in VR is taken even further within the work of Canadian artist and filmmaker Jon Rafman (born November 1981). In his piece Sculpture Garden 2017 (Figure 8–9), he constructed a physical hedge maze environment with several different types of sculptures placed throughout the maze.

Adding another layer to this, he also created the same hedge maze in virtual reality, and adding an entirely different set of sculptures present only in VR. The viewer is able to walk through both the physical maze and the virtual maze at the same time, blending together the physical environment with the virtual one. In a sense, he has created three environments: 60

the physical, the virtual, and a blend of the two. Some sculptures can only be seen in reality and some can only be seen in VR. This piece compares the experience of real and digital spaces, using VR as a tool to get viewers to experience both at once. This idea

Figure 8: Jon Rafman, Sculpture Garden, 2015, Multimedia

Figure 9: Jon Raffman, Sculpture Garden, 2015, Multimedia

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of the blending between spaces is something parallel to my work, in which my virtual portfolio compares the sterile nature of a gallery setting to the interactive nature of virtual reality environments.

Another artist working within the context of blending physical environments with digital ones is American multimedia artist Sophie Hodara. In her application CabinAR 2019 (Figure10), you have the ability to create 3D digital elements that are grounded within a 2D marker, much like a QR code. With the marker printed and placed somewhere, you are able to use the application with your phone camera in real time to view your digital piece in the real world through the lens of your phone.

The marker serves to place and orient this digital piece in a real world space, allowing you to create entire digital environments that exist parallel and in tandem with the physical environment. This application was used for workshops at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a Typographics Conference, and at the Cooper Union. This piece exists in the realm of Augmented Reality environments, something different but similar to Virtual Reality. Both of these technologies exist in a category known as XR technology. We are both working in the context of creating virtual environments, the only difference being the technology that we use to create and experience them.

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Figure 10: Sophie Hodara, Cabin-AR 2019, Application

Within my thesis, I am working to futurescape the landscape of virtual reality. My VR environment for online portfolios serves to use VR as a way to elevate artists’ work by showcasing it in the context of a gallery setting, and to future-scape how we may interact with traditionally 2D media, like a web page, in a 3D VR environment.

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COLOPHON Designed and written by Joseph Sweetser.

Composed in VT323 created by Peter Hull based on the glyphs of the DEC VT320 text terminal.

Copyright © 2021 Joseph Sweetser, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art

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