Virtual Reality Methods

ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Since the mid-2010s, virtual reality (VR) technology has advanced rapidly. This book explores the many opportunities that VR can offer for humanities and social sciences researchers. The book provides a user-friendly, non-technical methods guide to using ready-made VR content and 360° video as well as creating custom materials. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to using VR, providing helpful, real-world examples of how researchers have used the technology

The culling : creating an immersive video game as a framework for audience participation and philosophical engagement

The rhetoric of the Trump campaign and now administration has stoked the fires of xenophobia in America; The Culling seeks to confront this fear of others through an immersive performance experience. This qualitative reflective practitioner research study describes The Culling, an MFA thesis project that positions the audience as actors in an interactive, immersive theatrical video game located in a xenophobic, futuristic dystopia. Through an examination of the relationship between technology, art, and empathy, this study considers the relationship between interactive projections and physical and philosophical engagement for the audience members. This descriptive analysis shares the inspiration for, creation of, and resulting response to the project. The project specifically asks two questions: 1. How can design be used to create audience movement? 2. How can paradigms of participatory theater be used to create philosophical engagement through an experience of prejudice? To answer these questions the author created an immersive, interactive video game that also included elements of theater. The game was set in a dystopian future where players must solve puzzle games to prove their humanity. Drawing on elements of theater design, game design, playwriting, and science fiction, The Culling placed the audience inside the story world both physically and emotionally.Theatre and Danc

How can Fox networks group become a successful live events & experience player in Iberia?

FOX Networks Group currently develops branded content in the form of Live Events and Experiences in Iberia. However, it lacks strategic planning in order to turn those into profit generating Business Models. Hence, the subsequent report evaluates growth and profitability opportunities intended to catapult FOX Networks Group into a successful Live Events and Experiences player in Iberia through three new business models (FOX Fever: ‘Family Guy’ Edition, FOX ‘Prison Break’ Bar, and FOX Crime Scene). This solution arises from an extensive marketing analysis, including primary and secondary research, which originated a far-reaching marketing plan, comprising an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan

Columbia Chronicle (04/29/2013)

Student newspaper from April 29, 2013 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 44 pages and is listed as Volume 48, Number 28. Cover story: R&B diva dazzles Biggest Mouth competition Editor-in-Chief: Heather Schröeringhttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1876/thumbnail.jp

LOCATIVE MEDIA, AUGMENTED REALITIES AND THE ORDINARY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

This dissertation investigates the role of annotative locative media in mediating experiences of place. The overarching impetus motivating this research is the need to bring to bear the theoretical and substantive concerns of cultural landscape studies on the development of a methodological framework for interrogating the ways in which annotative locative media reconfigure experiences of urban landscapes. I take as my empirical cases i) Google Maps with its associated Street View and locational placemark interface, and ii) Layar, an augmented reality platform combining digital mapping and real-time locational augmentation. In the spirit of landscape studies’ longstanding and renewed interest in what may be termed “ordinary” residential landscapes, and reflecting the increasing imbrication of locative media technologies in everyday lives, the empirical research is based in Kenwick, a middleclass, urban residential neighborhood in Lexington, Kentucky. Overall, I present an argument about the need to consider the digital, code (i.e. software), and specifically locative media, in the intellectual context of critical geographies in general and cultural landscape studies in particular

Alcohol with an attitude: Reducing aggression in drinking establishments through interior design

Aggression in drinking establishments has been found to be associated with poorly maintained, unclean, unattractive environments including poor ventilation, smoky air, inconvenient bar access and inadequate seating, high noise level, and crowding (Graham, 1980). Macintyre and Homel (1992) concluded that the key feature of high aggression drinking establishments was intersecting traffic flows created by inappropriate design, especially poor location of toilets and bars, and the use of the same door as both entrance and exit. Aggression has also been found to increase with such activities as dancing and pool playing (Graham, 1980). Likewise, Radcliffe and Nutter (1979) concluded that people who engaged in social activities such as games tended to drink more slowly; however, they also tended to stay in the drinking establishment longer, ultimately consuming more alcohol than non-players. Thus, the activities found in a drinking establishment can impact the amount of drinking and aggression. Therefore, if this research shows that certain design decisions increase negative behaviors (aggression) then it should be possible to create guidelines to help designers, owners, and managers make decisions that decrease negative behaviors (aggression). This study examines the creation of such design and management guidelines, with the goal of making drinking establishments safer and less aggressive for their patrons through design. In addition, most owners, managers, and patrons consider drinking establishments not only as places of alcohol consumption, but also as social spaces or spaces of social interaction. Therefore, in addition to reducing aggressive behaviors which are seen as negative, designers, owners, and managers should be interested in increasing the potential for sociability or positive social interaction in drinking establishments. Thus, the communication between patrons is also examined in this study. The likelihood of strangers interacting at a drinking establishment depends on the distance between them. As a general rule, a span of three bar stools is the maximum distance over which patrons would attempt to initiate an encounter (Sommer, 1969). Therefore, the design of a drinking establishment should support or encourage social interaction among individuals and groups. Just as distance is important, so is having a layout where patrons face one another. A patron can still arrange to be alone, bunching himself up at the end of a bar and staring down at his drink, or sitting at a remote table. But [if the bar is designed correctly] these postures must be maintained rigorously (Sommer, 1969). This paper examines previous studies and proposes a set of guidelines which clearly point out the main ideas, targeting drinking establishment owners and interior designers. As a researcher and someone who has worked in a drinking establishment environment, multiple anecdotal incidents have been noted that could be reduced or even avoided if the design and management of the drinking establishment was better. This topic can benefit humankind by potentially changing the drinking patterns of patrons, and reducing negative behaviors (aggression) while increasing behaviors that are seen as more positive (greater sociability and activities in addition to the consumption of alcohol)

Illinois State Magazine, February 2012 Issue

Alumni magazine for Illinois State University, February 2012 issue.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/ism/1012/thumbnail.jp