Keep Watch

This VR experience is about how I respond and see the world after certain situations transpire in my life. It is a moment where I temporarily take a step back from who I am in my day to day life and simply observe the world, who I am, and what my relation to the world is. I tend to feel quite small in these moments not in comparison to those around me per se, but more so in comparison to life as a whole. In terms of art style and stylistic inspiration, I looked to music videos, films, and pop art. Some specific examples include the music video “Grief” by Earl Sweatshirt, the film “The Mist”, and pieces by contemporary artists like Kaws, and Yayoi Kusama.

Music is a big part of this project. I’ve always been amazed at how music can really change the way we perceive what we experience and affects our senses beyond simply hearing, and I wanted to really begin taking advantage of utilizing music from this project onward. I chose the song “Okay” by Yung Squidward (https://soundcloud.com/yung-sq....).

The viewer starts off in the outside world in a white forest with the bass line going, and is automatically headed straight towards a large head. Once they enter the mouth and float into my mind/body, there are little pill-like bones that float by, a form of “drugs” to temporarily see the world from my perspective. There are bone-like structures around you that play with the viewer’s depth perception a bit, as well as floating spheres and “people” that pass by. I’m fairly happy with the result of the project so far, especially in being able to capture the emotional essence through the colorless atmosphere of my world. I still plan on adding some more elements over the summer such as more animations at different eye levels, and creating events that get triggered when the user looks directly at an object for greater user interaction.

**VR experience not yet available to public**