Shared Dream Update: Individual Feedback
I had the fortune this week of meeting with my professor, Carla Gannis, in order to go over some of the guiding concepts in my final project for my Social VR course. I’m actually doing these blog posts somewhat out-of-order, as this meeting happened before I was firmly set on the project idea as I discussed in this post. Nonetheless, the insight I gained was fairly important and certainly worth talking about!
Perspectives in Virtual Reality
One of the core concepts we revolved around in this discussion was that of perspective. Since my project idea plays with the notions of a single perspective revealing many simultaneous points in time, this was certainly a crucial element to brianstorm around. Professor Gannis brought up numerous sources to sort of muse over. There were numerous angles from which to approach the ideas of perspective: How the sensory illusion of VR dates back to the 1400s. How artworks such as Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors and Agnolo Bronzino’s Portrait of the Dwarf Nano Morgante* play with the perspective of the viewer: the former featuring the famous angled/distorted skull only viewable from a certain angle, and the latter being a double-portrait of both Morgante’s front and rear. How literature such as Abbott’s Flatland explores inter-dimensional communication (as in, two-dimensional flat beings vs. us).
Our conversation eventually found its way towards an old youtube video we were both familiar with: Imagining the Tenth Dimension, which is a tremendously fun thought experiment that illustrates some important concepts for this project. To paraphrase the relevant bits:
The 0th dimension is a point.
A 1st dimensional object is a line: it has a beginning and end, but no width or depth.
The 2nd dimension is a ‘split’: (think the letter ‘Y’) Our object now has length and width, with no depth.
The 3rd dimension is what we are all familiar with. Objects have perceptible heights, widths, and depths.
The 4th dimension is represented again as a ‘line’, but this time of duration. Our 3D selves are a “point” on this line. Think of a “4th dimensional person” being a ‘line’ of themselves from birth to death. We can see the beginning and end at the same time.
(If you’re still reading here, just watch the video, I’m not getting any deeper than this :) )
Wouldn’t it be neat to see slices of places in the “4th dimension”?
Think of a public park - it doesn’t just exist now, but each moment that has happened there, every first kiss, sprained ankle, mugging, wedding, and bite of a fresh hot pretzel that has ever happened at that park is part of its “fourth-dimensional self”. Since I’m not particularly interested in the Cosmic-Horror that is infinite overlapping times, I thought a better approach would be peeking through fragmented ‘windows’ - catching a not-entirely-structured glimpse of different ‘points’ along the line of time.
Home is Where the [memories] Are
For me, the idea of setting this experience at “home” jumped out at me. While it’s not an entirely universal experience, for many people decades are encapsulated within the same walls, and to look through old photos or speak of memories in that space is in some way to access that “4th-dimensional view” of the building. On a personal note, shortly after COVID, my parents began the process of selling the home I grew up in. So recently, I’ve had plenty of moments going through the place, collecting things I’d long forgotten and re-living some of the memories - for better or for worse - as my family and I all retreaded the steps we’d taken ten thousand times. Though there are technical challenges abound, I’m hoping I can recreate some of that experience in a meaningful way.
*I must credit my brilliant partner, Nínive Vargas de la Peña, for her scholarship on the works of Bronzino and our many discussions which gave me whatever speck of knowledge I have on the topic of his art.