Topic outline

  • Lectures

    LECTURE 1

    Anthropology of the senses: Towards a more holistic understanding of media and virtual reality

    Lily Díaz-Kommonen

    Keywords: Ecology, hierarchy of the senses, sensory meaning, sensorium

    In this lecture, I present an anthropological approach that allows us to inquire about the role that cultural conditioning might play in the way that sensory meaning is created. The sensorium is the concept utilized to refer to the site – or seat – of an organism’s sensation. Though the sense of sight is often considered as most important in humans, it seems that there is no such thing as an inherent and universal hierarchy of the senses. Rather, it would seem that the way in which humans perceive and make sense of their world is related to their own local ecology. 

    If indeed our perception of the world is, at least partially, affected by historical and cultural conditioning, then how might we develop a critical approach that allows us to reflect on the role of media in shaping our understanding of the world?


    LECTURE 2

    Immersion, presence, and storyboarding for virtual reality

    Gautam Vishwanath

    Storytelling

    Cvijeta Miljak

    Keywords: Storytelling, emotions, sense-making, cultural transformation, emotional connection

    These series of lectures delve into frameworks that define VR experiences including immersion, presence, and coherence. The frameworks are an essential vocabulary for designing and creating any virtual experience. The lectures also delve into different aspects of storytelling and storyboarding considering VR as a medium and provide a variety of examples.


    LECTURE 3

    Guest lecture
    Timo Wright

    Timo presented some of his work, and talked about the design process and choices in his projects Fukushima – The Home That Once Was and Everyday Vrealities.

    Information architecture
    Cvijeta MIljak

    keywords: information architecture, information ecology, content, context, users, sense-making, way-finding

    The lecture introduces the information architecture and discusses why it is an important step in designing immersive experiences. A case study of The Virtual Exhibition of Les Immateriaux is presented illustrating a process of designing an information architecture.

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