For the extra credit assignment I went to the Virtual Sculpture Gallery located 6-120. When I read the event name in the promoting flyer I actually thought there would be sculptures shown in some kind of technological way. To my surprise, it was models created by students that were later turned into virtual representations by a company specialized in virtual imaging.

My group of friends and I were the only ones that had been to that exhibit, so the students were excited to show us their work. Two students were there representing the class which created the models. The professor (Joshua Whitehead) was explaining to us what the class consisted of and all of the obstacles that came along the way. He said that it was a semester’s worth of work. It’s really amazing how we may see the finished product as small or maybe not worthy of such long dedication. It was interesting to see the talent and complexity of the work. The shapes of the models weren’t simply squares and circles. They were stacked on top one another and printed in 3D. 

Baruch is known as a business school and sometimes it’s hard to acknowledge the different classes and opportunities we have to push our creativity. The class that created these sculptures is Environmental design ART 3041. I loved that this all started from the classroom. Although it was a collaboration between the students and the VR company, the idea and work came from the classroom.

Around the laptops in two separate tables were the sculptures with a sign that said “don’t touch it took 10 hours to make”. I was honestly surprised by the amount of time it took to make because it looked very simple. But later on they explained that each piece was cut precisely to be identical as the other. Along this table they also had google glasses which we needed to download an app to see a virtual world.

What I found most fun and entertaining was the VR glasses connected to the glasses. For a moment I thought that the sculptures were to imitate Baruch’s shape. The glasses were hooked up to computers which had the virtual world programmed and everywhere you moved so would the sculpture. Aside from this we were also given two controllers to help us navigate. The student helped us understand the different things we could do with the controls. We were able to point at one place and then simply teleport there. Fine blue lines would show up if in real life you were close to a wall. So not only was this technology keeping up with the virtual world but also with the real world. Once I learned how to navigate with the controls I began to jump from sculpture to sculpture. Although my feet were set in the ground it felt like I was actually jumping. This shows how our minds can play tricks on us based on what we see. Truthfully, even though it was great to be the one using the VR it was even more amusing to watch my friend’s reactions. I had never used the VR glasses before and was exposed to a new experience. I am generally not a tech savvy person but seeing that this project was so cool and a team effort it’s exciting to think about all that I can learn.