Thursday was an exceptional experience and was very informative. I wasn’t able to make it to the first lecture, but was able to see the second and third lectures. I particularly liked the second lecture with Jonathan Fisher, Ben Chang, and Ken Perlin. All were very informative about VR, and have been doing research for a number of years; their dedication to this topic definitely showed. The one speaker that was impressive was Ken Perlin, his entire character really resonated with me. I think what really stuck out was his ability to explain VR, and how it could apply to what we do in everyday learning. He really emphasized that how it would change the learning experience, his slides were put together really well. There was moments when showed the power of VR by drawing something on the scree of his laptop and then showed how it would come to life with VR. Or how we could alter how we learn math by making it interactive. I would say he was interested with how we interact with this technology on an individual level, but even more interested with how we interact with this technology together. He did a lot of testing in his facility that involved people moving through space and being able to interact with one and other in this VR world.
The other keynote speaker that I enjoyed was Ben Cheng. He focused on the actual environments that can be created with VR. He showcased two of the games that people were able to use in the lobby of the exhibition. One was a VR world of dead heard drives, and was continually changing as you interacted with it. Throughout your interaction there was a buzzing sounds, which were the sounds of hard drives dying. The other game that he showcased was one where you’re in a room and you’re interacting with the different items within the room. There was also a virtual person that you were able to interact with too.
I had questions that I wasn’t able to ask when I was there, because of the amount time everyone had. One thing that sparked my attention was the fact of reality. What is reality? The people that are born with this technology will have a different sense of what reality is. It’s kind of scary to know that they could be absorbed by this reality, and it could pose many health concerns. On the flip side, I put myself in my grandparents shoes and try to have the perspective of them looking at as I would look at the people that are born with VR. Am I sheltered by my own bias? Who is really living reality, and whose reality?