Teaching

 

 

( Digital) Little red riding hood visits Ideas campus

Reality of both bits and atoms

Intro to virtual and augmented reality using Unity 3d

 

The nature of space has changed. For the number of years( or more precisely decades), we are aware of the parallel worlds opened up by the technology. From the space that opened up by the first phone conversations, to the space of the street navigation we are bridging physical distances and augmenting available information on the reality. Latest neuroscience developments reveal complex relationships  of human to reality, suggesting that basically all our reality is a form of virtual reality  interpreted and synchronized by our brain taking the input from our senses.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Architecture(narrowed down to definition of technical discipline) is a significant constructor of today’s reality, not only that permanence of architecture organizes and directs reality but consistency  and predictability of architecture play a huge part in today’s human experience of reality. As integrations of intelligent objects and transformational structures slowly immerge into a built environment it will be interesting to reflect on the changes in the human experience of space – i.e. reality.

More prosaically, in the process of architecture we rely on the planning and envisioning during the development stages as well as representation for the communication of the realms of adjacent possible, so,  as bottom line for the educational and economic realities of architecture ,developing skills that would just enhance representation and communication parts of the architectural process would be quite useful.

New techniques and devices allow even greater immersion into both virtual and augmented reality and harness the power of both VR and AR not only for the representation of the projects, spatial explorations but also as a bridge to cyber physical systems for linking digital and physical worlds.

 

COURSE METHODOLOGY:

During the course students will be introduced to concepts of augmented and immersive virtual  and non immersive – mixed  reality using game engine software.  Students will develop applications based on the little red riding hood fairy tale, where we will transform the physical space of Ideas campus with applications of augmented and mixed reality, or create several portals where participants get to be immerged into a full virtual reality. Narration from the little red riding hood will be inspiration for the physical path thru ideas campus, where scenes from the fairy tale will unfold thanks to the technology. Student will be divided according to their inclination to one of the 3 groups:

Trackerless  Augmented reality by Magic Leap – under development

1.AR group that would use Vuforia plug in for Unity3d to design augmented reality elements, readable by mobile devices that augment the physical space

 

Oculus VR set

2.Immersive VR that would create a world with Unity 3d explore-able using Oculus rift and Google cardboard, fully creating “the other realm”.

and

Synthetic dance Natasha Bajc ( Architecture + Design museum, Los Angeles)

3. Windows to reality group that would use projections or screens to  interact with physical reality in the window representation of the virtual reality, using Unity 3d and human computer interfaces and  depth cameras.

 

All 3 groups will be given a script that will be used as a background for design of augmentation/ world design. Based on the script they will develop series of intervention spaces and interactions that bridge physical and digital realms. They will select no less than 3 sites on campus (for AR and non Immersive VR) or 3 scene changes to convey the narrative elements of the script that was assigned to them, designing both scene, game objects and interactions.