Digital Futures (DF), Graduate Studies (GS) in Partnership with CFC Media Lab Present… A Very VR Afternoon
Wednesday, October 12th
1:00PM – 4:00PM VA Lab,
Room 720, 205 Richmond St. W.
OCAD University
1:00PM – 2:30PM
Hector Centeno Garcia
Digital Futures graduate and researcher
"Sitting Under a Highway” VR Presentation and Demonstration
Sitting under a highway is a research-creation project by Hector Centeno Garcia and presented as an interactive audiovisual virtual and presential space. By wearing a head-mounted display (VR), a hand tracking device, headphones and an electroencephalography band, the audience experiences photorealistic 3D visuals and spatial audio that are the product of an artistic practice centred on the attentive aesthetic exploration of a physical place. - See more at: http://www.ocadu.ca/academics/graduate-studies/digital-futures.htm#sthash.Lq3htrWZ.J47zaAV7.dpuf
The virtual reality space that the user inhabits is activated through the combined measurement of concentration and relaxation through an EEG reader. A hand tracker allows the user to also physically interact in space. Through mindfulness we engage with the environment, in the hope that art created with such processes can contribute to a better understanding of the disconnect that exists between post-modern society and our inhabited places. Awarded Best Creative Work and Best Thesis Document, Digital Futures Graduate Program, OCAD University.
http://hcenteno.net/about.html
2:30PM – 3:00PM Break: social discussion and refreshments
3:00PM – 4:00PM
Michael Naimark
Guest artist, inventor, scholar, and coach in emergent media and immersive experiences
Presentation and discussion on VR Cinematography
Michael Naimark is a media artist and researcher who often explores "place representation" and its impact on culture, and is actively engaged in understanding the dynamics between art and technology, with an uncanny track record of art projects presaging widespread adoption, often by decades. He is noted in the histories of Google Street View, Projection Mapping, and Virtual Reality (and, some claim, the Facebook Like Button); and in ongoing work with cinematic crowdsourcing, live global video, and cultural heritage. Michael has directed projects with support from Apple, Disney, Atari, Panavision, Lucasfilm, Interval, and Google; and from National Geographic, UNESCO, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Exploratorium, the Banff Centre, Ars Electronica, the ZKM, and the Paris Metro. He occasionally serves as faculty at USC Cinema's Interactive Media Division, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and the MIT Media Lab.
http://www.naimark.net/