The Cave

Summary The visit to the virtual reality lab was nothing like I what I had expected. I thought it would be more along the lines of the general 3D quality you find in theaters with the basic glasses and I did not realize that such a level of interactivity was possible. I was surprised by the amount of control the person with the joystick and head-tracking goggles had and it was amusing to see the predictable head jerks as objects got closer to everyone’s faces because the experience felt so real. The mapping world with the pottery was undoubtedly the most relevant to the class and I wish we had the time to create our map in the lab. It is unfortunate that the ceiling was not a part of it and that they did not have a back wall but hopefully that is something that can be developed in the future. Inquiry It will be interesting to see how the technology in the virtual reality lab will be applied in the future. To me it seems that it would be particularly useful with the military and schools because the military can train their soldiers without putting them in actual danger and making sure they are qualified and well-prepared, while schools, especially med schools, can recreate the human body or anything they need. I would love to see that technology applied to video games because as immersed as a player gets when they are playing even a simple game like Super Mario on the Nintendo, it would be amazing to play Halo or COD in 3D. The issue with relying so heavily on virtual reality would be that people could become disconnected with reality and there would be even less interactions between people. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how such technology is being used a few years from now. 1. How was your experience in The Cave and what was the most/least appealing thing to you? 2. Where do you see this technology being used a few years from now? 3. Do you think this technology will become even more mainstream in the future and if so, how long do you think it will take for this to happen? 4. What would be some issues with spreading the use of virtual reality?

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Response Is The Medium

Summary

Krueger argues against the belief that man-machine interaction is limited to a man poking at a machine and provides evidence that supports his claim that there are ways that are more interesting for men and machines to relate. He argues that there is such a thing as responsive environments which break away from the “seated man poking at a machine with his fingers or perhaps waving a wand over a data tablet” (379). He depicts the evolution from its beginnings in 1969 to his current project, VIDEOPLACE.

He starts by describing the technology that was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. GLOWFLOW, created in 1969, was visually successful but obtained a hesitant response because the artist believed it was more important that the environment respond. METAPLAY, exhibited a year later, focused on the issues with GLOWFLOW and the interaction between the environment and the individual was emphasized. PSYCHIC SPACE was used for the musical expression as well as the interactive experience and Maze also focused on the interaction between the participant and the environment. All paved the way for the integration of humans into a responsive environment. His own project, VIDEOPLACE, is conceptual and unites people in different locations within a common visual experience.

One of Krueger’s main points is that the response is the medium. He claims that the “video medium has the potential of being more rich and variable in some ways, than reality itself” (384). He describes the importance of responsive environments and risks criticism from those who believe the response is not as important as the visual appeal. He argues that the “distinguishing aspect of medium is…the fact that it responds to the viewer in an interesting way” (385) so it must know what the participant is doing and has to be able to respond to the participant. He ends his argument by stating that the responsive environment is not limited to the arts. It can be applied in education, offering students an engaging environment where they will be more eager to learn, psychology to study human behavior, and psychotherapy because certain environments can evoke and expand behavior. His concluding statement is that the “design of such intimate technology is an aesthetic issue as much as an engineering one” (389) and we have to recognize this in order to understand what we have created.

Inquiry

After visiting the reality lab, I fully agree with Krueger’s argument. It took me a while to grasp onto the notion that the response was the medium but after reading the various applications he described I was able to understand and thus form a decision on whether or not I agreed with him. I believe fully responsive environments are the future and we are well on our way to creating such technology. The example that I could visualize the most was using it for psychotherapy. It could be used to enable people to get over their fears and it can create seemingly hostile environments without the dangers of real life. It seems that responsive environments are already making their way into people’s homes and in it probably won’t be long before every home has some sort of illustration of this.

An example of the response as the medium is the virtual reality lab. The participant controls their surroundings with the joystick that responds to movement much like the Wii remotes do. They are able to navigate around the platform and when wearing the lenses that control the movements they are able to walk into different areas of the virtual reality, such as looking through the parts of the heart and seeing the other areas. It is all about the environment responding to the movements of the individual and the individual being able to control what happens.

1. Do you believe that someday we will be completely dependent on responsive environments and what are the dangers if that happens?
2. Do you agree with Krueger that the response is the medium or do you believe that something else is the medium?
3. How else can virtual reality be used? Do the pros of a responsive environment outweigh the cons?

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