Take a look at an interview about the project, “A Sea Change,” that takes to stage in April 2017 — a project featuring students and faculty at Florida International University to express through dance, data visualization, virtual reality, and journalism the issues of sea level rise in South Florida and global climate change.
Research: Can VR Measure Perception?
By Johanna Falkenhagen
Can VR tell us something different about our biases?
Details are still in the works, but students in Visual Storytelling and Digital Theories this semester are developing a research project to find out. (We are also working with faculty from FIU and Ohio State on this particular project.)
When working in the production of this project, we have learned about the impact that using certain language and words in a script for VR production and in a survey can strongly alter the way in which users can experience different environments. Continue reading “Research: Can VR Measure Perception?”
VirtualEYES featured at BBC’s Career Fair
VirtualEYES held an Oculus Rift demonstration at FIU BBC’s career involvement fair. There, attendees fully experienced our students’ mangrove forest project and viewed our trailer for the upcoming Highland Village VR experience, which examines sea level rise in South Florida.
FIU’s MVR Lab Hosts an Open House
The MVR Lab hosted an open house last week, inviting students and faculty members to try virtual reality. First-timers and VR veterans alike were impressed with our students’ projects, and those who were new to the lab were inspired to take part.
See our poster promoting the event below:
Partnering With Workplace by Facebook
VirtualEYES is excited to be partnering with Facebook on its new organizational program, Workplace by Facebook.
By using this system, the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab and its fellow FIU collaborators will pilot this Facebook program, provide feedback, and benefit from student interaction with new technology, developers, and others at the center of this initiative.
Putting FIU VR in Industry Context
Ready to go!
VirtualEYES — On Stage!
VirtualEYES is front and center in an interdisciplinary theatre performance at Florida International University in April that may be made into a traveling school roadshow.
An interesting way to take journalism back to its days as performance that’s also been done elsewhere (and not to mention many scholars see journalism as performance still today), “A Sea Change” focuses on bringing journalism, virtual reality, music, dance, hard science, and acting to audiences as a way to engage citizens with climate change information — and possible action.
The performance is produced by Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. and Directed by Phillip M. Church.
Read more here.
FIU Mobile Virtual Reality Lab Partners with MIT
Students in Florida International University’s Mobile Virtual Reality Lab are now partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create stories about sea level rise in South Florida – told through virtual reality.
As part of the Before It’s Too Late initiative that focuses on engaging users with VR storytelling about climate change, FIU journalism and digital media students are localizing climate issues in profound vignettes and group simulations that bring to life future worlds driven by user decisions.
South Florida communities and key policy and business leaders will be exposed to these immersive videos through a nationwide tour.
Other initial project partners include FIU’s Sea Level Solutions Center, Stanford University, George Mason University, and the University of Miami.
“We are excited to partner again with MIT on shaping local and national stories about sea level rise,” said Dr. Robert Gutsche, Jr., Assistant Professor in FIU’s Department of Journalism + Media and Faculty Lead of the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab. “Not only do our students benefit from exposure to such projects and partners, but they contribute to important international dialogues about our changing planet.”
Gutsche will lead FIU students with Dr. Juliet Pinto, also in the Department of Journalism + Media, to place FIU students at the center of innovative storytelling about climate change.
“We are so lucky to be able to partner with innovative, engaged and collaborative partners such as FIU to launch our pilot for South Florida,” said Linda Cheung, co-founder of Before It’s Too Late and an MBA student at MIT Sloan. “We believe that this will be a unique opportunity for talented, passionate students to become part of a initiative which allows them to work with exciting partners all over the country, including the biggest players in the VR industry, other universities, leading climate organizations and their own mayors and county governments.”
Cheung said she hopes the project makes an impact.
“This is an opportunity to drive real impact at home in South Florida,” she said. “We can’t wait to see the stories, creativity and insights that the students will deliver.”
Visit vrbeforeitstoolate.org and eyesontherise.org/virtualEYES for more information. Follow on Twitter at @vr_bitl.
New Arrivals — HTC Vive and Oculus Rift
They arrived today, the HTC Vive (left) and the Oculus Rift (right). Next week, the first week of classes, will be fun as we explore these new storytelling tools!