Stepping beyond the bounds of the possible, experiencing what was previously inaccessible – isn’t this the dream of everyone who chooses their development? New technologies that seemed like science fiction only yesterday are entering the world and opening up unexpected resources in us.
Computer games no longer surprise anyone. For a couple of decades, they have evolved from primitive “shooters” into realistic virtual projects.
But gaming technology has already taken a step further. And today you can immerse yourself in virtual reality with the full effect of presence, or you can become a participant in a many-hour performance – as a spectator or hero. For some, this is entertainment, like an ordinary interactive game, and for some, it is a tool for developing creative solutions.
Talk to your head
At the 58th Venice Biennale (the world’s most famous contemporary art forum) in May 2019, Russian media artists and AI developers presented a performance. Viewers of the exhibition could see their own digital clone using the Faced2Faced application created by media artists Natalya Altufyeva and Yaroslav Kravtsov.
It looks like this: the owner of the smartphone holds out his hand in front of him, and with the help of an application, a “speaking” head appears on his hand. And his own head. From the side, the hand seems empty, but if you look at it through the phone, a three-dimensional image appears.
“A game is the same media product as a film, music, book, only more technologically sophisticated, with elements of interactivity,” explains Yaroslav Kravtsov, an independent video game developer. “The app has a deeper meaning than it might seem.”
The head that appeared “from the phone”, like a genie from a bottle, although it looks like the owner, but lives its own life. The material from which it is created is the information that we ourselves post about ourselves on social networks, our photos, words about ourselves, jokes, voice.
Live in your own project
We all drew a house in childhood. And in adult life we can also enter into it. To do this, you just need to put on special glasses – and you can walk along the corridors, twist the knobs, open the cabinets. You can find yourself on the beach or reach for a branch without leaving your apartment.
“These fundamentally new technologies allow us to feel what is impossible to see on the monitor screen,” explains Yaroslav Kravtsov. It’s amazing how they trick our brains! For example, in virtual reality, you need to walk along a narrow plank at a high altitude. And with special glasses we see this, although we understand that we are in the room, friends are nearby, that we will not fall anywhere. But the sensations of space are real.”
Such technologies help to develop a design project and test for yourself what it is like to be in a room of this color, whether it is convenient to walk between the furniture arranged in such a way. How comfortable and safe the created environment is. It is especially comfortable to work on such projects as a team.
Specialists gather in a virtual “apartment” or “shop”, who can physically be at this time not only in different parts of the office, but even in the world. With the help of special glasses you can draw in 3D.
For professional artists, this opens up the opportunity to create three-dimensional canvases that develop spatial thinking and imagination. There are technologies that allow you to give the created flower a fragrance, and “teach” the bird to sing.
The audience reacts differently: some people get scared at first, because you don’t talk to yourself every day
But the clone does not exactly match us, because we embellish ourselves in public space. We try to post photos from the best angle, we rarely confess our sins and dark sides. Therefore, we do not see an exact mirror image.
You can ask the head questions, it will answer – not in the way we expect. And such a dialogue is an opportunity to see ourselves from the outside, the way we present ourselves outside. The way the virtual “I” “saw” us. This is an opportunity to define your development zone.
“I treat this project as the birth and growing up of a child,” continues Yaroslav Kravtsov. – As its creator, I was happy when the head just appeared, then it “learned” to hear and speak. I felt joy, delight – like a “piece of iron”, but suddenly she looks at me with human eyes! Why did I use each’s own image? Because we trust ourselves more than anyone else.”
The audience reacts differently: some people get scared at first, because you don’t talk to yourself every day. Someone rejoices. Almost everyone begins to fantasize what else they can think of with their heads, what to teach her or what to dress her up with. Everyone becomes a bit of a creator, a creator of themselves and their own abilities.
“For me, this is not just a specific piece of work. This is a story about what technologies may be in the future, what our interaction with them will be, and this can be started to be studied now, to give an opportunity to plunge into this future, which has actually become real.”
Get into an immersive show
But to immerse yourself in an unusual space and stimulate the imagination, high technology is not always needed. It is enough to participate in immersive shows that came into fashion a few years ago and continue to attract attention.
“We create an atmosphere, closed large spaces with the help of actors and interiors, and immerse the participant in many hours of performances-shows (for example, for several years we showed a show based on Ibsen’s play), now we are preparing a new large-scale show in the center of Moscow,” says Anna, producer of immersive events Sharma. “Our goal is to encourage everyone to turn off the usual patterns, “go with the flow”, so that they find a non-standard solution, behave differently than usual, and learn something new about themselves. We get letters of thanks. Someone could not sleep after the show and wrote poetry, someone drew or composed music.
How does such an action take place? Imagine mansions of several thousand squares, with the appropriate interior, scenery, light, sounds, smells. If according to the scenario there is a “church”, then it smells like incense, and the “garden” smells like flowers. Several dozens of different locations and platforms, each step is adjusted to the minute.
The mansion seemed to capture my mood and thoughts, showed me a performance that corresponded to my experiences.
The participant can watch the actors play at arm’s length, catching the exact hit of their remarks in their state and realizing something, sees other participants, or can become the hero of the scene.
“I was on the show more than 17 times, and each time was different from the previous one,” the producer shares. – The mansion seemed to capture my mood and thoughts, showed me a performance that corresponded to my experiences. The character somehow raises exactly your, personal topics and questions that, for myself, for example, I did not dare to raise.
Each participant has their own insights. One girl admitted that for 7 years she could not discuss their breakup with an ex-man, and after two and a half hours spent on the show, she was finally able to talk with him, and it changed her life.