GMU:Post Physical Playgrounds

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Lecturer: Jörg Brinkmann
Credits: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
Date: Fridays, 15:15 – 18:30
Venue: Digital Bauhaus Lab
First meeting: 21.10.22, 15:15

Description

It’s exciting that interactive media such as the Internet creates new social spaces that give us the opportunity to validate identity aspects communicatively, to design them interactively and to redesign them. In these spaces, aspects of identity can be exemplified, tested, simulated, practised and made public. Through communication via the Internet, processes of transmediation also take place that can help to gain a better understanding of our present time.

Digital media technologies now permeate all areas of life: They transform the cultural and creative sector and the economic system as well as politics, science, civil society and everyday practices.

That's why artistic work shouldn't be used as an observation of the media, but as an examination of digital cultures. Digital cultures encompass both the technological conditions and artifacts as well as the systems and processes of perception, meaning and communication.

Strolling through the digital spaces of the Internet, in particular milieu-specific socialization spaces of visual practices, means dealing with the everyday behavior on social media platforms with an observant and analytical consciousness. The concept of strolling, which Walter Benjamin introduced in the 20th century using the example of Parisian boulevard life, can also be transferred to the digital world. With that theory in mind, we will focus on the conditions of identity formation and communication of belonging in various milieus of the Internet.

The Internet no longer exists as a niche of an alternative or separated world, but has intrinsically grown together with the real living and cultural spaces of our society via the omnipresence of stationary and mobile devices. What transformation processes occur when social interaction online is transferred into an immersive virtual space?

VRChat is a Free to play Massively Multipayer Online Game and allows players to use 3D avatars to interact with other players in a virtual world. In contrast to open-world games such as Second Life or Minecraft, VRChat offers the possibility to experience immersive spatial impressions via VR interfaces and to interact with each other through body movements and gestures.

In our blockmodule workshop we will explore this socialization space as a flâneur and create our own avatars and places of encounter through which we can interact with other users in the virtual world.

Registration

Send an e-mail until October 11th to joerg.brinkmann@uni-weimar.de. Please include the following information:

Subject/title of your e-mail:
Post Physical Playgrounds

Content

  •  your full name
  •  program and semester
  •  matriculation number
  •  describe in a few sentences why you want to take the course
  •  If you have any material about your creative work online or digitally available, please send links or attach files to the email

Recommended Requirements

Applicants should have a basic knowledge of working with Unity and a laptop. It is preferred but not explicitly required to have accomplished Critical VR Lab I.

Criteria for passing

In order to successfully participate you will have to develop and document your own project on the GMU Wiki. Also, complete the exercises and comply with the submission deadlines

Communication throughout the semester

The GMU-Wiki
Here you can find all the info about our class and also present your work linked under your name
Please create your account under this link with your University email adress:
https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/Special:CreateAccount

Telegram
CriticalVR2 will be our collective chatroom
Please download Telegram and join for group discussions:
https://t.me/+G8jCFW53ahDiPfI6

Student works (after login, please add your name and create a page)

Syllabus

VR TOOLBOX

Software

  • Unity 3D - cross-platform game engine (proprietary)
  • Blender - 3D modeller with many features (open source)
  • Autodesk FBX Converter – convert OBJ, DAE, and 3DS files to or from multiple versions of the FBX format (proprietary)
  • MeshLab - system for processing and editing 3D triangular meshes (open source)
  • Meshroom - Photogrammetric Computer Vision framework for 3D Reconstruction and Camera Tracking (open source)
  • MakeHuman tool for making 3D characters (open source)
  • Meshmixer - "Swiss Army Knife" for 3D meshes (proprietary)
  • Open Broadcaster Software - streaming and recording program (open source)

Online Tools

3D Models (for download and use)

Unity 3D Tutorials

Unity 3D Assets

Blender Tutorials

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