This article was originally published in Parsons Notes
In the Spring of 2021, the XReality Center, with support from Information Technologies and the Office of Curriculum and Learning, began the Immersive Learning Innovation initiative designed to pilot courses that could benefit from delivering content through Virtual Reality. A primary goal of the initiative is to push the conceptual boundaries of the lab, studio, and classroom.
One course that was chosen to implement this new technology was a section of TIME from Parsons First Year Program, taught by Joseph Ayers. According to Joseph Ayers, who partnered with Maya Georgieva and the XReality Center to create a virtual gallery to use for installations, critiques, and exhibitions, “Exploring 3D virtual reality for immersive social environments and events, exhibition space and classroom critiques, has opened up so many possibilities, especially during this time of quarantine when we can’t gather in real spaces. We can do things in virtual space that would not really be possible in the real world. It’s a pretty exciting space to explore!”
Below is a link to the final student exhibition for Joseph Ayers’ Spring 21 TIME course. There is a diverse range of media, ideas, and approaches evident in the projects represented, and the virtual space made it possible to see all of these ideas in concert under one ‘virtual’ roof! Combined in the space there are videos, animated gifs, composite images, drawings, and more.
https://hubs.mozilla.com/xv9PanA/talkative-olive-park
The virtual gallery is viewed best from a desktop computer, or laptop using Chrome. To navigate the space, once you enter the gallery use your WSAD keys to move forward, backward, left, and right. And click and drag to swivel your view up and down and side to side.
More About the XReality Center:
Maya Georgieva is Director of Education Futures and the XReality Center at the New School and leads a team driving new media and innovation focused on immersive storytelling, spatial computing, future interfaces, and design. For more information about the XReality Center at Parsons visit https://xrcenter.newschool.edu
