SCA graduate students create immersive VR project | Daily Trojan By KARLIE TERUYA, November 8, 2017
With the growth of virtual reality technology, many students are exploring innovative ways to incorporate the technology into artistic and media-related projects. Two students from the School of Cinematic Arts’ media arts and practice program have integrated a virtual reality world in an immersive work, titled “Heterotopias.”
Created by graduate students Noa Kaplan and Szilvia Ruszev, Heterotopias is a virtual reality essay that allows viewers to interact with everyday spaces differently. Set in common areas such as a garden or a cemetery, the project looks to change the way people view their own behavior when responding to their surroundings.
According to Kaplan and Ruszev, the project was inspired by a 1967 lecture given by French philosopher Michel Foucault. The lecture, titled “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,” focused on places that people inhabit both physically and mentally. One example he mentioned was mirrors. Foucault questioned the rules that govern people’s behavior in different spaces, the students said, and explored the connection between location and people’s actions.
