HOLO-DOODLE: an adaptation and expansion of collaborative holojam virtual reality

Abstract

Social Media has exploded so rapidly we have to run to keep up. Whilst babies are kept occupied by iPads, kids get lost in smartphones, and teens lock themselves into their own isolating VR world, we see the need for change. We're losing the art of interaction and conversation. In this multi-person simultaneous collaborative VR installation we demonstrate that social interaction is the key component to making VR something far more positive and lasting an experience. HOLO - DOODLE, an adaptation of Holojam created by Professor Ken Perlin and his next-level team at NYU, re-jigged by VR gurus Superbright, in which sensors are strapped to the extremities of a group of people in Samsung Gear VR Headsets, given virtual paint brushes and through the medium of art and conversation become acquainted in an entirely new way. As we fully explore the parameters of our being, our art, our gender and our humanity we face ever growing walls of oppression. VR is still relatively undefined. It disturbingly makes war games become ever more real, and as a format it extends much far further than the next progression of film. We need to look at the techonology differently, use it to bring people out of their shell, to dance like noones watching, to play out a fantasy. ItâĂŹs a movement for good, and we can change the emphasis of VR to something far more positive. Allow folk to interact without the shackles of how individuals can be pre-judged in this real world.