Studio 7
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After our holiday break, we headed straight into Stand-Ups. This was quite an amusing session, as it was interesting to see how each group presented differently and see our differences in progress. Our group has been relatively inexperienced going into our first stand-up - we set up our slides as a jumble of documentation and sketches to show our overall progress. Other groups had individual slides for each member, and some did not have any slides at all.

By the end of this session, we learned that the stand-ups are really just to update your group with your personal progress and difficulties. They should highlight your key challenges and proceeding goals. It was also quite reassuring to hear members from other groups talk - they mentioned challenges (lockdown motivation, conjoint time management), which I could relate to.


Notes from my stand up:
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Since last time, I have been assigned to the land scene (There are two: Land and sky). I gathered inspiration photos from Rabaul, and from these, ideating different atmospheres for the scene. What was mostly challenging us from advancing forward was that we had a myriad of different art concepts and different styles. We needed to pick the final concept before moving forward. Along with this, I had mostly been doing concept arts and have been inexperienced with coding so far, so I need to be more motivated to learn and upskill myself. Next time, we will have to gather textures for the different elements in the scene, search for 3D assets online and familiarise myself with Unity.


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Studio 7
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In this studio, we talked about cultural competency in AR/VR design. This is to be aware of not only the motifs, objects and landmarks which are sacred to different cultures, but also the differing perspectives and ways of life. A good thought to keep in mind is that your behavioral habits (e.g., how you greet people, manners at the dinner table), may be vastly different from another culture. Cultural sensitivity with designing will allow the MR experience to be better universally accepted and enjoyed. In order to do this, we must connect with a diversity of communities, or even working with experts in cultural competency, to make sure your design is culturally competent.
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An interesting concept that we discussed was using VR to educate people about racism. "Travelling While Black" is a VR documentary film that allows the viewer to step inside the shoes of a black American to explore the history of their life experiences in the 20th century. With such immersion, this is a step beyond understanding their challenges - it is understanding what they feel as they navigate through these challenges.

However, there are many questions we must ask ourselves when portraying the life of another race- how can we accurately depict their life? (especially since everyone in a culture has a unique life experience), How would the people of that culture feel about sharing their personal experiences? Will they be comfortable with it? How do we make sure the VR experience is used respectfully? There are several things to consider here - making it kind of a grey area to work in. However, through conversations with different people of these cultures, we can better configure our designs to respect their culture and their people.
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