BLUR
Blur is a virtual reality experience exploring the topic of the boundary between “illusion” and “reality”. Being immersed in an enclosed and endless hallway and triggering a series of uncanny events, the player of Blur has to face a situation where assumptions about the reality are constantly defied. Such defiance is designed to lead the player to the uncomfortable realization that seeing is not believing.
This project is selected into DIS2020 workshop: Communicate, Critique and Co-create (CCC) Future Technologies through Design Fictions in VR Environment.
Design
Player
In this experience, the only allowed interaction of the player is walking. This lack of control and power puts the player into the mode of passively experiencing the environment and the events, instead of actively making changes. Putting the player into such a vulnerable and passive position is desirable because the lack of power and agency is more likely to translate to self-reflection and contemplation.
Hallway
This experience is contained within a hotel hallway, which has an end on one side and extends infinitely on the other. The hotel hallway is a familiar space, but its repetitive pattern, seclusion, and uni-directional extension creates a sense of surrealism, claustrophobia, and disorientation. The co-existing comfort and discomfort registers the theme of uncanny-ness. The hallway is also a reference to great films like Paprika (dir. Satoshi Kon, 2006), Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010), and The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980).
Wave
In this experience, the floor on the endless side of the hallway is wavy, and the boundary between the wavy flat floor shifts as the player moves. Wavy floor is an intentional experimentation of the sense of immersion afforded by the medium of virtual reality, because walking on a visually wavy but physically flat surface (in reality) can be physiologically dizzy. Creating such dizziness is one of the unique powers of virtual reality. It is intended for two purposes: 1) script the player so that walking toward the wavy direction become unfavorable, 2) thematically represent the floating, limitless, and ephemeral nature of illusions.
Figure 1: Player touches the mirror with "ghost" and flat floor in the back
Mirror
The end wall of the hallway turns into a mirror when the player is close enough. This mirror is special in that the waves on the floor are not seen in it (to imply they are illusional), and the player’s hands and the ghost can only be seen in the mirror (to question which side is more “real”). The mirror is used for two purposes. First, the mirror bears the assumption that one should see a reflection of the world in it, and this assumption is intentionally challenged and brought to awareness in the experience. Second, the object of mirror has always been symbolically related to illusion, self-reflection, and identity in the discussions of the psychology and philosophy, therefore it is a meaningful motif to reinforce the theme.
Figure 2: "Ghost" patting player from the back at the end of the experience (seen from the mirror)
Ghost
The waiter-looking character, who approaches the player and can only be seen in the mirror, behaves like a ghost. Its purpose is unclear, and the player has no way to stop or redirect it, so the approaching of this ghost can feel threatening. It exists in the scene to evoke human being’s visceral response when seeing potential danger approaching, as another manifestation of the virtual reality’s power of creating realistic illusion. When the ghost meets the player, it will pat the player’s back and say “you are fooled” to bookend the theme and question whether seeing is believing.