I’m not usually much of a dreamer, and I don’t want to get too wild here, but what I’d really like is multiple projections on every wall, and multiple audio speaker areas that can be separate or combined.
Right now, no matter how fancy, all media is focused at the front of the room. Best viewing is in rows facing the front, or theatre seating. This configuration, of course, supports old-style presentation.
Screens on each wall, with separate projectors, would allow a more immersive, less presentation-focused environment. If connected to computers, each area of the room could work independently. I imagine groups working on separate projects.
I imagine all four walls with images of an interior set in the historical timeframe. I could “decorate” the whole room to make it look like we’re in a Victorian study, for example. Or a Celtic hut. Or the Roman Senate. Heck, they could decorate the room.
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| This multimedia installation is round, not square, but you get the general idea. |
I could rotate images of artwork from the timeframe we’re working on, surrounding the students with the cultural artifacts of that time. For assessment, they could look around and choose which artifact or artwork they want to discuss on a test (right now I can only put up a few at a time, and more on one screen makes each one smaller).
Some screens could have text from a primary source. Audio could be music from the era, or speeches, or both. Whatever else the Net Gen may or may not be good at, I’ve proven in class they can intake multiple media sources simultaneously.
With this vision, it’s getting hard for me to design such environments on one screen, which takes up only 25% of one wall at the front. Students at the back are literally distant from the sources. They couldn’t be with Historical Sensurround. The environment would force involvement at some level of the brain.
And I’d love to recreate environments like this. Second Life settings in our First Life. Transient installation art. Just dreaming….
I can has holodeck?
Yes, but without the yellow checkerboard lines on the wall. 😉
Hi Lisa,
UNSW has one of these and it is a seriously cool experience. That said I also find it incredibly disorienting, in an almost-real-but-still-surreal way. It takes time to get used to being outside the room after a few minutes in it 🙂 The 3D room that mining engineering have is even more so.
Sort of like Captain Eo but with massive mining machinery. Now I’m dating myself aren’t I 🙂
I’m reminded of all the discussion from the 90s around the notion you shouldn’t drive a car after using VR for too long. I can see why!
Cheers,
Mike
I like the circle better than the square.
@Mike: Wow. I didn’t realize these actually existed! But yes, I’ll need to consider the sensory overload aspect if I ever get to do something like this.
Jim, really? I think I’d get a little claustrophobic… I need a door, an escape!