Craft and VR experience

We had another learning class of coloring and making cosmetic bag at Jenny Huang's house. In addition, everyone had an opportunity of experimenting Celine Tien's project Pippa's Pan.  ”Pippa’s Pan 盼” is believed to be the first hybrid live-action, virtual reality (VR) short film.

“Pippa’s Pan 盼” is a story about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who is trying to recapture memories of her husband. As is typical in VR, the film is “experienced” rather than “viewed” by donning special headgear, which allows the “agent” (the person experiencing the film) to become immersed in its environment, in this case the computer-generated “forest” of Pippa’s mind. The forest is a space of both sights and sounds: trees and flowers in deep reds and purples fill the view, in which a shadowy Pippa moves as she hears her husband’s voice beckoning her back in time. I, as the agent, tried to engage with objects in the film, by picking up a flower, for example, or “transporting” to a different location in the forest. These actions influence the memories Pippa retrieves. What an experience!

It is a woman’s love story and her efforts to reclaim her memories even in her last moments. I saw VR as a meaningful platform for storytelling. It definitely offers a new way to engage with a story.