Harrison WIllmott
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Quote of the Week
“Sucking at something is the first step to being sort good at something” - Jake the DogCurrently reading
Consider Phlebasby Ian M Banks
Listening to
Kiki Rockwell, Jungle, Jessica Curry & Caravan Palace© HARRISON WILLMOTT MMXXIV
Harrison Willmott
︎︎︎
Contact
© HARRISON WILLMOTT MMXXIV
︎︎︎
Contact
︎ Latest
Quote of the Week
“Sucking at something is the first step to being sort good at something” - Jake the Dog
Currently reading
The Gunslinger by Steven King
Listening to
Kiki Rockwell, Jungle, City & Color & Caravan Palace
© HARRISON WILLMOTT MMXXIV
Master of Arts in Virtual & Extended Realities
2019 - 2020
Studying on the inaugral MAVR programme at UWE in 2019 was fantastic.
It was a jam packed year with explorations into the artistic and human centered aspects of extended reality. During the year, I massively expanded my knowledge and understanding of human experience, xR accessibility and systems of immersion. Now I strive to continue the modus of practice based learning that the MAVR honed into me by treating everything I do as a boundry pushing experiment and excuse to have fun learning new ways to bring experiences to life.
Our inaugural cohort graduated in 2020 and was led by Verity McIntosh.
The programme continues to cultivate talented immersive makers for the xR industry and is currently lead by Duncan Speakman.
Below are some details about a few of the best projects we produced during the MA, including course documents and images.
It was a jam packed year with explorations into the artistic and human centered aspects of extended reality. During the year, I massively expanded my knowledge and understanding of human experience, xR accessibility and systems of immersion. Now I strive to continue the modus of practice based learning that the MAVR honed into me by treating everything I do as a boundry pushing experiment and excuse to have fun learning new ways to bring experiences to life.
Our inaugural cohort graduated in 2020 and was led by Verity McIntosh.
The programme continues to cultivate talented immersive makers for the xR industry and is currently lead by Duncan Speakman.
Below are some details about a few of the best projects we produced during the MA, including course documents and images.
Assignment 4 - Collaborative xR prototype - “SYNC IN”
Collaborators:
Kassie Headon &
Christina Constantinou
Kassie Headon &
Christina Constantinou
Our group designed and developed a multi-reality faux-syncronous experience where two people would complete a series of syncronous sensory tasks. The experience began as an immersive theatre piece that progressed via augmented reality enhanced sensory elements and finished with both Engagents in full VR.
The narrative supporting the tasks was that the two audience members were ‘reality buddies’ using their shared understanding of human reality/experience to authenticate various xR experiences built by complex machine learning tools in an attempt to calibrate them.
Sync In played with the concept of inter-individual differences in perception and attempted to subvert audiences expectation that they were experiencing the same thing the person next to them.
The narrative supporting the tasks was that the two audience members were ‘reality buddies’ using their shared understanding of human reality/experience to authenticate various xR experiences built by complex machine learning tools in an attempt to calibrate them.
Sync In played with the concept of inter-individual differences in perception and attempted to subvert audiences expectation that they were experiencing the same thing the person next to them.
Assignment 3 - Working with an Industry partner - “The Gauze”
Collaborators:
Harry Silverlock &
Eirian Soar Industry Partners:
Annette Mees &
Tom Metcalfe
Harry Silverlock &
Eirian Soar Industry Partners:
Annette Mees &
Tom Metcalfe
The first group project on the MA paired us up with an industry partner to spend 10 weeks designing the concepts for headset accessibilty for operatic performances.
Our Industry partner Annette Mees of the Royal Opera House Audience Labs, asked us to explore the idea of making VR headset designs more accessible, less ugly and bring HMD technology into a theatrical space where it wouldn’t feel out of place.
Our response was to design the concept for a HMD scaffold and handle which can transform an xR headset into a form of opera glasses. We called it ‘The Gauze’, after a thin material boundary between scenes/perspectives in a theatre. The Gauze would enable the optional use of a HMD within a promenade theatre experience, providing an additional AR/MR perspective on the scenes. The scaffold of the Gauze could also be fitted with image targets so anything can be digitally mapped to it, enabling digital masquerading for the audience.
Screen captures from our design document below ︎︎︎
Our Industry partner Annette Mees of the Royal Opera House Audience Labs, asked us to explore the idea of making VR headset designs more accessible, less ugly and bring HMD technology into a theatrical space where it wouldn’t feel out of place.
Our response was to design the concept for a HMD scaffold and handle which can transform an xR headset into a form of opera glasses. We called it ‘The Gauze’, after a thin material boundary between scenes/perspectives in a theatre. The Gauze would enable the optional use of a HMD within a promenade theatre experience, providing an additional AR/MR perspective on the scenes. The scaffold of the Gauze could also be fitted with image targets so anything can be digitally mapped to it, enabling digital masquerading for the audience.
Screen captures from our design document below ︎︎︎
Assignment 1 - Speculative AR experience - “Memoriam”
Solo project
Memoriam is a concept I devised for a speculative funding application though I would love to get the opportunity to develop it for real.
It’s an immersive grieving experience prototype for everyone. It seeks to reshape how western society prepares for and participates with death and our relationship with the dying and dead. Memoriam as an experience hopes to establish a new infrastructure for the preparation and experience of death, while introducing new rituals for the mourning of loved ones and the celebration of their lives in a digital age.
Memoriam hopes to sensitively address western societies discomfort surrounding the process of death, the difficulties of navigating the ‘publicly private’ emotional journey of a death and to encourage the celebration of life outside of the overcrowded graveyards or the haphazard ‘Memorialised’ social media profiles of the dead.
Memoriam seeks to empower and encourage the telling and retelling of the stories we remember about those who die.
Memoriam is a digital immersive space, a small virtual ‘plot’ that contains an amalgamation of a person’s online legacy which has been customised with additional memories and digital artifacts by a special group of family members, close friends or named contributors, chosen by the person who wishes to be remembered.
Visitors to a Memoriam, both those who knew the deseased and the general public will experience the deseased, or an accurate-as-we-can-possibly-get essence of the deseased in the form of an immersive collection of memories and stories that celebrate their life, told by those who knew them or were influenced by their life.
It’s an immersive grieving experience prototype for everyone. It seeks to reshape how western society prepares for and participates with death and our relationship with the dying and dead. Memoriam as an experience hopes to establish a new infrastructure for the preparation and experience of death, while introducing new rituals for the mourning of loved ones and the celebration of their lives in a digital age.
Memoriam hopes to sensitively address western societies discomfort surrounding the process of death, the difficulties of navigating the ‘publicly private’ emotional journey of a death and to encourage the celebration of life outside of the overcrowded graveyards or the haphazard ‘Memorialised’ social media profiles of the dead.
Memoriam seeks to empower and encourage the telling and retelling of the stories we remember about those who die.
Memoriam is a digital immersive space, a small virtual ‘plot’ that contains an amalgamation of a person’s online legacy which has been customised with additional memories and digital artifacts by a special group of family members, close friends or named contributors, chosen by the person who wishes to be remembered.
Visitors to a Memoriam, both those who knew the deseased and the general public will experience the deseased, or an accurate-as-we-can-possibly-get essence of the deseased in the form of an immersive collection of memories and stories that celebrate their life, told by those who knew them or were influenced by their life.
