Virtual Reality Lab
In this collaboration between the Cinema & Media Studies Department, WXPN, the Penn Global Documentary Institute, and the Paideia Program, students will use virtual reality to tell stories of live music and musicians who are part of XPN’s live Friday concerts. This course mixes virtual reality theory, history, and practice. We will read scholarship, manifestoes, and memoirs that examine virtual reality and other immersive technologies, stretching from the 18th century to today. We will explore virtual reality projects, including narrative and documentary films, commercial applications, and games. We will work with different virtual reality systems. And we will learn the basics of creating virtual reality, making fully immersive 3-D, 360-degree films with geospatial soundscapes. Finally, we will take what we have learned in the classroom, and partner with the WXPN to create virtual reality experiences based around live music.