Anamnesis

A speculative inquiry into the simulation of memory, through virtual reality, soundscape, and smellscape. 

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In the light

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NOTE- video of experience not possible to be made or submit yet, as room is locked and previous attempts failed. Will do at a later date.

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https://anamnesis.myportfolio.com/

Asset Library web address!

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“exhibition documentation” very hard given the experience is in a dark room or VR.

Exhibition Reflection I am in two minds about my decision to exhibit in 10C19. I love the effect of a dark room to provide a transition space for my experience. I am however frustrated that the room locked, and that I was the only one in there in the end. Getting people to see my design was always a challenge I never quite achieved the way I wanted. In hindsight I would bring the experience out to the tea gardens or lighting studio with the others or work harder to advertise the piece.  The darkness did hide the messy set up of all the computers/wires and the unattractiveness of 10C19 it self. Despite the pictures I took, navigation of the space and investigation was easy, although I am not sure if people realised the screen on the right was a website and not just a title display board. I will have to talk to others to find out if this was realised or missed.  Perhaps a fake tea light would have been nice beneath the oil diffuser which I could not leave running due to being a fire hazard. The light was good for illuminating the lower table when I had the diffuser running. But the screens did provide enough light for it to be visible which was also acceptable.  Reflection about the piece, further experience with coding, investigation into memory theories, illustration practice, would all contribute to a work that could be more resolved. Anamnesis developed into something I became interested again near the end of the semester, if I look past what I wasn’t able to achieve due to my knowledge/timeframe then I can be proud that I set out to learn something I knew nothing about this year. Expressing something as abstract as memory, and then expressing my own personal memory was the goal, I think the piece made an attempt at this but requires more work, research, and attempts to become resolved (if it ever could be, can memory be tangible?). Anamnesis could be so much more, whether that is continuing to prototype my design research or creating a more science fiction narrative where memory is experienced in a similar way. If I were to consider masters, this could be a potential avenue of investigation. 

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Projector works in expense of the VR, Oli and I have tried and tried to get my idea to work but it does not seem possible to have the VR preview on the projector already in 10C19.  There is however a TV screen already in the space that I could use, playing with plinths and arrangements I could make the multiple screens work. The Dark room can hide all the complicated mess of the set up.  Visible: desktop and mouse for website,  Headset,  smell set up, provocative objects from investigations,  TV with VR preview.  Non visible,  wires,  Desktop hosting VR,  Existing room desktop Molly B has opted to use for her sound.  Effect, large scented room with two screens at the end,  idea, transition space to the surreal environment. I want to prepare people for the sometimes overwhelming experience of VR in a secluded “safe environment”

Headphones are being used as noise pollution will affect Molly’s work, and headphones are possible add to sudden immersion of my work.  position of screens from left to center of the room is to not get lost or overshadowed by Molly’s large installation work.  When arranging furniture, thinking about usability, the hazard of VR, removing objects out of the path of the users, the experience is predominantly stationary, but have allowed room for movement that may occur. People can operate desktop without being in the way of VR user. Smell and other objects are out of way of VR user as well as could be knocked over.  Flame for smell was done for a hour before exhibition and was constantly attended, otherwise would be a fire hazard. The effect achieved was a noticeable, soft, evocative presence of scent in the room. Helping with the transition and mood of the space. 

I have noted that people find certain aspects of the experience alarming, the colour language, smell counteract the surreal and sometimes intense spaces/animations/sound. 

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Final images of the finalised scene three and a propositioned poster. Executive decision to not do a poster, I think designing them has been a ,good exercise in  designing the presentation of experience, but my only reason was to remind people that it was there in 10C19 as I have been frustrated that it frequently gets forgotten, on reflection I do not think this is a good enough reason to stray away from my predominantly digital means of exhibiting. Scene 3 visual language was difficult as was altering the trees to look this way. I now struggle to write what scene three is about as it got very personal. It communicates the conflicted internalisation of leaving a place, people, and a version of yourself you have lost, but also expressing the positive emotions you have as a thing to appreciate but leave in the past.  

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10C19 sound test. Verdict, use projector to grab attention but oculus will have to be used to prevent sound contamination from Molly's work

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Week 11 set up.   Notes: 

- no chair more effective, so people can explore/move around in the restricted space. 

- use projector in 10C19. More attention grabbing/indicative of experience to come, before full audio/visual immersion

-turn up smell in room as Liv no longer in there too (without being too powerful)

-how to make sure people try it. remember it’s there? signage outside the door?

- make sure headphones are loud enough

- sudden image changes, create more of a transition/warning.  - audio could not be heard, ( i have since edited it to make it less distinguishable to indicate that it should be listened to as an objective audio asset) -Smell closer to the headset or smell that reaches further. hesitant to put smell so close to peoples faces. 

-instructions were suggested to help people use it. I feel as though with the presence of the headset and the continuous loop of the film that I do not want to spell out how to use the experience anymore. 

- the poetry, illustrations, rocks? do they need to be present?  Aims for week 12, 

refine scene 3, it feels incomplete and uncared for. 

refine scene 2, the colour scheme of the skybox is not right yet, as it the horizon. 

transitions!

font in the title scene fix/match website if can.

update with images of the film on the website, decide how much I need to reveal and explain on the website.

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Soundscape text

Sourced and found,collections for my little library,I dare you to play them all at once,or listen carefully to each one, compose and meddle them,just as I have, manipulate my memory, dull or amplify her voice, so overwhelmingly meaningful to me, what is this collection to you?

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Meshes

This selection of things, shapes, or objects range from surreal to literal. The tent and car motif are present act as a photograph would for igniting the memory within. Whereas the non descriptive blobs are suggestions of land, emotion or other intangible qualities. Each creation and found object were important experiences in finding the right match for the experience I wished to create. 

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Smells text..

Frankincense, sandalwood, juniper, elements from a time, together the aroma tells a story, an evasive feeling.... You cannot create a recipe for memory, mix it,or create it,to bring forth a emotion, smellscapes are moments,they catch you off guard,a whiff of something so strange,sweet,musky, a pang of the heart,eyes misting over,chest tightening,the fragrance so clear, so connected,a person,a touch,a voice, underated,yet so powerful. 

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Spaces explained?? (nessercary?)

The experience has three spaces that have been informed by the soundscape. The process I undertook was to listen with eyes closed and picture the environment the soundscapes took place in. The scenes of anamnesis are reflective of the topography, environment, and time of day, viewed though the qualitative lens of my perception of the event. As with the treatment of the soundscape assets of the spaces are amplified and distorted. This distortion is due the phenomenon of imagined memory, where one can consciously or subconsciously, inaccurately recall an event. This inaccuracy can be due to a desire view the past in a better light. scene one - the space Lying in the sleeping bag, face radiating heat from the day. Orange dust impregnated into every crevice of our bodies and belongings. Crickets, and coyotes singing out in the night. Gotta pee. Carefully yet noisily emerge from the sleeping bag, rip open the zip, and step into sandals. The dust floor is riddled with cacti, twigs, and bushes. Things to step or sit on accidentally. The hills and canyon are silhouetted, the moon and milky way vibrant unaffected by city lights. I gaze up transfixed by this moment of awe and bliss.

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About draft for website

about anamnesisAnamnesis is a surreal collection of sourced and found material, combined to communicate the experience of recollection. To draw from digital environment building terms, each feature of the piece is referred to as an 'asset'. These assets interact together to manifest the neural connections within the brain that form a memory. The nature of memory is not of photo-realistic video library within our selves, but a hastened reconstruction of different elements. The form in which Anamnesis has taken shows the outcome analysis of an emotionally resonate, and personal memory. I have come to learn the piece is driven by a fierce nostalgia and obsession with reliving the past. I have taken many liberties, curating my own thoughts, manipulating the reformed memory to my liking. This curation reflects the phenomenon of 'imagined memory' in which one manipulates their recollections to remain cohesive with their perceived ideas of the event. The singular memory analysed took place over 5 days in 2016. Through my creation I have been able to reflect on my manipulation of the time, and perhaps learned to let go of what is in the past. The piece is comprised of three sensory elements; sight, sound, and smell. These senses were chosen for their different affective properties. Virtual Reality is a medium chosen for it's disembodied and embodied effect, meaning one feels fully immersed, yet is aware that the space is not 'real'.  The objects, spaces, lights, and sequences are based within real events and feelings. Liberties and alternations have been made to express the surreal nature of the extended analysis of a memory. The mood of the memory is more effectively portrayed through the use of soundscapes and smellscapes. The collections of sounds and smells curated together, were sourced and found throughout my experimentation. Creating the aroma of the piece was the most holistic of all the processes, as was working with the voice actor. The voice actor features throughout the scenes, the content of what she says is secondary to the presence of her voice. Alternations have been made to dull or distort it, not to detract from what she says but to provide the sound as an objective feature of the piece. about the asset library The Asset Library is a manifestation of the process of creating and collecting the assets of Anamnesis to then display them as tangible things. The ordered and cataloged things do not reflect the inner workings of a mind, the brain does not have folders and straight navigational paths. The process creating the 'library' has instead been a tool to host the thoughts I have about the piece as a whole, that was then comprised of small evocative gestures. referencesGerard, R. (1953). What Is Memory? Scientific American, 189(3), 118-127. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24944341 Johnson, M.K., Hashtroudi, S. & Lindsay, D.S. (1993). Source monitoring. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 3-28. Blaney, P. (1986). Affect and memory: A review. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 229-246. Eich, E, Macauley, D and Ryan, L (1994). Mood dependent memory for events of the person al past, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 201-215. Bower, G.H. (1981). Mood and memory, American Psychologist, 36, 129-148.

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textures and edited renders for the website/communication of the project through the asset library website. 

Images 2-4: Have altered colours of scene two, this skybox has been difficult to nail down. Images 5-6: the low-poly shapes have also changed to translucent white, less clumsy looking than the purple, more unified with the scene, and more unified with symbolic meaning of the object (see previous post about meaning breakdown)

Image 1: Still working on scene three, have tried putting in green colour as the terrain texture, not happy with visual language when doing this, will revisit. 

Images 5-8: Using the same technique of the previous title image, tilt shift and cotton blender to achieve the effects of these images. The images are for the space descriptions on the asset library website.

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Asset Library, layouts edits, cover images drafts, and 1st draft of scene three. All need attention Asset Library website not communicating as a unified piece with the VR and as a library yet. Need to find correct font.  Also need to find correct font for opening title scene of VR. edit: I did this by finding the font in illustrator, exporting as a dwg. into Sketchup, adding a flat plane and intersecting it with the text, deleting the excess, extruding the text, exporting as a SketchUp v8 file, importing it into Unity, orientating it and colouring it black to stand out in Fog effect. Done.

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Website cover image edits.  New poster, unable to export 2D images from Unity easily, my process has been to use the Cotton Blender PS tool, screen grabs, image resizing, background change, splatter brush, and Tilt Shift-  Blur Filter. With the OCR Std font title and tagline (now “memory” not “memories made tangible”) Very pleased with the tilt shift effect, it makes somewhat flawed images seem like real landscapes viewed through a human lens, the sense of space and depth is amplified, and surrealism enhanced. Also relates back to my photography explorations earlier in the semester.