Hofstra professor hosts virtual reality exhibit
Hofstra students and faculty learning to use virtual reality equipment at the exhibition in the Newshub. // Photo courtesy of Aashish Kumar.
Professor of radio, television and film Aashish Kumar hosted a virtual reality (VR) exhibition on Wednesday, Oct. 27, in the Newshub located in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication (LHSC) as part of his “Introduction to Virtual Reality Storytelling” class.
For the exhibition, three short films were shown: “The Changing Scene,” “Greenland Melting” and “After Solitary.” All the films were made through external companies, but Kumar’s students are using the footage to help educate the Hofstra community about social justice issues.
“The Changing Scene” is “an immersive, room-scale virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in the United States,” according to the exhibit’s flyer.
“Greenland Melting” is “centered around the gradual disappearance of Greenland’s majestic glacial structures,” the flier said.
Although not featured on this particular day, “After Solitary” “uses photogrammetry and volumetric video capture to tell the story of 39-year-old Kenny Moore, a recently released inmate who spent years in solitary confinement,” according to the flier.
Four of Kumar’s students acted as docents for the exhibit, guiding the participants through the process of using the VR equipment, including the headset and the headphones.
“[My students] are facilitating the exhibit because it does take a little bit of know-how putting on the headset ... somebody has to monitor it,” Kumar said.
Upon entering VR, the participants are completely immersed into the world of the film, including a full 360-degree view of the area. Depending on the film, one can even walk around and observe the location.
Kumar did stress that some people “don’t react well” to being in VR environments because of the disconnect between their physical bodies and minds.
Professor Kumar said that VR is just one piece of immersive media.
“We’re looking at virtual reality, augmented reality and also interactive web storytelling,” Kumar said. “All of these trends are, in my view, the next step in what we have been doing in terms of storytelling, using images projected on the screen or projected on screens in front of us. The next movement seems to be immersed in scenes and to interact with them.”
Kumar was instrumental in creating Hofstra’s new immersive media minor, which is a collaboration between LHSC, the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and the Hofstra College of Liberal Arts.
“The mission of creating a minor with three or four departments is to recognize that this new field of immersive media calls for skill sets, expertise and sensibilities that cannot be within one single school,” Kumar said.
The emphasis when teaching immersive media is to make voices that are not as visible in the mainstream more passionate, according to Kumar.
“As we look at what is being sold on VR platforms, it’s a lot of exciting games, you know the classic extension of the gaming industry,” Kumar said. “But these media have the potential for impacting people at a deeper level on [social] issues.”
Assistant professor of health professions at Hofstra Ibraheem Karaye saw Kumar’s flyer and wanted to learn more about virtual reality.
“It’s something that I actually read about, but I never really experienced it, so I thought it’s an opportunity to stop by and get a sense of how it works and how it feels,” Karaye said. “Also, how that integrates with the aim of improving communication for students.”
Dean Dusharme, a senior film studies and production major, and Grace Madden, a sophomore television video business major, are two of Kumar’s students who acted as docents during the event.
VR is “not only a great entertainment tool, but also a great educational tool,” Dusharme said.
“[It is a] way to get people into places that they would never really be in, a way to walk in someone else’s shoes,” he said. “It’s the way to go somewhere that you couldn’t go to, so that’s what’s wonderful about VR.”
VR is a cool way to understand what is being talked about in the media through an immersive experience, according to Madden.
“It’s kind of an interesting way to be confined because you’re just stuck to the story,” Madden said. “You’re understanding what’s going on, especially ‘The Changing Scene.’ You don’t really understand what it's like to be like in that position.”
According to Kumar, the idea of “presence” is the main driving force that makes VR such a viable storytelling tool. He said that putting someone in an environment where their “physical, mental and emotional presence” are all being directed toward one topic can be “quite reinforcing.”
“The idea is that you should be able to experience in four or five minutes what it might take half an hour or an hour to tell on the screen or to read an article,” Kumar said.
Kumar hopes to be able to hold similar events in the future, but Hofstra currently does not have many places to set up VR exhibits. Classrooms and the Newshub, are the only sufficient locations, according to Kumar.
“I’m working with the Dean of the School of Communication to transform [some] space, so that we are able to host events like this in the future as well,” Kumar said.
The third part of the event took place on Monday, Nov. 1, and concluded the three-day series.
