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Coding in VR
Nate Lott
ETEC 565M
ART
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One of the most exciting areas for the application of coding and VR in the classroom is in Art. Creating and viewing art in a virtual environment give the user an entirely different experience to creating in a physical space. Most importantly for all students creativity and expression are placed on a level playing field, as the power of the computer can be harnessed to act as a conduit for creativity for students who do not have the ability to express themselves with physical tools such as a paintbrush or pencil. As was mentioned within the Science and Math classroom a sense of presence or 'being there' permeates the experience when viewing or building a piece of art in a 360 virtual place. Mobile devices, while small, now have the ability to construct amazing pieces of art that can be instantly shared and co-created with others. There are multiple new tools to create art in VR such as google Blocks or Tiltbrush but one of the unique characteristics of CoSpaces is the fact that the students can code the platform in which they want to express their art. Try out the interactive art project below. Use your mouse to look around and your mouse clicker to interact. https://cospac.es/0mVG <---copy to mobile browser. Full screen link here here
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The interactivity, scene and movement were all created using the simple blockly coding script by a grade 7 student with very little programming experience. Place this on your phone and into a Google cardboard and suddenly a whole new level of immersion with the process of creation is present. As you move your head the scene moves, tapping into the gyroscope on your phone. Interaction with the blocks is done through the trigger on the top of the google cardboard, with a simple click objects can be dragged and dropped into new color patterns and shapes. Below is another example where the user can move around the art to see it from different angles. https://cospac.es/E7Wa <----link for mobile. Full screen link here
As of last week this program now allows for scanned models to be brought into the world setting. This opens new possibilities for users to take real life scanned objects and code movement and manipulate them digitally inside the environment.
Drawbacks I can see to this program are that it lacks the physical element of creation. Truly to touch or manipulate ones art by hand is an immersive experience and this program still separates the user through a keyboard and screen. However as new ways to build become more common such as the LEAP platform in which your hands are sensed with a laser attached to the VR camera we can take a step closer into producing art with our bare hands.
FUTURE
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