RM - Week 9 "Bring it to The Table"

I remember exploring The Wilderness Downtown and absolutely loving it. It might even be one of my favorite pieces we have looked at in this class. As soon as Chris Milk said he worked on that piece, I knew where he was going with his message! The Wilderness Downtown was extremely emotion provoking, and then he showed part of his work The Treachery of Sanctuary as well and from then on I knew he was a reliable speaker on this subject. lol. I think his "definition" of virtual reality is really well thought out, and honestly makes me look at it in a different way. Before looking at VR in class (Pearl) I never really saw it as a tool to evoke as many emotions as it does. I think when he said "And when you're sitting there in her room, watching her, you're not watching it through a television screen, you're not watching it through a window, you're sitting there with her" in reference to the film Clouds Over Sidra I really understood what he means by VR being the "ultimate empathy machine." It allows you, like nothing else, to really feel and see what someone is going through, and I find that I appreciate it more than ever before. 

I decided to explore Clouds Over Sidra a bit further. I have never really seen VR like this, and it reminds of this website called DollarStreet where you can look at families all over the world with different median incomes. But this of course, is VR, and DollarStreet is not. I felt like I was with Sidra and experiencing everything she was experiencing, and listening to her stories face to face rather than through a screen. I do not think it would have had the same effect if it was just a video, or an article. It was really interesting to see all of the surroundings, like the gym and their workspaces. I don't think I would have felt as much empathy if it was not VR. The median really is the message here.