Therapeutic Sensory Immersion - VR Focused

Catalog description

This VR centered production class will begin with an overview of therapeutic techniques related to brainwave entrainment, biofeedback, breathwork, and the variety of meditation experiences. You will be invited to visit experimental spas and explore exercises designed to expand your understanding of how media can be used to alter physiology, engage the mind and body, and hone your awareness of how media affects your internal states. The class will be taught using Unity but the lessons will translate well to Unreal, Web XR, or any other tool you want to use. The first exercise will be entirely focused on interactive audio, and the use of low level synthesis techniques to generate woven patterns of sine waves to alter brainwaves. We will make use of SubPacs and transducers to explore the use of vibroacoustics and the ways in which vibration can enhance multisensory experiences. Once in the visual realm, we will focus on shaders and procedural generation techniques to create beautiful, entrancing, hypnotic spaces. The assignment will emphasize the use of VR to focus the user's attention on their senses and to guide them through an experience which will produce a desired, therapeutic state. We define therapeutic broadly, and you can explore mindful relaxation as well as activating and energetic states as well as those that may even produce discomfort, as in the case of exposure therapy. You will be invited to follow along with the assignments or modify them as needed to suit your own goals in the space.