Vr and empathy

Out of all the readings for this week, I really enjoyed Chris Milk's Ted Talk. He gave me a new perspective on VR. I liked how he suggested the idea that film and VR allows us to feel empathy for characters that isn't mutual, forming parasocial relationships. However within VR, this empathy is heightened as the 'fourth wall' is broken and we can fully immersive ourselves into the character's world. I've always thought of VR as threatening and kind of scary for just how much power technology has to do harm. Milk gives a different perspective of how VR can be used for good and can immerse us into the worlds of not just characters, but real people. 

 Looking back at chapter 7, I decided to take a closer look at 34 North 118 West (2002) by Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton, and Naomi Spellman. It's a locative project based in LA where the player uses a GPS, a tablet, and headphones to follow along the story. The authors described their project to be one of the first "site specific, location aware, GPS driven narrative". What's most interesting to me is how this locative narrative was created without the usage of mobile phones, which today seems like an essential part of the equation for one to use GPS. The narrative has many layers as it is interested in historical influences such as the railroad depot. Voice actors playing characters such as railroad workers move the story along with audio recordings that are unlocked when the player arrives at certain destinations. I like this locative story, not just because of it's early production, but how it combines the present physical world to the past in an imaginative, immersive world.