The Immersive Forest:
VR Environment Design
The design of a virtual reality interface was done to showcase the research work undertaken by the Research & Development Cell at KRVIA, Mumbai. The project, titled, "Representing Grids", is part of a larger project called "Navigating the Grids: Poverty, Gender and Access to Services in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka” is a collaborative research project with partners in the UK, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The project investigates the off-grid negotiations of access to services and formal living in Mumbai, Lahore and Colombo. It was designed as part of the culminating exhibition of the research project.
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The virtual reality exhibit is an experiment in immersive spatial exploration. It invites visitors to place themselves in the physio-geography of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Beginning from a stratospheric vantage, it enables viewers to examine the forest punctuated with markers of habitation. Interacting with these markers allows one to move in closer, to either hover above these spaces like a bird to observe their spatial settings, or descend to the ground and walk through these spaces.
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The project was exhibited at IFBE, Ballard Estate and at Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai.
YEAR
2023
LOCATION
Mumbai, MH, India
Screen capture of VR View
The interactive VR environment was designed to be experienced at 3 scales :
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Systemic
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Contextual
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Lived
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The view is free to interact in the environment to move across the three scales.
The systemic scale is experienced from a stratospheric perspective. The viewer looks down from a great altitude to see the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, punctuated by several circles that represent settlements in the area.
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The viewer can interact and select any of the circles to fly down to the next scale.
The viewer is free to look around and move about in this view to select and fly down to the contextual scale or the lived scale.
Flying down to the contextual scale offers the viewer a 360 degree view of the setting and surroundings of the settlement selected. Key spaces are marked and annotated as one looks around.
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(Click and drag the image to pan around the 360 degree image)
The lived scale is experienced as immersive walks through the different settlements in the National Park. Some of the walks are taken with residents from the settlements who share interesting stories about lived experiences. Others are purely experiential, offering a sensory immersion in the space. Each of the walks offers a 360 degree view of the surroundings.
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(Hover over the video to enable sound)