Sphaera Somnium is a 360 degree audiovisual installation that serves as a gateway for individuals to step into a realm filled with speculative spaces, where immersive techniques encourage the human senses to explore uncharted territories. Within Sphaera Somnium, we aim to demonstrate how new spatial media can enrich user experiences and offer glimpses into alternate perspectives. By seamlessly blending audio and visuals, this immersive journey is meant to evoke dreamlike, multi-sensory sensations. The project also offers accessibility to realities that would typically require significant time, expense, and transportation to access. This accessibility not only breaks down physical barriers but also levels the playing field on the cost of experience, making it available to a wider audience regardless of geographical location or financial means. By providing a platform for individuals to engage with these speculative environments, we hope to foster a deeper understanding of our relationship with technology, perception, and the world around us. As participants are transported into these immersive realms, they are encouraged to contemplate the emerging uses of new technologies and how they shape our understanding of reality.

As children and preteens begin to grow up and make their way through their teenage years, they are beginning to figure themselves out and form their own identities. They are starting to learn about events and the issues going on in the world and they are forced to determine their stance on certain issues whether that be their self-identity, politics, social injustice, etc. Realistically, many people feel uncomfortable talking about these issues. We want to prepare our audience, so they are not afraid or uncomfortable of such conversations. Through collectible cards and enamel pins with a children’s book, this product acts as a gateway to becoming more educated at an earlier age, and it aims to spread awareness about the experiences of our peers. The combination of digital branding and physical objects puts our purpose of spreading awareness in a way that makes it easier for our peers to understand. When people can relate to an idea, they will develop a personal connection to it and feel comfortable. We want our audience to be able to identify with, feel connected, and get educated on social injustice topics like mental health, discrimination, or harassment through our product. In recent years, education technology has been transforming the way we learn. With our project’s website feature, it is a more immersive and entertaining way to learn. Our generation has grown up with collectibles like Webkinz, Pokemon, Build-A-Bears, etc. that would come with a digital feature where owners can form a personal connection with their character for fun. Our purpose is to bring that back and make it more modern, current, and educational.

WEAVER: The Color of Cadence is an animated short film about overcoming fear that demonstrates the collaboration between several skill sets to bring a story to life through visual art, music, writing, and digital design. This project is an example of the incredible intersection of art and technology to enrich the lives of our fellow humans, the culmination of our team’s studies in Media Arts and Sciences. This creative thesis serves as a closer accompanying look at the short film that will be screened at showcase, delving into detailing the research and inspiration behind its conception, our techniques and digital design practices, and in what positive ways we hope this film impacts its audience.

This creative project is a visual and sonic exploration of emotion in a video game format. The game is a 2D side-scroller created using PyGame and Python that focuses on a character who uses "emotions" to navigate their increasingly unrecognizable world. This project was taken on to explore the ways in which technologically-created media can relate to the human experience of emotion, and the ways in which emotions are like software to the human body's hardware. Additionally, this project conceptually comments on and rejects the idea that human situations always require a specific "appropriate" human emotion in response. Credit for the music in this game goes to Markus Rennemann.