Renewal
Interactive VR experience developed during my time at the FAMU Center for Audiovisual Studies in Prague.
The Jewish Quarter of Prague was my chosen subject for this VR experiment. The project derived from a simple but jarring dichotomy:
The neighborhood originated as a religious ghetto: miserably poor but a wildly active cultural nucleus. Today, the area is posh and Paris-inspired. An 1896 renewal transformed the former slums into Prague’s most exclusive and expensive hub.
The final work mixed roomscale environment design (Blender and Unity) with 360 video. In May 2019, it exhibited at the Ex Post Gallery in Prague.
In this project, I scratched the surface of VR’s potential to recreate and represent history. The 3D street is designed by UV mapping and extruding archival photographs of the actual ghetto from 1903.
The new skills I learned included: Gaze and controller interactivity, simple photogrammetry, frame animation, trigger portals, spatial audio, 3D modeled streets and 360° video of the modern quarter. I built the project in Unity, using Blender, Premiere Pro, Agisoft Photoscan, and Audition as supplementary parts of the workflow.
Thanks to Jakub Krejci and the CAS faculty for so much support, and Michaela Efrati and the Jewish Museum of Prague for research.
