It’s funny how once you start looking for something you see it everywhere. When I started thinking about the potential for real-time 3D online collaborative spaces, I was aware of Second Life, Croquet, and of course, games like World of War Craft. Since then I have discovered a wide variety of collaborative environments including:
I am sure there are many more that I have not included. To be honest, I don’t feel compelled to use any of them. Why do all the 3D collaborative spaces that keep cropping up try to reproduce the elements from reality that really just slow us down? In real life, the meaningful activities I engage in with other people aren’t enhanced by traveling around buildings and terrains. For example, I travel to school because I have to, in order to engage with my classmates and my professor, not because driving to the campus and taking the elevator up to a classroom (that is pretty much empty) somehow enhances my experience. It is the engagement with the people that makes it meaningful. The building exists so we don’t get rained on or snowed on, and the commute is a drawback, not a benefit. There are many advantages to meeting with people in real life that should be evaluated in developing a collaborative digital experience, but I don’t think my commute is one of them.
I am starting to give in to the fact that I will not single-handedly develop the next revolutionary collaboration tool, but I am still firm in believing that what we need from such a tool is to know that someone else is there and that that someone can work with us or share with us, communicate with us using tools that are appropriate to a digital environment.
How are 3D graphics appropriate to a digital environment? After all, our computer screens are 2D. Right? When it comes to conceptual representation, I believe 3D graphics are a far superior visualization mechanism to 2D. Think of it this way: once you have a well built 3D model, you can produce an infinite amount of 2D representations with an infinite amount of rendering styles. Additionally, you can animate this model in space to describe motion and interactions with other objects. If we were to have a collaborative environment, which is essentially a blank screen onto which we can conjure up complex models from an existing library as visual aids, we could better share concepts and would really be taking advantage of what 3D technology can offer. There are other examples of people using 3D graphics in a similar fashion. For example, CAD designers don’t take a virtual hike through a virtual forest before they start designing a part.
In an attempt at expanding my thesis direction, I have been asking myself why I am interested 3D graphics. I think visual representation is at the core of most of my interests as a designer. I am fascinated by the choices we make in visually representing experience. The excitement of choosing what stays and what goes in the sorting process of visual representation never gets old for me. As an artist, I developed a symbolic language built from personal experience, and used this to describe my view of the world. As a designer, I try to use prescribed symbols from a shared language to communicate specific messages to known audiences in the clearest terms possible. Both are processes of visual reduction, selectively removing elements from what is seen and experienced in the real world to better draw the viewers’ attention to specific elements.
What gets lost in the process of translating real life experience into symbols and simulation? Whether for the purpose of clarity, emotional emphasis, or technical necessity, the subjective decision of which elements to leave out of a visualization can assist in describing what a thing or experience truly is in its objective form. The idea that a single object or concept can be represented on a sliding scale of details and styles, each carrying a different message, fascinates me. I am using this theme as a frame through which to view my future projects and research, and so far it has been helpful in developing new ideas.