R&D Session One: Virtual Reality and The Matrix Series

Throughout my time in Lee's class I have been really surprised at how many ways I look at things now before I decide to sit down to do something. After reviewing Week One I wanted to look at the Matrix franchise, specifically the digital simulation that the inhabitants live within in.

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VR (Virtual Reality) makes us question what can we enjoy in the real world, while also finding an escape in a synthetic digital world. The way Morpheus describes "What is real" in the film really makes you think what sort of experiences can be created through digital gateways like VR Headsets.

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Whilst the Matrix takes it a lot further, the only way humans can enter the Matrix once they have been freed is by replicating all of the implants that the machines had given them. In a way this makes them more machine like, with literal ports that the humans can use to monitor vital signs, administer medicine and of course, jack into the Matrix when paired with the pirate signal that the Nebuchadnezzar broadcasts.

The residual self image that is referred to in the scene, is a mental image of how you see yourself. This is everything from your outward physical appearance, from hair colour, gender, height and weight. In theory with the Matrix you are able to make yourself into anything that you want by "freeing your mind" but it also allows you to experience and learn things in ways that you could never in the real world. An extreme example is how Neo allows Tank to "upload" knowledge into his mind.

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Whilst, technology is not quite there yet to allow for such rapid deployment of knowledge sharing. It does allow users to simulate certain conditions. On my placement, I developed some VR spaces for Fire and Rescue services to simulate disaster scenes. The purpose of this was simple, we catalogued a lot of fire scenes that they had photographed using a 360 degree camera and made a space using Unity to then upload it into the VR headset.

This allowed for fire marshals to safely explore an area whilst being able to teach others in a controlled space. Each and every fire scene is unique, this is due to the unpredictable nature of where a fire can spread too, but the hope was if we documented enough scenes and put enough people through the training maybe we could start to see similarities and patterns to help prevent these accidents from happening again.

Virtual Reality allows anyone to enter the digital space and connect with people via a digital representation of yourself. Unlike the Matrix, Virtual Reality platforms like Oculus can allow you to take any shape or form that you want. This can be from a regular person to even becoming your favourite fictional character like Batman or Super Mario, this allows people to perhaps not give a truly reflection of what they look like but, more so of how they would like to look.

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I feel like Virtual Reality is a rich topic that is expanding and progressing each and everyday, this I feel could give a lot of material to use for an Experimental Film. The possibilities are limitless, a lot of people use virtual reality for a lot of things, needs, wants and desires. A film about someone wanting to escape from the real world to a digital place only to become trapped there by there own doings, i.e. unable to accept themselves or the reality they live in. Due to these reason, I feel an Experimental Film with VR as the main topic could be very interesting to make.

Thanks for reading!