Haptics
In this week's class, we discussed Haptics, the definition of which is “haptics is that subsystem of non-language communication which conveys meaning through physical contact.” Haptics can be seen as sensory dimensions that separate the object from the subject or the body and the environment. This lead to discussions about the 'Sensorium' or, as I interpret it, a gathering of the senses. There are multiple ways of experiencing or organizing the words; below are some examples used in class:
exteroceptive |adjective Physiology
elating to stimuli that are external to an organism.
interoceptive |adjective Physiology
relating to stimuli produced within an organism, especially in the gut and other internal organs.
proprioceptive |adjective Physiology
relating to stimuli produced and perceived within an organism, especially those connected with the position and movement of the body.
To me, Haptics means feedback and tactility. So the vibrations on a controller as your character is hit in combat or the indication of a wall while in VR. It becomes the sense of touch that you somewhat lose as a player.
Formative Preparation
He Whakakite raua ko Korero - Show and Tell
For the formative, we must prepare an artefact (or more) and then talk about what we plan on doing and the words we have chosen.
This would be seen in the form of:
- Our journey with our five words - What words we fell in love with, why, and what journey we went on
- Experimentation with ideas
- Failures
- Scale
The journey I have been on with the words was long and full of relating words with others, seeing the literal meanings versus other takes on words. So from Mirror to Perspective to then Stance or Mirror > Copy > Exact > Perfect > Imaginary.
The words I chose were Tether, Instability, Scent, Taint, and Mirror. I picked these words for the sound and feel of them, how they roll off the tongue, and how I read them in my mind. They were also chosen for what I could immediately picture in my mind, especially for Tether.
Experimentation that I have done with these words includes mind mapping to expand, creating doodle concepts and creating a scene in Unreal with some of the textures available with the Substance Painter plugin.
Failures I faced with my experimentation were things like textures not working, placement of planes, and the walls of the scene being transparent (in the sense of reflection in them was not of the wall but a room/object further away). These lead to better ideas as the texture I chose was broken, I was forced to select a new one; the new one also did not work as well as I had hoped but brought a new sense. This was the lack of sense or sensory deprivation, where you relied on visuals and would too (later on) rely on sound. As for the planes, this was just a matter of gaps in the floor, meaning you could see the platform below. It was nothing too major. The walls being transparent, however, I found to be quite astounding. On certain angles, where you should not see much besides a reflection of the red line in front of you, you could see the large red space further down the halls. It became another way to show the keyword Taint, where it was technically tainting the walls because it was in no way meant to be there.
Comments