About this CUNY Adjunct Incubator Project
As part of a research project supported by the CUNY Adjunct Incubator, Dominika Ksel
(CUNY New York City College of Technology) taught a class "Virtual Reality and Environmental Social Justice" where students created a multi-media project that centers on Environmental Social Justice (Urban Climate Justice and Intersectionality) in NYC (with a particular focus
on the Rockaway's and Jamaica Bay), including an interactive website with a 360 VR Video and Urban Climate Justice VR game TrashTalk.
TrashTalk is an immersive multi-media project created by the students of CUNY New York City College of Technology enrolled in Dominika Ksel’s Fall 2020 Technical Production course centered around Climate Justice on a global and local scale. The game was made for PC/VR devices and is intended to spread awareness of climate change with the participation of those currently fighting for economic and social justice in Rockaway Beach, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve and the boroughs of New York City.
We invite you to explore and play with the fully-interactive website which allows you to view how the 360 video works and download the Urban Climate Justice game "TrashTalk" for VR or to play on PC:
Click here or below to see how the 360 video works:
More About the "Virtual Reality and Environmental Social Justice" Class
During the semester students at CUNY New York City College of Technology in "Virtual Reality and Environmental Social Justice" class by Dominika Ksel created a multi-media project that centers on Environmental Social Justice (Urban Climate Justice and Intersectionality) in NYC (with a particular focus on the Rockaway's and Jamaica Bay). The class focused on how technology can be used to visualize, explore and imagine world building, during which we will consider the interdependent nature of our society, ecology, information/media, economic and social justice systems. The projects consist of creating a 360 VR Video with spatialized audio using After Effects, Premiere and Audition. A fully interactive VR gaming component with original audio using Unity/C# as well as a packaged export that runs on a normal PC using the keyboard. The creation of 3D Models for use in the game and videos. A thorough introduction into ambisonic and binaural recording, mixing and sound design as well as 360 editing techniques. Students collected and generated audio and video material using several archives, research, location recordings, and interviews with journalists, scientists, activists, artists and more.
As a final component of the
course, students crafted an exhibition plan that thinks about audience
engagement to best present the works as a cohesive body. Due to current
circumstances and future social distancing & access, we have created
a parallel web-based platform where the entirety of works created
during the semester can live and be publicly
engaged.
This project is part of the CUNY Adjunct Incubator and is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Gittell Urban Studies Collective at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
