Final Year Project Proposal Document- Section 3- Digital Culture

Abstract

This Final Year Project Proposal document contains the introduction to my project, “A Journey through Inscape”, were I lay out what my idea is, its core aims, the target demographic and the technology used. In the following section I will describe how this project can be applied in a business context. This includes covering it’s unique selling points, sources of funding or methods of generating revenue. In the section three, we will cover the cultural relevance of poetry among young people and examine how the use of interactive technology can make the medium more engaging. Section 4 will cover the tools and methods used to implement this project, followed by an approximate production timeline. This proposal will end with a summary of the entire project, before presenting a list of references used for research.

Section 1 -Introduction

  For my final year project, I will create an interactive, 3D VR adaptation of Gerald Manley Hopkin’s poem, “Spring”. The 3D experience will act as direct adaption of the poems themes and imagery by transforming it to an immersive forest landscape that the user can journey through and experience. This will be done by representing the key images and themes of the poem through 3D assets, animations, and sound. Since the environment is a virtual representation of the poem, it will be structured in the same way, with specific sections of the map acting as visual and audio representations of every verse in the poem. The user can though each section on a narrated journey, with each verse having a direct effect in the world around them.

    Furthermore, the environment will also change based on the tone/mood of the poem. For instance, at the start of the journey, the environment will shift from Winter to Spring as the poem grows in optimism. Towards the end, however, the landscape will slowly shift back to winter to represents the poem’s somber tone and theme.

  The main aim for this project is to use digital technology to present the medium of poetry in a visual and engaging format, like an interactive museum exhibit.  Based on personal experience, poetry can be a challenging form of literature to grasp, as its usually written in a nonlinear fashion, compresses a lot of information in very few words and often leaves the user to interpret the meaning of the poem. This can leave people frustrated or dissatisfied with the medium. Furthermore, a lot of people may only see poetry as only a school subject, often abandoning the medium soon after completing exams.

With this issue in mind, by using interactive and immersive technology, I hope to encourage people to enjoy and appreciate the emotional and visual aspects that the medium has to offer. Furthermore, while this project isn’t specifically designed as alternative for academic study, it can be used as a tool to help individuals interpret or visualise some of poetry’s more complicated themes/messages. This is one of the primary reasons why I chose this poem specifically, as it contains a plethora of decorative imagery that could be adapted as a 3D environment.

In the following sections, we will examine all aspects of the project. From how it will be used in a business context, to some of the cultural effects it may have and finally what technology will be used to implement this project.

 Section 3- Cultural and societal reference

   While it is common to assume, especially amongst young people, that poetry is a form of literature best reserved for academics or exam halls, I believe that with the use of digital media and modern technology, I could change the attitude to what is seen as a “difficult” subject, and hopefully invoke an interest in the medium. Rather than approaching poetry from an academic standpoint initially, through the medium of animation, visual imagery, and interactivity, the user will be encouraged to enjoy the poem and draw upon their own imagination and opinion.

    Poetry, by its very nature, is s a spare form of expression that forces the reader to interpret/understand what is being said. In the same way that a painter expresses their emotions and feelings onto a canvas, poets use literature in a similar manner, each with their own unique voice, expressions, and identity.

 Furthermore, due to the multifaceted nature of poetry, everyone has their own way of relating to a poem, which gives way to a wide range of different interpretations and meanings of a poet’s work.

  For this reason, we should expect people to respond positively to the medium, especially at the age where short forms of expressions and opinions are shared across social media. Whilst poetry has risen in popularity in Ireland, especially with Covid and lockdown, there is still the common notion that poetry is too hard to understand and approach.

  While poetry can aid both students and adults to find and express their emotions, the examination system measures the success of the student, not by their deeper understanding of poetry, but by their ability to analyse the medium on a technical level. This usually results in a set of formulaic interpretations being taught to students, that they must learn in order to pass successfully, “What my students’ anxieties boil down to is a sense of disenfranchisement: poetry is not theirs” (Regis, 2014).

   As a former secondary school student, I can relate to these sentiments. To truly find out if these experiences were universal with other people, I conducted a small survey asking current and former secondary school students if they had struggled with poetry themselves. Of those who replied, over 75% expressed that they had struggled with the subject.

 

 

 Reasons ranged from “analysing poems word for word” or that “secondary school methods did not encourage deep reading”. (Harty, 2022).

    Furthermore, in the same survey, I also asked “If poetry was taught/presented in a more visual manner (e.g., animation) would it have been easier/more enjoyable to learn?”. Again, over 75% of responders agreed with the idea.

 

Answers ranged from, “I personally learn better off visuals, think they explain things better and make them easier to remember” or “I believe using animation would be beneficial as it is significantly more engaging, it also is a visual representation of the material making the entire experience more comprehensive for the viewer” .To see the full results of the survey, see appendix 1.

     It is for these reasons that the main aim of this project, is not for people to use this virtual experience as a tool for academic study, quite the opposite. By attempting to visualize my idea of Hopkin’s poem through animation and sound, I hope it will allow people to separate the mechanistic/academic side of poetry taught in schools and see the emotions and beauty that the medium has to offer. This will hopefully, encourage the viewer to learn and appreciate the medium.

   Furthermore, this application of media has been proved successful in garnering visitors to museums, as they allow users a hand on and personalized learning experience with the material. This both encourages them to be more receptive to new ideas/topics, and it could potentially aid in retaining information more effectively. “With the advances with interactive technologies, art museums and museums in general are now able to reconstruct the previous ideologies and systems that have been in place in exhibitions, and to re-imagine the way we can potentially present information and artwork to visitors in free choice learning environments” (Seyedmahmoud, 2018). 

   I believe the same logic could be applied for this project, as having immersive animation and audio could aid users to interpret/visualize the complex language and phrasing used in poetry. Even if people do not agree with my adaptation of “Spring”, I consider that still to be a positive outcome. It proves that the experience has impacted the user to the extent that they have formed their own vision and ideas of the poem’s meaning.

   Overall, the main aim for this project is to encourage people to simply enjoy poetry. If that’s the only takeaway they get from this experience, I would consider the project an absolute success. 

Section 6-Summary

    Overall, in this Final Year Project Proposal Document, I will be creating a multimedia VR experience adapting the poem “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  In a business context, this project could be used as an exhibition promoting Irish poet’s and their work. For the project’s cultural aspect, we could see that by using interactive technology, we possibly could make poetry more engaging, thus a sparking an interest for the medium. In the application of media section, I described how I will use Blender and UE4 to create the experience itself. This includes modelling the assets, creating the landscape, or coding in the basic game logic. 

 Section 7- References

Section 3 References

Rigis, A. (2013) Why do students fear poetry and how can they access it better?, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/mar/21/world-poetry-day-student-occupy (Accessed: December 3, 2022).

Harty, P. (2022) Direction Concepts/Digital Culture/Business Media- Final Project Year project proposal survey, Direction concepts/Digital Culture/Business media- Final project Year Project Proposal Survey. Available at: https://patrickhartydirectionconcept.blogspot.com/2022/12/direction-conceptsdigital.html (Accessed: December 5, 2022).

Teachers, C. (2022) Career teachers, CareerTeachers. Available at: https://www.careerteachers.co.uk/career-advice/blog/importance-of-poetry-in-schools (Accessed: December 2, 2022).

Gheorghilas, A. et al. (2017) The challenges of the 21st-century museum: Dealing with sophisticated visitors in a sophisticated world., Research Gate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321310005_THE_CHALLENGES_OF_THE_21ST-CENTURY_MUSEUM_DEALING_WITH_SOPHISTICATED_VISITORS_IN_A_SOPHISTICATED_WORLD (Accessed: December 01, 2022).

Seyedmahmoud, P. (2018) The Museum Experience-Learning and Engagement through the Emergence of New Interactive Technologies in Art Museums, M.Sc. Dissertations - School of Computer Science and Statistics - Trinity College Dublin. Trinity College Library. Available at: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/publications/theses/diss/ (Accessed: December 02 , 2022).

    Editorial Staff (2021) The Irish Times View on the place of poetry: How to pay attention, The Irish Times. [Editorial] The Irish Times. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-the-place-of-poetry-how-to-pay-attention-1.4708371 (Accessed: December 1, 2022). 

 Section 8- Appendices

Appendix 1

Full Survey Results

Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-zK1GfHK2ABv7d0tgFkCv1g_3D_3D/?fbclid=IwAR0I9eBNk2QV_46W9CFlQz9gJEsQNT3DtYbLUtTgpFDP9V9E_5-sQ2tWKOs

 Section 9- Bibliography

Section9- Bibliography

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Badics, I. et al. (2022) Interactive exhibitions and museum technology by Garamantis , Garamantis. Available at: https://www.garamantis.com/en/application-area/museum-and-exhibition/ (Accessed: November 29, 2022).

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UNF Games (2022) Unreal engine 5 environment tutorial for beginners - create a forest, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90rv-0g7O_4 (Accessed: December 3, 2022).

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