Digital / 2017

A Hidden Narrative

Inside the experience — a visitor reaches toward the fire
Inside the experience — a visitor reaches toward the fire

A Hidden Narrative began as a painting — The Mind's Eye — and became a place you could stand inside. For my MFA I rebuilt the painted scene as a navigable virtual-reality experience.

In the gallery you sat down on the stool from the painting and put on an Oculus Rift. The room's ornate French sandstone fireplace had been captured by photogrammetry — the hero asset — the rest modelled and lit, and run in real time in Unreal Engine.

It is a work about viewer participation, presence and the senses. People reach out toward the fire, half-expecting its heat — the aim is to put the viewer inside the picture and release a narrative a single still can't hold. Shown in my MFA degree show, Beyond the Canvas, and written about by Niall MacMonagle in The Irish Independent.

Inside the VR — stereo (left/right eye) view of the photogrammetry fireplace
Inside the VR — stereo (left/right eye) view of the photogrammetry fireplace
Reaching into the scene
Reaching into the scene
Seated on the stool from the painting, inside the work
Seated on the stool from the painting, inside the work
In the VR room
In the VR room