BY
ELAINA ONG AND HU HUIYAO

Inspired by the books the Invisible Cities and Venice, an Odyssey, Virtual Venice is a project meant to capture the essence of Venice in an immersive virtual experience. It encompasses a broad world that features a re-interpretation of Venice’s Piazza San Marco in a plethora of layers – aesthetic, cultural, environmental and historical – represented in a timeless encounter juxtaposing the past, the present, and the imagined. Through the learning taken away from the quantitative analysis and sensorial mapping done in Google Earth VR, we crafted a world that engages with both new visitors and acquaintances of Venice.

Delving into the details, each area has their own story to tell, bringing the players on an atmospheric, emotional and thought provoking adventure that encourages users to rethink preconceived notions of Venice. Made during the pandemic, it challenges the traditional travel methods and combines the dichotomy of virtual travel and a museum exhibit experience. Museums show other worlds to the visitor in an educational and crafted narrative – travel immerses the visitor where everything is up to their own interpretation – and our project aims to encapsulate manifestations of both.

Zoning Virtual Venice: Piazza Zone, Grassfield Zone,
Preliminary Studies: Google Earth VR Fly Through Analysis between an individual who has not been to Venice (left) and an individual who has (right).
Preliminary Studies: Tracing the routes taken by both individuals in the Google Earth VR Fly Through analysis.
Preliminary Studies: Analysis on Height of View, Action Rhythm, Cause of Action, Emotional State Spectrum, Types and Qualities of Locations
  • Museum Axonometric
  • Venetian Street
  • Pavilion Isometric

The end product is a journey that is experiential, educational, emotional, imaginative, partially escapist, but partially grounded to factual events. Famous paintings, small trivia from historical events and everyday modern life in Venice are all blended subtly into a first-person, single player open-world that the players can explore freely through their digital devices. We chose virtual reality instead of mixed reality or artificial reality as traveling to Venice to utilise the devices is less immersive and physically impossible now due to the COVID-19 situation.

SOFTWARE
Adobe Premiere Pro
Rhino
Unity
Unreal Engine 4