FIVARS welcomes the creators of Hip Hop Lit, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech Tyechia Thompson, and artist and director and FIVARS alum Nikita Shokhov to discuss their piece in more detail.
What led to the creation of this piece?
Tyechia: I decided to integrate volumetric capture and motion capture technologies into my “Hip Hop Literature” class to enhance the learning experience through augmented reality. Teaching hybrid courses—both in-person and via Zoom—has highlighted the challenges of not being fully present in the classroom when I’m off campus.
This innovative technology addresses those challenges by allowing me to deliver lectures in a fully embodied form, creating a more immersive environment for my students. By incorporating 3D objects and course materials for interactive engagement, I aim to enrich their educational experience.
What was the production process for you and your team? What did you learn?
Tyechia: The production process for the “Hip Hop Literature” augmented reality (AR) lectures spanned six months, with collaboration across multiple roles. In October 2022, I secured funding and wrote a script. Next, Nikita Shokhov and students in the ARIES studio completed volumetric captures. Craig Arthur fact-checked the AR lessons. Nikita and I selected hip-hop audio to enhance student engagement in the AR experience.
Amanda Hodes assisted in testing and making the course accessible while Students in the ARIES developed the assets in the virtual environments. I created quizzes and the user interface design, and Grigoriy Kashtanof worked on the user interface and plane tracking. We began releasing lectures in February 2023.
Key lessons included the challenge of delivering lectures succinctly for AR without reading from a script. Volumetric capture technology’s power demands required keeping content brief. Lectures were divided into short segments with additional immersive elements like sound and visuals, creating a dynamic learning experience while maintaining user engagement.
How did you become an immersive media content creator and why?
Tyechia: With my interdisciplinary expertise in African American literature, digital humanities, and public interest technology, my academic work demonstrates a commitment to exploring the intersection of technology and cultural representation, as well as an interest in using immersive technologies to increase representation and accessibility. By integrating her literary scholarship with cutting-edge technological tools, I am exploring ways to develop content that engages audiences in interactive and meaningful ways and challenges traditional narratives through innovative, empathetic storytelling.
What is the VR/AR industry like in your region?
Nikita: Tyechia and I created the Hip Hop Lit piece at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. There’s no XR industry in Blacksburg besides academic use of XR at the VT campus. I would say Virginia Tech is one of the top US universities that practice immersive environments on the most profound level. Mostly, it’s the software engineering side. We have intensive programs in Computer Science, Industrial and Systems Engineering departments, and my School of Visual Arts. PhD students in Computer Science work on real projects commissioned by the US military, CIA, the US Navy, and corporations, developing Augmented and Virtual Reality applications for them, spatial user interfaces, and many other areas we can define as XR.
Master students, like I was, work on real projects in education, culture, humanity, and the arts. Hip Hop Lit was the last project I created at Virginia Tech before moving to New York. There’s no need to present the NYC XR industry – it’s diverse and ever-changing. However, I am inclined toward the visual art scene in XR, real-time graphics, and the interactive media sphere. The institutions and communities that I actively connected with include Onassis ONX, New Inc, Pioneer Works, the Museum of the Moving Image, Harvest Works, Zerospace, Tribeca Festival, Mercer Labs, Bitforms Gallery, and Plexus Projects. Tribeca Festival, Mercer Labs, Bitforms Gallery, Plexus Projects.
What do you have planned for the future?
Nikita: Right now, I’m interested in live performance / live theater and how Mixed Reality (or a computational virtual world) can become an integral part of the performance. I want to achieve a state when the audience is simultaneously bodily and consciously present in both worlds—material and virtual—immersed in both of them to achieve an ancient condition of perception that would allow the audience to experience something genuinely magical and transformational.
What would you like to share with fellow content creators and the industry?
Tyechia: As content creators in the immersive art industry, we are excited by the evolving storytelling landscape through augmented and virtual realities, at the heart of festivals like FIVARS. The intersection of technology and narrative allows for new modes of expression that challenge traditional boundaries. My work as a scholar of African American literature and digital humanities, alongside Nikita Shokhov’s expertise in XR, motion capture, and visual art, is grounded in the belief that immersive experiences can provide deep, empathetic engagement with complex cultural and social narratives.
At FIVARS, creators like us have the opportunity to showcase how immersive technologies, such as volumetric capture and augmented reality, can amplify underrepresented voices, engage audiences in meaningful ways, and craft dynamic, interactive environments that foster new perspectives. By combining innovative technology with rich storytelling, we are pioneering a new frontier in the arts that expands the scope of what it means to create and experience art in the digital age.
Do you think VR festivals like FIVARS are important?
Nikita: They are extremely important. This is where people looking for new things find them, and creators find their audience.
Hip Hop Lit plays at FIVARS 2024 Festival
Directors:
Nikita Shokhov
