Ghostly Rhetoric

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Overview

I collaborated with Lauren Chun on an audio augmented reality experience that brings authors who carry unique philosophical worldviews to life as virtual beings, spectral orators of their metaphysical ideas. While roaming around an open space, participants can cross paths with the authors, hearing glimpses into their worldviews and simulating a more direct engagement with their lived sources of knowledge.

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Inspiration

Cognitive empathy can be defined as "understanding what's happening in other minds and bodies," and neurodiversity theory informs us and invites us to appreciate that there are large variations across individuals and cultures in the human brain and function.

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Inspired by a diverse range of authors who express diverse ways of cognizing the world in their books, we wanted to craft an experience that fosters cognitive empathy and shows the magic of a group's neurodiversity in action.

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Approach

We explored how immersive experiences paired with voice-cloning techniques could offer more direct and realistic glimpses into what's happening in these authors' minds.

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Outcome

The app simulates the authors' self-talk as they wander through the surrounding space as invisible sonic sculptures in audio AR.

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Demo

Audio AR demo of spatially exploring the invisible sonic sculptures:

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User test:

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User Flow

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Tech Stack

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Slides from Class Presentation