The Rubáiyát VR Poetry Experience is an immersive journey in which the viewer explores an illustrated manifestation of the poem ‘The Rubáiyát’, a poem translated by Edward Fitzgerald in the late 19th century. The work was created for my final semester degree project. My project aims to encourage an appreciation for classic poetry using Virtual Reality technology, which is unique since “no other form of media completely surrounds and encompasses the user”[1].

 

The unique capabilities of the media allowed me to create the project while immersed in the virtual environment. I used the software program Oculus Quill to paint the illustrations and imported 3D assets from Blender. Creative inspiration came from media such as the 1970’s film ‘Powers of Ten’[2] and OneZoom’s[3] ‘Tree of Life’. Scale is used in my project to create linkages between the illustrations, words, and meanings. In addition, the text traces the path of a 3D Fibonacci spiral, gradually decreasing in size to reflect themes in the poem of nature, space and time. The reader traverses the path of the text, moving ever deeper into the poem as they explore the work.

 

Each section of the poem is illustrated with visual metaphors, inviting the reader to reflect on the different themes in the text. Illustrations including the stars and the zodiac reference unknown fortunes or purpose; aurora play across the landscape suggesting “Heav’n”, ‘Destiny’s Lamp’, and the “Earthen Bowl”. A waterfall, “the Well of Life”, at the centre of the “earthen Bowl” descends into a black void, “Annihilation’s Waste” and the “Dawn of Nothing”. Gestural figures surround a sun, the “Magic Shadow-show” where the “Candle is the Sun, Round which we Phantom Figures come and go”. The visual relationships between the different illustrations layer to form a cohesive picture around the text. At any point along the poem, the reader is surrounded in 360 degrees of relevant 3D illustration. 

 

1.    Jason Jerald. 2016. The VR Book. Association for Computing Machinery and Morgan & Claypool, New York, NY, USA.
2.    http://www.eamesoffice.com/the-work/powers-of-ten/
3.    https://www.onezoom.org

 

 

Music under license through Moby Gratis.