Bodies in Play

Bodies in Play: Inclusive Co-Creation for Wearable Technology and Virtual Reality is a two year feminist research-creation partnership between OCAD University’s game:play Lab and Social Body Lab, and DMG that brings together academic, cultural and community practitioners to co-create knowledge for more inclusive and innovative body-centric design practices in embodied interfaces. It will do this through a series of game jams and a residency program, bridging creative, technical and conceptual work in wearable technology and mixed reality (XR).

Bodies in Virtual Reality

About Bodies in VR

Virtual Reality is an embodied experience, both physically limiting a player within a restrictive technological apparatus as well as offering a creator more freedom in imagining ways to express and extend their identity without real world reference. 

What if we could use VR technologies to re-imagine and re-empower ourselves by being in control of how we represent ourselves in virtual worlds?

“Bodies in Virtual Reality” is a series of hands-on events dedicated to exploration of how virtual reality creation practices can be used to support embodied expression of identity, experience, and self. 

Two workshops will focus on the development of virtual reality skills including world design and the creation of game bodies for a social VR experience. 

The Bodies in VR Jam will support the development of fully developed interactive and/or dynamic VR projects. 

Through these activities we hope to co-imagine, co-fabulate, co-design, and co-create ways potential relationships between bodies, technologies, and means of expression.

Our Code of Conduct can be downloaded here

Software to install post pickup

• Discord (https://discord.com/)  – sign in to the BiP Discord Server
• Unity Hub (latest version – download and create free account) (https://unity.com/download) 
• Unity 2021.3.11 (https://unity.com/releases/editor/archive) 
• Visual Studio (latest version) (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/) Install for Unity.
• Blender 3.6.1 (https://www.blender.org/download/) 
• Oculus software (latest version – needs to be running on PC whilst in VR using your link cable)

Useful Tutorial Links

• Unity Interface Tutorial: Using the Unity Interface
• Unity XR Interaction Toolkit Tutorials
• Valem Playlist: How to Make a VR Game in Unity PART 1
• Justin P Barnett Playlist: How to Make VR Games in 2022 Updated Unity VR Tutorial
• Blender Interface Tutorial: Blender Beginner Tutorial Part 1
• Export/Import Tutorial: How to EXPORT MATERIALS from Blender to Unity 2023 (Updated)
• C# Beginner Tutorials 
• Learn, Create, Play Playlist: Beginning C# with Unity (2023 Edition) Getting Started
• Normcore Tutorials: Make a Multiplayer VR Game 

With thanks to our friends Dark Slope for their equipment support!