Walk A Mile
360º 3D video
empathy project
project is currently on hold (waiting for COVID-19 safe clearance)
project fully supported
completion by end of 2021
above photograph by Sifan Liu/Unsplash
They say you can’t really understand someone unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. I discovered new significance to this phrase when I strapped on my first Oculus VR headset. I I found myself standing by a fire inside a mud and grass yurt that was maybe 15’ in diameter and barely high enough to stand up in. I was surrounded by a tribe of 7 or 8 weathered older men; I felt like I might have been in one of the more remote regions of South America. As smoke floated by my head, I noticed one of the men staring at me. In that moment I could actually feel my own intrusion on what appeared to be a private ceremony. The whole scenario was virtual, but I felt it. I had a strong feeling of awkwardness before reminding myself that this was a 3D/360º photo.
I’ve spent decades looking at photos as an art director, but this – my first ever 3D/360º photo experience –was deeper than a photo. I could actually feel the people and the space “surrounding” us. I could imagine the sounds and smells. The weirdest part is that when I look back on that VR experience, I almost recall it as a memory and not as a movie I watched. I recall it as if I was actually there.
The impact of this experience is what sparked the idea for the WALK A MILE project, a series of 360/3D photos and 4D videos of moments Americans are currently going through. Perhaps if we could stand next to others with a different experience than our own we might choose compassion over hate. Maybe if we could learn from each other that we are more alike than we ever imagined, maybe, just maybe we could come together and become the melting pot we are.
After several amazing discussions with other researchers on campus, I chose a powerful suggestion from Susan Russell, Associate professor in Theatre, to form five questions. Five questions to be asked of people on both sides of arguments in each of the topic/groups listed below. Five questions that avoid the usual trappings of social triggers or that stimulate the typical answers we all engage in through social media. Five questions that get to the roots of who people that live in America really are without the labels and triggers we mindlessly fight to defend mindlessly. Five questions distilled to the core of who we are.
These questions arebeing conceived and edited now. The team is waiting for a COVID-19 clearance before we can begin shooting.
Below the team list are diagrams and detailed scenarios in progress now.
The WAM Team:
- Zach Lonsinger - Project Coordinator
- Dr. Jenay Robert - Research and Evaluation
- Brad Kozlek - Director of Software Design & Development
- Dan Getz - Creative Learning Initiatives and Camera Expert
- Katie Kostohryz - Assistant Teaching Professor, Educational Psychology,
Counseling, & Special Education
Blacks & Police Violence
Race in America has been the unresolved great horror we cannot seem to face and deal with.
When I was the art director of Essence Magazine, I was first exposed to the reality of Black children being instructed at a very young age how to survive an encounter with the police. Hearing that all Black kids in America have to be told about the police should be something white Americans are more familiar with.
The questions for this project will focus on the most important elements of life with a focus on how one expects to be treated and treats others. The hope is to stir the realization that we all need to do better on this subject.
Gays & God
There has been a raging cultural war going on in this nation even after 1969’s Stonewall riots. This resistance to the gay community is of course rooted in social constructs nobody living had anything to do with creating. Today in the twenty-first century, I believe that deep down most Americans want the same things for our society and for everyone to coexist peacefully. Interviewing people on both sides with very focused and pointed questions should reveal that we all need to just get to know each other better before we are so quick to cut the other side down.
Refit Or Die intends to do some of the shooting at a church summer camp, a street festival in a major city, and at locations around rural areas. We will also be shooting in Christopher Square outside of The Stonewall Inn where the present day gay movement began and swept around the world.
Pro-life But You Support Caged Mexican Kids?
We would love to place the viewer right in the center of one of the detention centers with audio of the children and other sounds deeply connecting the viewer into the experience.
We intend to set this up so that the questions can be asked in a similar setting - a warehouse with fencing if possible. Asking the questions within that space will make the greatest impact through these immersive videos.
The American Nighmare
Refit Or Die will capture this issue by shooting the video in one of America’s largest city’s many homeless encampments. We hope to feature the unexpected people living here, such as children and white Christian families.
The focus of this is twofold:
1 - To show the clear economic inequality through one of these encampments in the shadows of one of America’s wealthiest cities.
2 - The regional widespread lack of jobs and opportunities across most of America’s rural areas and smaller cities.
There is no need for anyone in America to go homeless or hungry. We believe being there will make an impact in American’s hearts and motivate them to be less dismissive and more involved in solving this destructive problem.
