Background

The Procedural Poetry Funhouse is a Virtual Reality (VR) experience that aims to use the philosophy of play-based learning to change the way students perceive and experience poetry. Our hope is that by combining Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, we can create an interactive experience which will allow creative writing students to physically interact with poetry and visually explore its themes through a series of digitized challenges that allow them to explore the various processes involved in writing.

Objective

This project has two main goals. Firstly, it seeks to redefine how people perceive the interaction between New Media and Creative Writing by combining emerging technologies with concrete poetry to create an interactive VR experience. Secondly, it seeks to expand upon existing pedagogy in the field of creative writing, becoming a teaching tool through which to teach procedural poetry and creativity. 

The Team

Principal Investigators

• Dr. Bronwen Tate, Assistant Professor of Teaching, UBC’s School of Creative Writing
• Jennifer Moss, Lecturer, UBC’s School of Creative Writing
• A.E. Osworth, Lecturer, UBC’s School of Creative Writing
• Ray Clark, Adjunct Professor, UBC’s School of Creative Writing

Student Team

• Mariane Olivan, Project Lead, UI/UX Designer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• Ameya Goel, UI/UX Designer (June 2024 – August 2024)
• Jiho Kim, UI/UX Designer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• Julien Roy, Developer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• Walker Rout, Developer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• James Edralin, Developer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• Samia Sajid, UI/UX Designer (May 2024 – June 2024)

Staff

• Frederik Svendsen, Staff Developer (May 2024 – August 2024)
• Anushka Sharma, Staff Designer (May 2024 – August 2024)