A view of “simRVR” of diatoms in a clean river environment.
River toxicity on a microscopic scale comes into focus in a new virtual reality video created by four St. Cloud State University faculty members.
“simRVR” immerses the viewer into the world of diatoms, single-celled plants, as their environment changes as a river’s pollution increases.
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Faculty members Bill Gorcica, Matt Julius, Kristian Twombly and Mark Gill worked together on the video for the Sundance Institute’s Virtual Reality: The New Frontier being presented at the Northern Spark festival, a city-wide all-night art festival in Minneapolis.
The video is one of three by Minnesota artists being debuted at Northern Spark. The New Frontier exhibit includes more than a dozen videos.
Gorcica, Julius and Gill will be on hand with Samsung Gear VR June 11 at the Mill City neighborhood event and June 12 at the Walker Art Center. The videos can be viewed with a Google Cardboard headset through June 16 at the Walker Art Center.
After Northern Spark is completed, the video will be incorporated into a virtual museum the trio is creating for use by students at St. Cloud State and elsewhere. Julius, Gorcica and Gill earned a St. Cloud State Miller Scholars award to collaborate on the project to create interactive 3-D learning tools.
Diatoms are seen in a heavily polluted river in this scene from “simRVR”.
