Mila Gajic
MFA Digital Animation and Interactive Media, 2024

Project Description: 
Mila Gajic is interested in how organizing conceptual inquiries into “navigable spatial diagrams” through experiential media can foster new perspectives and insights through interactive engagement.  Using a research-through-design approach and the mediums of virtual and augmented reality, she explores how 3D virtual worlds can uncover additional formats for presenting creative research and sharing it with others. Mila's project consists of immersive virtual spaces whose structures depict the core ideas and connections within her research interests over the past two years.

To translate mostly abstract concepts into a spatial layout, Mila coded specific virtual elements with symbolic meanings linked to her practice. These spatial metaphors facilitate an interpretative space that balances authorial control and user agency in immersive media. Mila also explored ways of offering insights into her design process within this virtual environment through spatial annotations that users can unveil gradually. 

Rooted in Reflective Practice, this project merges methodologies of Human-Centered Design and Storytelling Design for VR, emphasizing user experience within immersive nonlinear narratives. It also employs Arts-Based Research practices in translating inquiries from non-spatial to spatial forms, while promoting transparency and aesthetic response in the research process. Beyond uncovering additional avenues for presenting inquiries, this project addresses current gaps in the field of mixed reality, including text positioning in 3D spaces and intensifying the sense of presence in virtual worlds.

Committee Members: 
Matthew Lewis (Advisor), Scott Swearingen, Shadrick Addy

Keywords: 
Virtual Environments, AR, VR, 3D Art, Immersive, Interactive, Experiential Media