- Practical Time Travel: The Ridges -
Practical Time Travel: The Ridges is an immersive user agency-centered experience providing facts about the history of the Athens State Hospital, some people who worked and lived there, the architecture, and industries related to the site. Through virtual reality, participants can learn historical facts about the motivations of those who lived in the past and how multiple elements of life and culture are connected through activities involving trial and error, exploration, and puzzle-solving.
Currently available on itch.io
For this project, I researched the site through books, news articles, postcards, floorplans, visits, etc. I created 3D models of the exterior and interior of the building using provided floorplans, recent photogrammetry, found postcards, and urban exploration photos.
My favorite asset to create was the Pony Ride Rocker, which was chosen as a primary object for our museum studies program's exhibit, originally slated to take place at the Ridges. I found a pattern from the 1950s, scanned it, and used it with Adobe Illustrator and Blender to create the model, Substance Painter to make the texture, and Unity to piece it together. One of the planned activities of the expanded experience involves finding and piecing together the toy and finding facts along the way. The actual version was built by a patient and is part of a Southeast Ohio History Center collection.
The biggest challenge of this project was optimizing it so it did not bog down the experience in VR and finding ways to climb the steep stairs to the upper levels built to the original plans.
Gallery
Technology + Mediums Used
Shown at the Following...
Awarded Best Use of Social Media Feature
Credits and Special Thanks
Creator:
- Hope E. Moore
- including modeling, texturing, and scripting
- "I Hope That When I Die It's Cool Like I'm Assassinated By Ghosts Or Something"
by Grace Allyse Pratt
- Miranda Kridler, Senior Planner, Strategy and Innovation Office
- Kennedy Museum of Art
- Southeast Ohio History Center
- The Dairy Barn Arts Center
- Janus: There's More to What You See
- Ed Pauley, Director, Kennedy Museum of Art
- Shawna Bolin
- Brent Buckley, Director, Design and Construction Support Services
- 2019-2020 Museum Studies cohort
- Kennedy Museum of Art staff
- Southeast Ohio History Center
- Tyler Ayers
- Jeff Kuhn
- Sam Girton
- Owen Lowery
- Sydney Lokant
- Liahna Brown
- Eric Williams
- Stan Alost
- John Bowditch
- Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab
- School of Media Arts and Studies
- J. Warren McClure School of Emerging Communication Technologies
- Scripps College of Communication
- Ohio University
- "Apple Crate" by user hako25AI
- "Bed" and "Office chair (LOW-POLY)" by user shedmon
- "Curtain and Décor" by user batu.eken
- "Flourescent Light" by user Rafenn (which I luckily found through a misspelling)
- "Iron Shelf" and "Milk Bucket" by user thunderpwn
- "Rose Flowers" by user centaurus21
- "Shelf" by Tom Taylor ( Tomations )
- "Simple Roller" and "Tall Shelf" by user Blender3D
- "Workshop table industrial" by KOMODOZ ( komodoz )
- Some stock audio by Adobe Audition Sound Effects.
- Brown, Gabriel. "Longview Asylum: Good Intentions Gone Wrong." The Irish in Cincinnati. University of Cincinnati Archives & Rare Books Library: 2017. (link)
- Brumfield, Sara. "Dairy Barn Celebrates 100th Year." Athens Messenger. 6 June, 2014. Accessed through woub.org. (link)
- Carmosino, Jessica. "The Cleveland State Hospital." ClevelandHistorical.org. Published 5 Feb 2013. Last Updated 12 Sep 2019. (link)
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- Genealogy Trails. (link)
- "History of the Barn." The Dairy Barn Arts Center. (link)
- Janus: There's More to What You See. Virtual exhibition. (link)
- Kirkbride Buildings. (link)
- "The Kirkbride Plan." 99 Percent Invisible. Episode 373. 8 Oct 2019. (link)
- Kirkbride, Thomas S. On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane. Philadelphia: 1854. Accessed through Google Books.
- "Longview State Hospital." AsylumProjects.org. 26 Aug 2014. (link)
- Mars, Roman, and Kurt Kohlstedt. The 99% Invisible City: a Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.
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- Mapes, Netta. "Nurses, Athens State Hospital grounds, August 19, 1912." Ohio University Library Digital Archival Collections. From the Athens Mental Health Center and Netta Mapes collections. 19 Aug, 1912. Photograph. Accessed digitally. (link) Image was modified.
- Roseboom, Nell. "Nursing Students, Athens State Hospital, circa 1910-1914." Ohio University Library Digital Archival Collections. From the Athens Mental Health Center and Nell Roseboom collections. Photograph. Accessed digitally. (link) Image was modified.
- Royal, Tiffany and Ben Roode. "Asylums + History = Creepy." The Post (Athens, Ohio). 26 Oct 2000. It's On! Section. Pg. 6. Accessed through Ohio University Library Digital Archives.
- Woods, Jim. "OLD ATHENS MENTAL HEALTH CENTER IS MOVING LAST PATIENTS TO NEW HOME." Columbus Dispatch, The (OH), Home Final ed., sec. NEWS, 22 Mar. 1993, p. 04C. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/10E0D98ABB07F428. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.
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- Ziff, Katherine. Asylum on the Hill. Ohio University Press: 2012. Kindle Edition.