For this project, I will be creating a Virtual Reality experience on emotionally abusive relationships. It is based on a true story, which is my biggest inspiration behind this project. I originally was going to create this on my own time as an installation based on another project I did for a drawing class, but I decided to combine it with my knowledge from IMM. This project shows off my interest in social issues and the desire to bring more awareness to something, like emotionally abusive relationships and the signs people may not notice. It combines this well with my interest in Virtual Reality and trying to find the best reasons to use VR. I’ve always been interested in art, especially any that comments on issues in society, so this project makes sense for me to create. Others would be interested in this project because it will be displaying emotionally abusive relationships in a unique way. While using VR to display any issues in society isn’t new, I don’t think I have seen something like this done in VR before to display such an issue. I’ve primarily seen it used to show experiences such as what prison may be like, or how to do everyday things in society for prisoners to understand. It will be different from those situations because it won’t be like a literal simulation of a specific situation. It will have different visuals based on metaphors going along with the text of the story. Even though movies may exist to educate on the topic, the VR experience places the person in the situation and will prompt them to make decisions based on the knowledge they will have at the moment. It will push the idea that you can only do so much with what you know at the moment, and it is never as simple as just leaving when things become too difficult because sometimes the victim or even bystanders won’t see it coming. The goal is to put the player in the moment of what is going on and allow them to try and make the decisions a victim may make and do their best to navigate out safely, which isn’t always the easiest to do as the abuser will find ways to turn your choices around to work in their favor. I will start by working primarily in Unity to create a base to make sure all the features function properly before I refine all the 3D modeling for it and make it look the best it can. The script is almost complete, and I have been refining it for the past year now. I will use Twine to create an outline for how the decisions will play out concerning my script before putting the entire thing together.