Chenyi Wang

The objective of this project is to explore and convey the profound impact of music on people’s lives through WebVR storytelling. I created an immersive, interactive experience that allows users to engage with the emotional and transformative aspects of music on Mozilla Hubs.

The concept for my story would be Memory and Perception. The key theme I want to convey in my work is the special power of the music. I want to express how music relates to our brain as it can trigger specific emotions and memories, as well as how music can help bring a sense of identity to people and connect people.

Story: A depressed person, who was trapped by inner loss, being animated and healed by music.

Environment: Enclosed spaces with spiral-shaped hallways mimic a maze, while outside the building is nature.

Expected Experience: The audience will play as the person in my narrative, start from the middle of the space, and have an immersive experience of going out of the building to nature.

Music Selection: I picked 5 songs by a Japanese artist, Kana Wakareno. I occasionally heard her music and at first, I felt sad, but as I listened to it I calmed down and felt healed, so I thought her music would be a good fit for my story as it can evoke different emotions.

Challenges: I struggled with how to build a 3D environment for my story at first because I had no experience in designing and building environments and I was afraid that I couldn’t translate my ideas into something visible. I also struggled with how to let the audience know what I was trying to convey during the process. I would like to leave some space for the audience to explore by themselves but don’t want them to get lost or confused. It was a little hard to find the balance between freedom and confusion, so I ended up adding some prompts and navigation in my world to help guide the audience through the story.

Check out the full work process in my blog.

Try it out in the Mozilla Hubs room.

Tools: WebVR, Storytelling