From time to time, I see something that makes me wonder why I chose hci–a field that people won\’t recognize because our job is to make things easier. As I say in my bio on the mhci page, I want to design something that seamlessly blends in with the world, that will change the world, so much so that people won\’t notice it.

When i was younger, I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to do the opposite of hci. I wanted to create something that put in front of people, would change their perspectives, make them think differently. I wanted to have the ability to make them feel something, to imagine a different world from where they are now. A better world or perhaps make them appreciate what they have now. I would have liked to be…an artist. Creativity.

Today, it was the Building Virtual Worlds showcase. Every single world was amazing. BVW, as its called by the students, is a class (24 units which translates to 24 hours) at the Entertainment Technology Center. Generally, the masters students–most who go into the video game industry as entertainment programmers or designers–take this class. They each had 14 days to create a world comprised of teams of designers, programmers, storytellers and a producer. At the showcase, people acted out the world using amazing technological techniques such as light sensing, space detection, or even flashlight movement. One memorable world was the one that the professors called \”dangerous\”. In this world, the audience was given \”rocks\”. The world included a large ugly green monster and a little girl. We would watch as the monster befriended the girl, but then someone in the back of the audience would shout \”Stone the monster!\” People would throw the rocks at the monster and then…the monster would die…giving a flower to the little girl. Awesome.