They aren’t meant to be purchased and worn around your living room. Rather, FIELD’s project Quasar helmets visualize three emotions and take wearers on a journey through space.
Digital design company FIELD debuted the Quasar project at the Violescence show in London over the weekend. The three different headsets are meant to have wearers travel through different emotions: sensitivity, aggression, and inquisitiveness.
“[Quasar] describes the spirit of pioneering as three human archetypes—each with their own means of perception, rationale and communication,” FIELD’s Vera-Maria Glahn told the Daily Dot in an email. “We observe their acts of exploring and creating, their willpower, creative strength and physical exhaustion. Idolised innovators of our time, advancing so far they might lose touch with their surroundings.”
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The headsets were built around Oculus headsets and headphones, specifically cast and molded from a model’s head.
The project runs on a Unity game engine, with multiple PCs driving the experience. Inside, the headset displays stars, planets, and different parts of the universe, taking you on an enchanting, musical journey through multiple galaxies.
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Quasar headsets themselves are made with fiberglass, resin, and thermoplastic polymer, and sanded into shapes meant to spark curiosity and conversation.
“The three interactive experiences imagine the journeys of our archetypal explorers,” Glahn said. “Just like the design of the helmets, go from tangible to more and more abstract: from steering through the atmospheric layers of an unknown planet, to another galaxy with stars orbiting around the player, to an entirely abstract space where geometric shapes are deformed, destroyed, and rejoined.”
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Thanks to a wearable strapped to viewers’ wrists, they can control whatever they’re seeing based on gyroscopic and accelerometer sensors. And while these particular pieces are designed to entertain exhibition visitors, it’s an interesting look at how virtual reality is changing different industries. It’s also bridging two technologies—wearable and VR—into a completely immersive experience.
The project name itself signifies both darkness and space travel—a quasar is a “quasi-star” existing in the middle of a galaxy surrounding supermassive black holes.
FIELD is in talks with multiple galleries across Europe and the U.S. in hopes of bringing Quasar to other locations.
H/T Deezen | Photos via FIELD