The Win/Win Scenario

The Win/ Win Scenerio

It pays to show up and fully  participate.  

...."Show up, pay attention, tell the truth, let go of your expectations of the results." This is my mantra...

My experience at my first ever hackathon, presented by Melodrive with their sponsors ARAVR Academy, Microsoft Reactor.
Photos courtesy of Ryan Groves from Melodrive

I had no idea what to expect. I'd planned to show up with a partner (my visual "ringer", if you will), but he got sick. But hell, I wasn't gonna to pass up on a hackathon that concentrated on immersive, emotional VR. So, off I went, on my own. It's not that I haven't done immersive visuals; it's that my main concentration is immersive, mind-bending, in your face, audio for VR, and I wanted to work with someone that had strong visual experience so that I could concentrate on the audio.

I admit it, getting myself there wasn't easy. Indeed, there were more than a few times I thought:
"I can't show up to one more tech-based meet-up/thing not knowing anybody. I'm way too shy; but that New York City, over talking when I get nervous, kind of shy. So embarrassing in SF. Either that, or I'll freak out and leave..."

But that morning, I promised myself I'd step out of my comfort zone. Again.
"Show up, pay attention, tell the truth, let go of your expectations of the results."
This is my mantra.

As fate would have it, There were suppose to be 60 participants, but the "Bay To Breakers" run was on the same day, and jammed up traffic beyond all reason. So we started with only 9 participants. This was a true shame because the speakers ranged from fascinating to inspiring.
But but to be honest, what a break for me; just enough people in the room to keep me from freaking out. Women on the panel. Women in the audience. I often say "yeah, I'm used to being the only chick in the room", but it's not true. I hate it. I've just learned to accept it, mostly, and become a somewhat androgynous auntie. Later on I would come to realize that I was indeed the only female hacker, only chick in the room, and would at one point wonder, "what would have happened if there had been just one more woman on my team?".

But during the talks, there would be no discomfort from large crowds, nor lack of the other half of the population. Today, I could dig my feet into relaxing, and being fascinated. That meant I could use my physics background to ask a few useful questions. I mean the kind of questions that, when answered, speak to a variety of levels on the subject. The kind of questions that get discussions going and inspire. May you ALWAYS ask useful questions that demand inspiring answers. May you always challenge your competition. You see, these are the important contributions that I strive to achieve. I believe that it's how I make the world a better place.

After we had a chance to chat with others, the time came for us to break off into groups; they seemed to form quite naturally, but with only 9 people I was surprised by the way teams formed: I was on a team of 6, there was a team  of 2, and one guy on his own.

Once I realized this, I became a bit nervous. I could easily see being pegged as a musician, only, if for nothing but my garb. So, when time came to divvy up Unity collab licenses, I had to fight, for my right, to UUUUUn-itay!  It wasn't too hard, but c'mon, it's a pretty nasty paper cut to assume I have no Unity skillz without asking. Yeah, that kinda happened.
I got access. I understood most of what was happening in set up. Jeremy was our most proficient in Unity, and after a while I stopped hanging over his shoulder, understanding that audio was the secondary execution after scene/object set up. It was hard to pull myself away, as Jeremy was naturally curious, and just proficient enough that you could see the wheels turning in his mind as he was doing scene set up (okay, for anyone who hasn't watched a naturally proficient coder, it's kinda like watching a journalist form sentences for their eyewitness account. Sure, it's accurate, but it's also art). I contributed the 360 VR scene, something I'd shot on a beach in Glen Cove, NY, just before a storm.

Then, damn damn damn, I realized I had not really eaten in several hours. 

NOTE TO SELF: A Hackathon is like a long distance race. 

1. Eat before you are hungry
2. Drink before you are thirsty.
3. Make your own provisions if you have special needs (I'm lactose intolerant ).
4. Make lists of yours needs before you need them.
5. Burn, baby, burn...take advantage of your marathon provisions and GO!!!
6. Take breaks, but not so long that you cool down.
7. Stretch.
8. Know when it's time to call it a day.

Good to know, for next time.

To be honest the next few hours were a blur, brainstorming ideas ideas of how to approach an emotional and immersive experience. 10:00PM came on quickly.

One minor Unity problem was haunting Jeremy, and after he'd voiced his query, I realized that I had not really contributed to the app itself in the way I'd wanted to.I'd done no Unity. 
That night, I looked over the scene, the script, the parameters. After one hour I found the problem. After 3 hours, I convinced myself that I was right. That's what happens when I have lots of caffeine and too little food. (Y'all see a theme here?)

The next morning I came in like gangbusters, determined to pull my fair share on the app/ Unity front. I went in, pulled out on my headphones, and got the audio ready for transfer. It was decided to use my stems, for the emotion "sadness", and we'd decided to also use a second 360 scene I'd shot in the desert. I edited them in Premiere, then moved to Unity and made both visual and audio contributions. I fucking worked. We all did. It was awesome.

Did we come up with a product? Hell yeah! It won the most emotional experience:

Team Nirvana was building a VR environment for dealing with emotional pain. In their experience, the user would be transported to a natural setting, as a 3D environment. Music and interaction would be used to allow the person to focus and to control the mood of the environment. There was one main object that served as the interaction. In the first scene, for example, the setting was a beach and the interactive object was a beach ball. Any time the user touches the interactive object, the music will change by adding or removing instrument layers.

The team envisioned this to be used as a setting for VR therapy. A user could be put into a serene setting when they need to be calmed, or even transport themselves to the scene of a traumatic memory. Their vision was that therapists could control the scene and influence the mood of their subjects, and have a platform to do so.

Our team won an XBOX ONE X!!!
 
Did the only other team come up with a product? Hell yeah! It won the most immersive experience, and rightfully so. It was a fun game, with an interesting reveal at the end, and good use of haptic response.

I'm sorry to say that the solo hacker did not show up the second day. 

One thing I learned later is that 3 of us who were working in Unity surprised ourselves at our own proficiency. I think that's a VERY interesting outcome. One third of participants did well, surprised and delighted ourselves and each other with our tech knowledge, if only we try...hmmm. 

show up

Team Nirvana sans Jeremy

Less emotional, far more accurate account of the days can be found at :
http://melodrive.com/blog/emojam-vr-hack-winners/