Selfulness

Keywords: VR Interactive Storytelling, Self-exploration, Self-esteem

Creative Writing, Positive Psychology, VR, Unity, Motion Graphics,

“Its impact requires neither our understanding nor our consent. It works its way within us with or without our knowledge. We are free to seek to grasp the dynamics of self-esteem or to remain a mystery to ourselves and endure the consequences.”  – Nathaniel Branden from Six Pillar of  Self-Esteem

Selfulness is a Virtual Reality (VR) interactive storytelling experience. It promotes and celebrates self-discovery through conscious efforts to build self-esteem and resilience. This project challenges the dynamics of the essential cognitive activities involved with self-exploration and true self visualization. It transforms this intangible process into tangible in VR space.

My story shares a perspective based on many years of self-healing and studying positive psychology: Emotional Intelligence and self-esteem. Selfulness reveals how familial and societal norms can lead to an abandonment of one true self and create an echo chamber of self-doubt. The piece represents insecurity, misgivings, and emotions and the beauty of overcoming them through careful sharing and empathic connection.

Selfulness aims to uncover fixed mind patterns imposed by others that often make us feel stuck. The VR story allows participants to explore the imperceptible, puzzling, and inexplicable dynamics of emotionally confined experiences and recover from them by escaping into a liberating virtual space through poetic narratives. Selfulness allows audiences to see there is a way to get out of a vicious cycle where they perpetually deal with perplexed, hopeless, and worthless feelings and thoughts.

This virtual self-exploration is built with various sensory interactions to create an immersive, reflective, and contemplative experience. The effects include interactive objects, animated narrative poetry, voice-overs, and sounds.