Ada Zhao
Ode to Joy
an immersive VR experience of orchestral Ode to Joy
NYU Shanghai, May 2018
Collaborators: Michael Naimark, David Satiano, and Bruce Luo
By the end of VR/AR Fundamentals taught by professor Michael Naimark, we wanted to make something more accessible than our usual projects based on game engines and requiring a VR headset. We decided to shoot a short, 47-piece orchestral version of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
We had 6 classmates humming all of the instruments, shot individually with a stereo-panoramic VR camera and green screen.
Performers were carefully positioned digitally in stereoscopic 180-degree VR space to fade up and appear based on the six “mini-movements” of our version. After the shooting, I arranged every individual in Adobe Premiere to form the orchestral and gave the audience a perspective of the conductor.
It was made into an installation with three 79'' LG 3D TVs in portrait mode in NYU Shanghai IMA Winter Show 2018.
