When I started my capstone research, I was extremely motivated to create a world changing digital therapeutic prototype. I thought I had everything figured out, metaphor therapy could be packaged and placed into Unreal Engine to create a perfectly designed experience that would transform lives. I would be done in no time and the theories I had read about would shine through clearly demonstrating my excellence over the material. Although I made considerable progress towards starting this goal, I now realize how incredibly dense this topic truly is.
There are countless theories, models and strategies contained in each piece and perspective of my project. Metaphor therapy is a complex, interdisciplinary topic in and of itself. Adding the complexity of virtual reality design and behavioral change on top of such a rich starting point meant I was quickly enveloped in theories and literature. That is not to say this is a bad thing, I thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy reading about these topics. Each time I revisit previous work and readings I uncover yet another compelling area of research to dive into. Incredibly difficult is keeping track of how the initial core ideas expand and interrelate. Often it feels like the wonder of discovering the shape of a snowflake. Zoomed out, snow is magical and simple all the same. But looking at an individual snowflake reveals an endless, unique fractal pattern that expands in many directions. As these snowflakes, or core concepts such as metaphor and metaphor therapy, begin to pile up the holistic picture emerges and in some way simplifies. However, describing the individual snowflake’s structure is still a deeply complex topic. All of this does not even consider the added complexity of a software development project.
With my scholarly basis established, I started development of my VR prototype in Unreal Engine. Built on the experience of my internship with the Imaging Research Center, my process began quickly and I made good progress. However, as I continued to develop, the familiar ever expanding “fractal-like” complexity of the process began to emerge. Developing iterations of components such as the cards used to represent a thought opened even more questions to consider. How do you represent a thought visually? These are not concepts that a google search can answer and they require an intuition led experimentation. I enjoyed this process immensely and it opened up my creativity in ways I had not used in a long time. I plan to continue to endlessly explore and tinker with the themes I have started to build up and create.
Looking at the entire process there are a lot of things I wish I had done differently. I was organized with my project planning and worked on development whenever I could find free time. Sometimes this was at the expense of my own mental health. I had to make some tough decisions to adapt and course correct, however I found the process itself healing. As I approach the end of this phase of my project and undergraduate career, I am left with an endless amount of new questions to explore going forward. I am most curious about how beneficial the creative process of developing this metaphorical experience felt to me and wonder if this could be adapted to others as a constructivist process rather than a standalone VR experience. As I look towards the future I have no doubt the ideas I explored in this project will return at some point, either in my career or as further dedicated study in graduate school.