Sunyining Yang

- No Way Out:
  a Virtual Reality Experience takes place in a setting of funeral rite where the viewer assumes the perspectives of three characters: a guest, an eulogist, and the deceased. By exploring these three roles, the viewer will have a chance to dig further into the experiences of death, grief and loss (which are subjects usually avoided in Western culture), and also to give them a chance to hopefully better internalize and externalize these feelings through the whole experience. This paper discusses the avoidance of the topic “loss and grief” in our society as well as the idea of expressing our emotions out to help us cope with loss and grief. It also documents the development of this project and detailed implementations from many aspects (i.e. the methodology of role play and interactive narrative). The larger aim of this thesis is to enable my audience become co-creators of the experience, let people express freely, and to bring society’s attention to the specific issue.