'Ivy on the Wire' Events April 7-8 Explore Impact of WWII on Arkansas Through Virtual Reality

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Informational Poster for Ivy on the Wire

Explore the history of trauma and resilience in southeast Arkansas during World War II through this release event for Ivy on the Wire, a game developed by the Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design at the U of A.

Featuring faculty and staff from U of A, the game development team and Derek Ham, VR developer at NC State University's College of Design, the release event will include four Zoom sessions addressing the game creation process, the histories of captivity in Arkansas and the use of serious games and VR for teaching and experiencing history.

These Zoom events are free and open to the public, and include:

Zoom 1: Wednesday, April 7, 5-6 p.m.
The Game and the Histories it Tells 
This panel brings together the development team and content experts in the history addressed by Ivy on the Wire. This will include a discussion of the game's overall narrative, Japanese-American Internment, the Italian POW experience and African-American Peonage.
Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/3m6o4Rz

Zoom 2: Thursday, April 8, 5-6 p.m.
Building the Game as History Praxis 
Get an in-depth view of how the developers constructed Ivy on the Wire, a game that could bring this historical material to life. Hear from writing, art, programming and audio developers and the perspective that each of them brought to integrating the historical material.
Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/39uvyZE

Zoom 3: Thursday, April 8, 7-8 p.m.
Video Games, Immersive History, Digital Humanities 
Discover how educators at the U of A are using the Unity game engine as a key platform for digital humanities, developing immersive games and VR experiences to teach a broad range of subjects in history and the humanities.
Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/3ueRpfx

Zoom 4: Thursday, April 8, 8-9 p.m.
Reconnecting with History through Spatial Narratives Closing our event, Derek Ham (NC State - College of Design, Department Head of Art and Design) will speak about his own work using game development to bring history to life in VR, in this case, focusing on the last days of MLK in Memphis and the Negro Baseball Leagues.
Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/3dibZ7M

For more information visit our Tesseract Center Facebook page.