Johnnie’s House: Innovation in immersive storytelling

January 15, 2018• Class, Community, Project

It was our first meeting with community members from Leimert Park, Los Angeles’ historic and influential Black neighborhood just east of Crenshaw.

Sitting in a large circle inside the iconic KAOS Network, my students and I heard a variety of stories ranging from the legendary jazz musicians that lived blocks away, to revolutionaries of the Watts Riots to how a new public transit station could bring in either new opportunities or gentrification.

The Fall 2017 class wanted to experiment with new, cutting-edge technology that included augmented reality, 360 video, Unity and videogrammetry (which produces a moving hologram).

Johnnie Raines III is interviewed by JOVRNALISM student Raja Mani.

Out of all the powerful stories we heard that night, one resonated more than any other.

Johnnie Raines III grew up around the neighborhood and was now an active member of the Leimert Park Village Stakeholders. The Stakeholders help map out the community’s future, like, for instance, the future Metro station.

Johnnie casually shared the story behind how he got his house:

When he was twelve, Johnnie worked as a paperboy in Leimert Park. The area still enforced racial covenants, which meant that there were clauses written into property deeds restricting who could move into that neighborhood. There was one house on the street where the owner always refused to pay Johnnie directly. He vividly remembers standing in the house’s driveway, with his bike, and vowing to one day buy the house and “make the mean man go away.” Decades later, he did just that.

This was the story we decided to focus on.

Using a Microsoft Kinect camera paired with DepthKit software, we captured Johnnie telling his story. Then, using Apple ARKit inside the gaming engine of Unity, my students produced a unique experience that pushes storytelling to another level.

Because of the technological challenges, we aren’t widely distributing the AR/360/videogrammetry experience at this time. We do hope to offer it one day as an iOS app.

For now, here is a screen capture of the demo AR app experience: