VRPoetry

3. Dataset and Classification 

3.1) The Dataset

In our project, we have utilized Arthur Waley's translations of "The Poet Li Po" and "A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - Chapter 2, Po Chu-I" as our dataset. We have chosen to use Waley's translations because Chinese poetry often does not express emotions directly, and requires careful reading of context and objects to decipher the underlying emotions. 

For example, in the poem "The Flower Market" by Po Chu-I, the author spends most of the poem describing the beauty of the flowers, while briefly mentioning that "a cluster of flowers is worth the tax of ten poor houses." The deep-seated disgust for social inequality and the extravagance of the upper class is hidden beneath the surface of the original work, but Waley's translation successfully captures this underlying sentiment. If we were to analyze the poem using a Google translated version, we would find that the author appears to simply be "happy" and "pleased" with the beautiful flowers. However, by utilizing Waley's translation, we are able to discern the disgust and sadness conveyed by the poem, which is essential for our analysis of the emotional content of these poems.

3.2) The Emotion Classifications

In our project, we have classified emotions into six categories, namely anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, based on Paul Ekman and his colleagues' cross-cultural study from 1992. We then utilize the GPT-3.5 model to rank each translated poem against these six categories. Each poem is assigned a numerical value denoting its strength in each emotion, and we normalize the sum of these rankings to equal 1. This approach is grounded in our belief that emotions are multi-dimensional and complex, and cannot be reduced to a single dimension or classification. By utilizing multiple categories and ranking each poem against these categories, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of the emotional content of these poems.

While some poems express multiple emotions, we found that no two emotions are entirely contradictory. For example, Li Po's "Drinking Song" expresses both happiness and sadness. Despite the poem's focus on drinking with friends, Li Po wrote it during a difficult time in his life. Waley's translation effectively captures this emotion, subtly conveying Li Po's desire to "drive away the sorrows of a thousand years" through his drinking. Therefore, we have created corridors dedicated to each emotion, even if some poems express multiple emotions. This approach enables us to compare how a specific emotion is expressed across different poems, with poems that express multiple emotions appearing in multiple corresponding corridors.

4. Design

4.1) The Overal Strucrture

Our hypothesis is that a spatially-economical and legible reading environment for literature can be achieved by designing a structure that reflects the emotions classification and has walls displaying panels of poems. Our project's design features an altar at the center, which serves as a display area for information about the datasets. We have also created six separate corridors, each dedicated to one of the six emotions we have classified. 

In order to determine the optimal layout and orientation of drawings and their accompanying labels, we experimented with several metrics. These included identifying the best grouping strategies to ensure that poems with similar emotions are placed close to one another. We also explored how readers can compare how different authors express similar emotions. In addition, we aimed to make it easy for viewers to compare the English translated version of the poems with their original Chinese characters that express emotions. Finally, we examined the influence of corridor size on the reader's understanding of the strength of emotions in the works. Through these metrics, we hope to provide an intuitive and comprehensive reading experience for users of our VRPoetry application.

4.2) The Altar

In our project, we have designed the altar located at the center of the structure to display key numerical data for the two datasets, including the total number of poems and the number of poems for each emotion category. The altar has been specifically designed to be elevated above the ground level, requiring users to ascend nine stairs in order to reach it. This design serves two purposes: firstly, it corresponds to the "magic number" 9 in Chinese culture, which is considered to be a symbol of completeness and perfection. Secondly, the elevation of the altar allows users to easily observe the data from a distance.

4.3) The Corridors

As previously discussed, we have created six separate corridors, each corresponding to one of the six emotion categories. We have also implemented several key features to enable a clear comparison and reading experience:

1. The walls: We have hung all of Li Po's poems on the left-hand wall, and Po Chu-I's poems on the right-hand wall. The walls have been carefully designed to be at a distance of 135 degrees from a viewer standing in front of them. This allows the viewer to focus on reading one poet's work while being able to easily turn to the other poet's work within two seconds.

2. The ranking: We have further divided the strength of emotions into three categories - weak (<0.4), normal (>0.4 and <0.7), and strong (>0.7) - and have arranged the poems in order of their emotional strength. Weaker emotions are placed closer to the entrance, while stronger emotions are placed further away. This allows readers to examine the progression of emotions within a single poet's work, as well as compare similar levels of emotions between the two poets.

6. Multiplayer

One of the advantages of VRPoetry is that it allows multiple researchers to work within the same program, making it a collaborative tool for literary analysis. Additionally, our coordinates correspond to emotions, allowing users to send coordinates to other users and teleport to a designated place. This feature enables viewers to view the same works together, facilitating collaboration and discussion among researchers.

By enabling multiple researchers to work together in the same program and allowing for easy navigation within the virtual space, VRPoetry promotes interdisciplinary research and collaboration, expanding the possibilities for literary analysis in the virtual reality setting. (Under construction)

Question 5:

The participants are given the short poem “Drinking together in the mountains” by Li Po, both English version and translated version. They are asked to read the poem both on screen and in VRPoetry. I record the second they spend to the read it.

The participants are slightly slower reading in VRPoetry comparing to reading on screen, but no big difference in general. 

Some of them reported that they need to move their head when switching from the Chinese version to the English version in VRPoetry. One participant (who spend 34s in reading) report that she got lost when reading in VRPoetry). She reported: “The font size is small and the text are stacking when viewed from an angle”