Chris Milk Essay

I found the first visual aid in Chris Milk’s presentation “How Virtual Reality Can Create the Ultimate Empathy Machine” to be very boring. It did not appeal to me or my interests at all. Afterward, he opened up with honesty and passion about his love for Evel Knievel, and how he achieved his autograph… by getting sued by him. After the presentation I enjoyed the knowledge, but was not passionate about his message. The next presentation I watched was Joe Kowan’s “How I Beat Stage Fright”. This was a completely different experience for me that Chris Milk’s presentation and I understand why. Chris Milk’s was based on virtual reality. A cool technology, but there wasn’t much humanity in his presentation. An irony since his presentation was about bringing out humanity through technology. I related more to Joe Kowan because of the humility, honesty, and basic humanity he exhibited. He talked about using his fears and anxieties to overcome and achieve what he ultimately desired. Additionally he used humor and humility to achieve his goals.
I loved the examples of how color relates to everything from speeches, meals, desserts, to everyday people and celebrities. I found his outfit quite odd, especially for someone who is color blind. When he mentioned that the colors of his outfit represented a C Major chord to him, and how these chords/colors relate and ultimately define him. This definitely added a new perspective on Chris Milk’s virtual reality presentation and how to visually relate and feel to people’s advantage. Resonate states to “Clearly contrast who the audience is when they walk into a room… with whom they could be when they leave the room.” This is something that Neil Harbisson did very well when contrasting our “human” perceptions with what we could be if we used technology to enhance our senses and made the leap from “human” to