We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eric Hanson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eric below.
Hi Eric, thanks for sitting with us today to chat about topics that are relevant to so many. One of those topics is communication skills, because we live in an age where our ability to communicate effectively can be like a superpower. Can you share how you developed your ability to communicate well?
My communication skills were rudimentary early in my college years, but wasn’t until I began to teach alongside working as a visual effects artist in the film industry that I found my real voice. A combination of experiencing high powered teamwork where communication is essential, along with finding confidence in expressing my sensibilities of creative workflow in my early teaching allowed me to grow significantly in this area. I think while in college, one typically only sees one’s growth only in individual terms, whereas once in the workplace one learns the value and enjoyment of working with others on a shared goal, reducing the internal “navel gazing” that academia can foster. Ironically, my teaching path led me into a current professor role at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where I emphasize the importance of this transformation that one will have once in the workplace.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have had a rich creative career spanning architecture, photography, feature film visual effects, and currently a combo of virtual reality app dev and teaching at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where I lead curriculum in immersive media and digital production. With a few pivots along the way, the common thread is my fascination with spatial design, found in the urban as well as the natural world. I am inspired by and seek out visual design that speaks to the existential and the sensory. I find immense depth in natural forms expressed in terrain and geological features specifically, so spend a fair amount of time roaming throughout the desert southwest looking to capture remarkable locations to share in VR in my commercial Meta Quest app, Blueplanet VR. It has been a passion project for several years, and am currently readying it for a major upgrade release soon. It provides the closet experience to being there, using a spatial form of VR that provides a very rich sense of presence. One can spend hours exploring these real world locations in the headset, and I find it rewarding to help reveal and share these often difficult to reach, stunning, and profound locations found across our home planet.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say the three most valuable qualities I found essential in my particular journey was first a curiosity about the world, both from human culture and the natural world. My curiosity is what drives me forward from point to point, both physically around the globe and from my many work endeavors. I think to understand and clarify one’s curiosity demands you be in touch with the second factor, one’s intuition, a key factor in making any major decision or choice in life. Intuition is key when a choice is unclear or complex, so deciphering the faintest inner voice can be instrumental. Intuition then leads to the last factor of commitment, probably the most important as it is one most easily lost when the going is demanding.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I think metaphor is a powerful way to apply lessons conveyed from others in different fields, often from literature and writing. During my education in becoming a proficient designer, I found inspiration in photographic monographs of great architectural design. But one book stood out apart from the rest, a small treatise on Asian aesthetics entitled “In Praise of Shadows”. This simplistic essay on the foundation of Asian art and design discussed the importance of shadow as much as light. Here in the West we often look at things in a singular versus dualistic way, so I found the message conveyed could be applied to much of what is encountered in life and how we respond to the nature of dualism. A recently released book rich with metaphor is of course Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”, which treads similar ground with great effect.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blueplanetvr.com/prior-work/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blueplanetvr/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueplanetvr/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-hanson-314362/
- Other: Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/blueplanetvr
Image Credits
Blueplanet VR
