The Black Man Simulator: One man’s ambitious project

It’s a mighty ambitious goal — to set out to distill a lifetime of experiences in a finite 60-second preview, even if said preview is presented via an Oculus Rift. Regardless, systems integrator and ATLien Deigratia Daniels pushed the social experiment anyway, crafting what he calls The Black Man Simulator. A black man himself, Daniels set out to create a tool to promote understanding in a particularly heated racial climate in America, Atlanta included. “You’ve witnessed the news over the past few years,” he says “A group of my close friends I grew up with were having discussions about race … I thought, ‘What if it’s a lack of understanding? What if it’s compassion missing?’ I’ve posed the question — I don’t have the answer. But what if it’s a lack of understanding? What if it’s a lack of empathy? That was the feed, the genesis of the project.”

Daniels put his day job skills to work, developing a plan for a virtual reality experience complete with computer animation, audio, and 360-degree view. To create the scenario, though, he made a Facebook call for volunteers — black men — to share their experiences. Unfortunately his sample size ended up being pretty limited, made up entirely of straight black men between the ages of 35 and 45, Daniels says. But it’s a start made possible through a grant from Idea Capital Atlanta and Kickstarter backers.

“This is a prototype,” he says. “With that I hope to generate more buzz and generate more funds for a full version.”

Currently, The Black Man Simulator — on view at Eyedrum through February — explores a very specific scenario following a young black man at a 1960s-era segregated diner. A set of headphones play ambient audio to emulate the clatter of a busy restaurant paired with clear outcries from staff refusing service. The point of view is fixed yards from the conflict.

Daniels’ full exhibit includes a series of photographs and short films loaded on iPods docked to Eyedrum’s walls, all intended to inspire discussion of race. The BSM headset, essentially the crown jewel, attracted a winding line of folks waiting to experience the virtual reality opening night. The crowd was hugely varied in age, race, and gender but the response was mostly positive.

“One gentleman told me how he remembered the sit-ins just before he put the virtual reality headset on and after the virtual experience, he said that even though this happened decades ago, it still gave him a different perspective,” Daniels says.

Once fixed in the Oculus Rift and headphones — again, it’s a very quick experience, due to the the high demand and volume of those wishing to participate — the viewer is immediately thrown in. To be frank, once strapped in, the experience is jarring. I felt simultaneously blinded and on full display, knowing dozens of folks could see me totally disoriented with senses shut off from reality. I couldn’t quite understand the dialogue and an astigmatism made the 3-D component tough to actualize, but perhaps that actually lent to the experience. Daniels didn’t design the device for people to strap in and feel at ease.
embed-1 “One of my initial goals is to create an environment where people can discuss these mildly sensitive things like race … without feeling attacked, without feeling threatened, just an open environment …” he says. “Even though the name of the exhibition is The Black Man Simulator, the exhibition opener was well attended by black men. A popular response was that ‘even though I’m a black man, I learned about other experiences that black men face.’ That’s exactly how I felt as I collected reference material for the project and I’m happy to see I was able to share the same reaction I had with others.”

Daniels says he hopes, with additional capital and time, he can continue to collect a more diverse spread of black men’s experiences and continue developing other, possibly longer scenarios to continue pushing discussion towards potentially uncomfortable conversation. “I’ve seen a lot of people in the news say, ‘We don’t want to offend anybody. We don’t want retaliation for speaking our minds …’” Daniels says. “I totally get that. I see how some black folks respond to certain things. I’m like, ‘Look, if you wanna have dialogue with the rest of society, you’ve gotta stop being so easily offended.’ … That’s one of the things I’ve seen as a challenge — just being able to listen without being offended. It’s hard to do.”

The Black Man Simulator will be on display at Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery through Fri., Feb. 26.