De-Roling from Experiences and Identities in Virtual Worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds

Looking at the Interactive Narrative Experience through the Eyes of the Participants.

The topic of interactive narrative has been under research for many years. While there has been much research exploring the development of new algorithms that enable and enhance interactive narratives, there has been little research focusing on the question of how players understand and internalize their interactive narrative experiences. This paper addresses this problem through conducting a phenomenological study on participants playing Façade; we specifically chose a phenomenological methodology due to its emphasis on the participants‟ lived experience from the participants‟ viewpoint. We chose Façade, because it is the only accessible example of an experience that revolves around social relationships, conflict, and drama as its core mechanics. In this paper, we discuss sixteen themes that resulted from the analysis of the data gathered through the study. In addition, we reflect on these themes discussing their relationship to participants‟ backgrounds, and project implications on the design of future interactive narratives

De-roling from experiences and identities in virtual worlds

Within dramatherapy and psychodrama, the term ‘de-roling’ indicates a set of activities that assist the subjects of therapy in ‘disrobing’ themselves from their fictional characters. Starting from the psychological needs and the therapeutic goals that ‘de-roling’ techniques address in dramatherapy and psychodrama, this text provides a broader understanding of procedures and exercises that define and ease transitional experiences across cultural practices such as religious rituals and spatial design. After this introductory section, we propose a tentative answer as to why game studies and virtual world research largely ignored processes of ‘roling’ and ‘de-roling’ that separate the lived experience of role-play from our everyday sense of the self. The concluding sections argue that de-roling techniques are likely to become more relevant, both academically and in terms of their practical applications, with the growing diffusion of virtual technologies in social practices. The relationships we can establish with ourselves and with our surroundings in digital virtual worlds are, we argue, only partially comparable with similar occurrences in pre-digital practices of subjectification. We propose a perspective according to which the accessibility and immersive phenomenological richness of virtual reality technologies are likely to exacerbate the potentially dissociative effects of virtual reality applications. This text constitutes an initial step towards framing specific socio-technical concerns and starting a timely conversation that binds together dramatherapy, psychodrama, game studies, and the design of digital virtual worlds.peer-reviewe

Virtual Scenes Construction Promotes Traditional Chinese Art Preservation

Chinese traditional opera is a valuable and fascinating heritage assert in the world as one of the most representative folk art in Chinese history. Its characteristic of ‘suppositionality’ in stage scenery provides a possibility of preservation of cultural heritage by digitization means, e.g., 3D Animation and Virtual Reality-based art show. In this novel digitization art form, the construction of virtual scenes is an important pillar--variety of created models should be accommodated to provide a vivid performance stage, including stage props and background. However, the generation of scenes based on traditional manual 3D virtual props modelling method is a tedious and strenuous task. In this paper, a novel shadow puppetry virtual stage scenes construction approach based on semantic and prior probability is proposed for the generation of compositional virtual scenes. First, primitive models based on semantics text segmentation and retrieval is provided for scene composition; and then, scene placement algorithm based on prior probability is conducive to assign these 3D models within virtual scene. This method is tested by generating the virtual performance stage for our shadow puppetry prototype system, within which various traditional art-specific 3D models are assembled. Its ease of use can assist artists to create visually plausible virtual stage without professional scene modelling skill. The user study indicates our approach’s effectiveness and its efficiency

FACING EXPERIENCE: A PAINTER’S CANVAS IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This research investigates how shifts in perception might be brought about through the development of visual imagery created by the use of virtual environment technology. Through a discussion of historical uses of immersion in art, this thesis will explore how immersion functions and why immersion has been a goal for artists throughout history. It begins with a discussion of ancient cave drawings and the relevance of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Next it examines the biological origins of “making special.” The research will discuss how this concept, combined with the ideas of “action” and “reaction,” has reinforced the view that art is fundamentally experiential rather than static. The research emphasizes how present-day virtual environment art, in providing a space that engages visitors in computer graphics, expands on previous immersive artistic practices. The thesis examines the technical context in which the research occurs by briefly describing the use of computer science technologies, the fundamentals of visual arts practices, and the importance of aesthetics in new media and provides a description of my artistic practice. The aim is to investigate how combining these approaches can enhance virtual environments as artworks. The computer science of virtual environments includes both hardware and software programming. The resultant virtual environment experiences are technologically dependent on the types of visual displays being used, including screens and monitors, and their subsequent viewing affordances. Virtual environments fill the field of view and can be experienced with a head mounted display (HMD) or a large screen display. The sense of immersion gained through the experience depends on how tracking devices and related peripheral devices are used to facilitate interaction. The thesis discusses visual arts practices with a focus on how illusions shift our cognition and perception in the visual modalities. This discussion includes how perceptual thinking is the foundation of art experiences, how analogies are the foundation of cognitive experiences and how the two intertwine in art experiences for virtual environments. An examination of the aesthetic strategies used by artists and new media critics are presented to discuss new media art. This thesis investigates the visual elements used in virtual environments and prescribes strategies for creating art for virtual environments. Methods constituting a unique virtual environment practice that focuses on visual analogies are discussed. The artistic practice that is discussed as the basis for this research also concentrates on experiential moments and shifts in perception and cognition and references Douglas Hofstadter, Rudolf Arnheim and John Dewey. iv Virtual environments provide for experiences in which the imagery generated updates in real time. Following an analysis of existing artwork and critical writing relative to the field, the process of inquiry has required the creation of artworks that involve tracking systems, projection displays, sound work, and an understanding of the importance of the visitor. In practice, the research has shown that the visitor should be seen as an interlocutor, interacting from a first-person perspective with virtual environment events, where avatars or other instrumental intermediaries, such as guns, vehicles, or menu systems, do not to occlude the view. The aesthetic outcomes of this research are the result of combining visual analogies, real time interactive animation, and operatic performance in immersive space. The environments designed in this research were informed initially by paintings created with imagery generated in a hypnopompic state or during the moments of transitioning from sleeping to waking. The drawings often emphasize emotional moments as caricatures and/or elements of the face as seen from a number of perspectives simultaneously, in the way of some cartoons, primitive artwork or Cubist imagery. In the imagery, the faces indicate situations, emotions and confrontations which can offer moments of humour and reflective exploration. At times, the faces usurp the space and stand in representation as both face and figure. The power of the placement of the caricatures in the paintings become apparent as the imagery stages the expressive moment. The placement of faces sets the scene, establishes relationships and promotes the honesty and emotions that develop over time as the paintings are scrutinized. The development process of creating virtual environment imagery starts with hand drawn sketches of characters, develops further as paintings on “digital canvas”, are built as animated, three-dimensional models and finally incorporated into a virtual environment. The imagery is generated while drawing, typically with paper and pencil, in a stream of consciousness during the hypnopompic state. This method became an aesthetic strategy for producing a snappy straightforward sketch. The sketches are explored further as they are worked up as paintings. During the painting process, the figures become fleshed out and their placement on the page, in essence brings them to life. These characters inhabit a world that I explore even further by building them into three dimensional models and placing them in computer generated virtual environments. The methodology of developing and placing the faces/figures became an operational strategy for building virtual environments. In order to open up the range of art virtual environments, and develop operational strategies for visitors’ experience, the characters and their facial features are used as navigational strategies, signposts and methods of wayfinding in order to sustain a stream of consciousness type of navigation. Faces and characters were designed to represent those intimate moments of self-reflection and confrontation that occur daily within ourselves and with others. They sought to reflect moments of wonderment, hurt, curiosity and humour that could subsequently be relinquished for more practical or purposeful endeavours. They were intended to create conditions in which visitors might reflect upon their emotional state, v enabling their understanding and trust of their personal space, in which decisions are made and the nature of world is determined. In order to extend the split-second, frozen moment of recognition that a painting affords, the caricatures and their scenes are given new dimensions as they become characters in a performative virtual reality. Emotables, distinct from avatars, are characters confronting visitors in the virtual environment to engage them in an interactive, stream of consciousness, non-linear dialogue. Visitors are also situated with a role in a virtual world, where they were required to adapt to the language of the environment in order to progress through the dynamics of a drama. The research showed that imagery created in a context of whimsy and fantasy could bring ontological meaning and aesthetic experience into the interactive environment, such that emotables or facially expressive computer graphic characters could be seen as another brushstroke in painting a world of virtual reality

Co-Creating with the Senses: Towards an Embodiment Grammar for Conceptualising Virtual Reality (VR) Narrative Design

This creative practice thesis comprises two components, a dissertation titled Co-Creating with the Senses: Towards an Embodiment Grammar for Conceptualising Virtual Reality (VR) Narrative Design and a creative work, The Recluse, a fictional VR script written in the Maria Vargas Immersive Play template, available through Final Draft. The advent of publicly available virtual reality (VR) technologies has led to the emergence of a new genre of storytelling, henceforth referred to as ‘VR narratives’. There has therefore been a need to articulate its defining grammar and to contribute insights born out of artistic experimentation in a scholarly field which until recently was dominated by scientific points of view. Employing a somaesthetics approach outlined by researcher Kristina Höök, the dissertation draws on a qualitative study into 10 VR narrative works in order to propose an embodiment grammar through which the art form may be conceptualised. The study’s findings, a group of eight embodied states organised into a framework, urge for the relenting of authorial control in order to instead frame affective potential, thus echoing a Deleuzian concept of the assemblage. In particular, the framework draws attention to the way that VR’s deeper affective dimensions may be elucidated by framing co-creation through the medium’s distinct sensory possibilities. As interest gathers in a future metaverse, the insights raised by the study are significant, with potential applications in a range of affective design contexts. The Recluse is my original contribution to this emerging art form and a case study through which to interrogate the framework’s findings. A mystery with supernatural elements, the VR script aims to communicate an experience that transports the participant to the world of Alma Cohen, a famous artist turned recluse, where they are invited to experience the strange occurrences in Alma’s life through their own embodied actions. The VR script explores the potential for intimate encounters with virtual characters and the sensory, co-creational and affective possibilities which arise through these dynamics. It highlights, following the framework, the way that more open structuring approaches are required in order to access the medium’s deeper affective possibilities and also the present technological constraints in achieving this

Narratives of ocular experience in interactive 360° environments

The purpose of this research project was to examine how immersive digital virtual technologies have the potential to expand the genre of interactive film into new forms of audience engagement and narrative production. Aside from addressing the limitations of interactive film, I have explored how interactive digital narratives can be reconfigured in the wake of immersive media. My contribution to knowledge stems from using a transdisciplinary synthesis of the interactive systems in film and digital media art, which is embodied in the research framework and theoretical focal point that I have titled Cynematics (chapter 2). Using a methodology that promotes iterative experimentation I developed a series of works that allowed me to practically explore the limitations of interactive film systems that involve non-haptic user interaction. This is evidenced in the following series of works: Virtual Embodiment, Narrative Maze, Eye Artefact Interactions and Routine Error - all of which are discussed in chapter 4 of this thesis. Each of these lab experiments collectively build towards the development of novel interactive 360° film practices. Funneling my research towards these underexplored processes I focused on virtual gaze interaction (chapters 4-6), aiming to define and historically contextualise this system of interaction, whilst critically engaging with it through my practice. It is here that gaze interaction is cemented as the key focus of this thesis. The potential of interactive 360° film is explored through the creation of three core pieces of practice, which are titled as follows: Systems of Seeing (chapter 5), Mimesis (chapter 6), Vanishing Point (chapter 7). Alongside the close readings in these chapters and the theoretical developments explored in each are the interaction designs included in the appendix of the thesis. These provide useful context for readers unable to experience these site-specific installations as virtual reality applications. After creating these systems, I established terms to theoretically unpack some of the processes occurring within them. These include Datascape Mediation (chapter 2), which frames agency as a complex entanglement built on the constantly evolving relationships between human and machine - and Live-Editing Practice (chapter 7), which aims to elucidate how the interactive 360° film practice designed for this research leads to new way of thinking about how we design, shoot and interact with 360° film. Reflecting on feedback from exhibiting Mimesis I decided to define and evaluate the key modes of virtual gaze interaction, which led to the development of a chapter and concept referred to as The Reticle Effect (chapter 6). This refers to how a visual overlay that is used to represent a user's line of sight not only shapes their experience of the work, but also dictates their perception of genre. To navigate this, I combined qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore user responses to four different types of gaze interaction. In preparing to collect this data I had to articulate these different types of interaction, which served to demarcate the difference between each of these types of gaze interaction. Stemming from this I used questionnaires, thematic analysis and data visualisation to explore the use and response to these systems. The results of this not only supports the idea of the reticle effect, but also gives insight into how these different types of virtual gaze interaction shape whether these works are viewed as games or as types of interactive film. The output of this allowed me to further expand on interactive 360° film as a genre of immersive media and move beyond the realm of interactive film into new technological discourses, which serves to validate the nascent, yet expansive reach of interactive 360° film as a form of practice. The thesis is concluded by framing this research within the wider discourse of posthuman theory as given that the technologies of immersive media perpetuate a state of extended human experience - how we interact and consider the theories that surround these mediums needs to be considered in the same way. The practice and theory developed throughout this thesis contribute to this discourse and allow for new ways of considering filmic language in the wake of interactive 360° film practice

VR Storytelling

The question of cinematic VR production has been on the table for several years. This is due to the peculiarity of VR language which, even if it is de ned by an image that surrounds and immerses the viewer rather than placing them, as in the classic cinematic situation, in front of a screen, relies decisively on an audiovisual basis that cannot help but refer to cinematic practices of constructing visual and auditory experience. Despite this, it would be extremely reductive to consider VR as the mere transposition of elements of cinematic language. The VR medium is endowed with its own speci city, which inevitably impacts its forms of narration. We thus need to investigate the narrative forms it uses that are probably related to cinematic language, and draw their strength from the same basis, drink from the same well, but develop according to di erent trajectories, thus displaying di erent links and a nities