Experience Design for Virtual Reality. From Illusion to Agency.

Virtual Reality (VR) allow viewers to inhabit and interact with virtual spaces in a way that has the potential to be much more compelling than any other medium, breaking through the barrier between merely watching to experiencing a situation or environment. It has an experiential quality by integrating the domains of interactive video games, filmmaking, storytelling and immersion. A balancing act between narrative design, digital placemaking and user agency. In this article, written from a practitioner’s perspective, I propose and demonstrate strategies in how immersive experiences can utilise multiple modes of representations, such as omnidirectional stereoscopic video and real-time 3D rendered geometry, to form a coherent spatial narrative environment for a viewer in VR. Particular emphasis will be placed on factors in visual perception; experience design including narration, scenography and user agency; and the technical conditions of the medium. This insight emerged from a series of recent VR projects, which are fundamentally different in terms of content, design and production techniques, but this diversity is an opportunity to lay the foundations for a classification system for VR experiences and establish a common language for this exciting new medium

InSight AR. Relating virtual sculptures to real places.

InSight AR is a site-specific Augmented Reality project and mobile phone app produced for the popular Sculptures by the Sea Bondi exhibition, to be held in Sydney Australia in 2021. It forms uncanny relations between virtual sculptures, visitors, the environment and the art on site. The project is comprised of three parts: an outdoor work using AR plane detection and geo-location, AR image and spatial tracking for an indoor exhibit and a 3D map of the coastal walk, also presented in AR. The work is designed to be playful, fun and it encourages its viewers to share their experience on social media. At the same time, the audience has the opportunity to learn more about a selection of iconic classical sculptures and get a better understanding of the medium AR and its variants

Alberti's window v2.0: a vision machine for expanded spaces of representation.

Alberti's Window v2.0 is a novel interactive cinema platform for the expression of stereoscopic 3D panoramic and multi-viewpoint spaces of representation, in which participants embark on an embodied journey of discovery. In this paper, the author outlines the conceptual and technical framework, exemplified through a work specifically made for this platform, the interactive cinema project Juxtaposition. An introduction to the history of immersive imaging, presentation modalities and innovators contextualises this work within the wider field

Alberti's window v2.0: a vision machine for expanded spaces of representation.

Alberti's Window v2.0 is a novel interactive cinema platform for the expression of stereoscopic 3D panoramic and multi-viewpoint spaces of representation, in which participants embark on an embodied journey of discovery. In this paper, the author outlines the conceptual and technical framework, exemplified through a work specifically made for this platform, the interactive cinema project Juxtaposition. An introduction to the history of immersive imaging, presentation modalities and innovators contextualises this work within the wider field

Cultivating empathy through VR engagements with lived experience

This volume contains a record of artworks from the 14th ICIDS 2021 (International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling) Art Exhibition (held at Tallinn University and online), alongside essays by the artists contextualising their ..

The Visit VR. An immersive experience to counteract stigma about dementia.

The Visit is an interactive 6-dof real-time Virtual Reality experience, developed from an interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic and responsive character whose dialogue is created largely from verbatim interviews, drawing us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has scientific validity but also the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional/perceptual world of Viv

The Visit

The Visit is an interactive real-time video installation and Virtual Reality experience, developed from a ground-breaking interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic animated character, drawing us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has scientific validity but also the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional/perceptual world of Viv

The Visit

The Visit is an interactive non-linear 6-degree-of-freedom real-time video installation and Virtual Reality experience, developed from an interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic, and responsive character whose dialogue is scripted largely from verbatim interviews. The work draws us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has both scientific validity and the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional and perceptual world of Viv. The character’s expression and motion are predominantly scripted, but she also exhibits a level of autonomy and responsiveness. Viv is semi-aware of the presence in her home. The system analyses the viewers’ attention by examining the gaze direction. This allows the character to respond in a more natural way. She makes eye-contact and sometimes smiles if the viewer looks at her. The viewer’s role shifts from a passive observer to an active participant in the story. The narrative supports this notion, the viewer takes up the role of a (imaginary) visitor, represented as a disembodied hallucination. The virtual set, a kitchen and living room, is constructed from a 3D scan of the former home of one of our participants in the study. The work aligns with the theme Re|Dis]Connection in two ways: it establishes an emotional connection to a digital human character and at the same time disconnects the viewer from himself as a dis-embodied entity in the narrative