{"title":"Gestural interaction commonalities in body-based performance","authors":"Steve Gibson","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00062_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00062_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers gestural and motion-based interaction within the context of body-based audio-visual performance. More specifically the article describes some general commonalities between different approaches to both large-area and small-area interaction. This is discussed in relation to my own work with motion-tracking technologies (The Gesture and Media System [GAMS]), as well as more recent experiments with the Leap Motion hand/gesture tracker. In addition, the article references other strategies for gestural interaction such as a formal ‘method for mapping embodied gesture, acquired with electromyography and motion sensing’ () and a more human-centred ‘expansive and augmented performance environment that facilitates full-body musical interactions’ (). The article posits that while precise gestural mapping approaches are not universally applicable, enough commonalities between gestural interaction strategies exist that some insights can be generally applied to gestural performance, regardless of the technology employed or the scale of the interaction space.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80343099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oliver M. Gingrich, Alain Renaud, Evgenia Emets, D. Negrao
{"title":"KIMA: Voice: The human voice as embodied presence","authors":"Oliver M. Gingrich, Alain Renaud, Evgenia Emets, D. Negrao","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00061_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00061_1","url":null,"abstract":"Through and post-COVID, disembodied technological interactions were experienced at an unprecedented, often involuntary level in households across the world, with the human voice often providing a link between geographically disconnected individuals, resulting in a decrease in perceived social connectedness. Recent research suggests that effects of social isolation and sensory deprivation can be mitigated through participatory media arts experiences (; , ). Over the last ten years, the art collective Analema Group has explored the pivotal role of the human voice as means for social connectedness through their artwork KIMA (Tate, National Gallery, Barbican). The current development of KIMA: Voice seeks to challenge experiences of embodiment in remote environments. This article and artwork presentation will present a new development KIMA: Voice designed to provide new forms of embodied experiences across a distance. The publication will be supported by a demonstration and exhibition of the artwork","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74818030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Maturing the narrative sense through mixed reality games","authors":"Damian Walker","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00058_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00058_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the human ability to see meaningful narratives in the world and to invent fictional narratives as a sense. The senses allow us to pick up on patterns in the world and to coordinate our behaviour in relationship with those patterns. Sensing narratives plays an important role in situational appraisals and provides important context for what we see, hear, touch, etc. Drawing upon the predictive processing framework in cognitive science, this article will defend this thesis and explore how virtual and mixed reality technologies can contribute to new ways of making sense of the world. These new tools of situational appraisal will be understood in the context of a cultural and cognitive condition that media theories Douglas Rushkoff calls ‘present shock’.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75265061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between the physical and the virtual: The present tense of virtual space","authors":"A. Burrell","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00044_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00044_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores a way of thinking about virtual environments and how they might be used to create new spaces, not as an alternate reality, but as an integrated part of reality ‐ regardless of this reality being physical and/or digital. Virtual environments can be seen as\u0000 an extension of reality ‐ the physical and the virtual sitting side by side with one, more often than not, bleeding into the other. The virtual is not separable from the physical and vice versa. This position will be formed by directly referring to traditions that stem from processes\u0000 and ideas around materiality, poetics and philosophy rather than centring on technical or hardware specifics. At the centre of this exploration is an ongoing investigation into the role of memory and imagination in narrative spaces in immersive virtual environments, stemming from the author’s\u0000 background in interactive Installation art and designing for virtual environments. The article’s subtitle refers to Robert Morris’s 1978 article, ‘The present tense of space’, which informs the article’s overall position.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"147 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76879637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Delas Santano, H. Esmaeili, H. Thwaites, Shamsul Amar
{"title":"Unmasking the Mah Meri mask: A digitization journey for AR and VR","authors":"Delas Santano, H. Esmaeili, H. Thwaites, Shamsul Amar","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00041_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00041_1","url":null,"abstract":"The Mah Meri is an indigenous tribe in Malaysia, specifically located in the central region of the peninsular. As part of an ongoing research project to digitize their way of life, this article focuses on the aspects of documenting their wooden masks and statues that are carved by hand.\u0000 They use these masks and statues in their animistic rituals, and each of these artefacts represents a folklore story in the Mah Meri culture and heritage. For a long time, these masks and statues have become a source of income for the Mah Meri carvers, as they get requests from collectors\u0000 and enthusiasts. However, these days the craft not only faces the issue of dwindling number of carvers, but also the source of wood they use for carving the masks and statues. Thus, as part of the research in digitizing the masks and statues, we also collected the folklore stories of each\u0000 artefact. Additionally, we used photogrammetry techniques to digitize the masks and statues formation process. The main idea is to create an experience that not only preserves and represents the art of the Mah Meri people, but also enables the users to interact with the carving process of\u0000 the exact mask or statute. This is highly unlikely in the real world in an immersive form. In this project, we refer to this as ‘Digitization of States’, i.e. three-dimensional (3D) capturing of specific stages of the carving process before they are gone. The 3D-captured materials,\u0000 combined with other forms of audio-visual data are used in creation of procedural and informative AR/VR experiences. To achieve this, a cross collaboration between the carvers and the researchers took place. More information about the entire process is provided in the article.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"130 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86099078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"XR and creativity: Transformative technologies for good","authors":"Benjamin Matthews, Zi Siang See, D. Doyle","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00039_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00039_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76142607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Virtual nature, inner forest: Prospects for immersive virtual nature art and well-being","authors":"J. Williams, S. Langley, Ann Borda","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00046_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00046_1","url":null,"abstract":"Over a number of decades, studies have revealed compelling relationships between experiences of the natural environment and positive health outcomes in adult communities. These psychosocial health benefits have typically been described via key theoretical frameworks in the health sciences,\u0000 such as the biophilia hypothesis. Despite the body of evidence for nature design and well-being, propositions for immersive virtual nature experiences are still emerging across the fields of creativity and health. In this article, we identify the potential for immersive virtual nature art\u0000 as a creative well-being intervention, articulated through a discussion of background literature and concepts leading to the development of our artwork, Inner Forest (2020‐21). This article incorporates a transdisciplinary suite of perspectives across three key parts; in the\u0000 first section, we review key health and design research around beneficial nature experiences, with particular emphasis on designing technological nature. Secondly, we propose considerations for immersive virtual nature experiences, as distinct from prior iterations of technological nature;\u0000 these considerations are framed through discussion of our artistic and well-being rationale for designing the collaborative artwork Inner Forest. This extended reality (XR) project was developed in response to well-being challenges such as social isolation and restricted nature access-\u0000 of particular valence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The artwork incorporates multisensory, aesthetic elements drawn from biophilic design guidelineswhich support creative, evidence-based approaches to designed nature and societal health. To conclude this article, we report on prospects for\u0000 further scaling of the Inner Forest artwork, with ongoing scope to contribute to both nature-health design and immersive virtual nature art practices.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78960549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mairi Gunn, M. Billinghurst, Huidong Bai, P. Sasikumar
{"title":"First Contact ‐ Take 2: Using XR technology as a bridge between Māori, Pākehā and people from other cultures in Aotearoa, New Zealand","authors":"Mairi Gunn, M. Billinghurst, Huidong Bai, P. Sasikumar","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00043_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00043_1","url":null,"abstract":"The art installation common/room explores human‐digital‐human encounter across cultural differences. It comprises a suite of extended reality (XR) experiences that use technology as a bridge to help support human connections with a view to overcoming intercultural\u0000 discomfort (racism). The installations are exhibited as an informal dining room, where each table hosts a distinct experience designed to bring people together in a playful yet meaningful way. Each experience uses different technologies, including 360° 3D virtual reality (VR) in a headset\u0000 (common/place), 180° 3D projection (Common Sense) and augmented reality (AR) (Come to the Table! and First Contact ‐ Take 2). This article focuses on the latter, First Contact ‐ Take 2, in which visitors are invited to sit at a dining table,\u0000 wear an AR head-mounted display and encounter a recorded volumetric representation of an Indigenous Māori woman seated opposite them. She speaks directly to the visitor out of a culture that has refined collective endeavour and relational psychology over millennia. The contextual and\u0000 methodological framework for this research is international commons scholarship and practice that sits within a set of relationships outlined by the Mātike Mai Report on constitutional transformation for Aotearoa, New Zealand. The goal is to practise and build new relationships between\u0000 Māori and Tauiwi, including Pākehā.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82374899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikolas Orr, Benjamin Matthews, Zi Siang See, Andrew Burrell, J. Day, Divya Seengal
{"title":"Transdisciplinarity in extended reality (XR) research design: Technological transformation and social good (co-creation session at XR + Creativity Symposium, University of Newcastle, 2020)","authors":"Nikolas Orr, Benjamin Matthews, Zi Siang See, Andrew Burrell, J. Day, Divya Seengal","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00048_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00048_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article collates and synthesizes the discussion results of a collaborative research exercise, known as a ‘co-creation session’, formed of a multi-disciplinary group of extended reality (XR) researchers and practitioners. The session sought to develop and theorize the\u0000 concept of ‘transformative technologies for good’ in creative, applied and clinical contexts. Notions of ‘cutting-edge’ practice were visited from a critical standpoint; participants established that innovation, when measured in terms of social good, challenges technological\u0000 and economic paradigms of progress. Conversation between participants centred on four key areas: skills and knowledge for effective XR research, appropriate methods and sites for diffusion of XR research, the future of the field, and the possible contributions of XR and associated research\u0000 to problems arising from COVID-19. The session offered further insights into research design related to composition of participant groups in terms of disciplinary knowledge, activity design, and remote digital interfaces.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86042591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On country: Identity, place and digital place","authors":"Kit Devine","doi":"10.1386/vcr_00045_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00045_1","url":null,"abstract":"Place is central to the identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Narrabeen Camp Project explores the use of immersive technologies to offer opportunities to engage with Indigenous histories, Storytelling and cultural heritage in ways that privilege place. While\u0000 nothing can replace being ‘on Country’, the XR technologies of AR and VR support different modalities of engagement with real, and virtual, place. The project documents the Stories, Language and Lore associated with the Gai-mariagal clan and, in particular, with the Aboriginal\u0000 Camp that existed on the north-western shore of Narrabeen Lakes from the end of the last ice age to 1959 when it was demolished to make way for the Sydney Academy of Sports and Recreation. The project will investigate evolving Aboriginal Storytelling dynamics when using immersive digital media\u0000 to teach culture and to document a historically important site that existed for thousands of years prior to its demolition in the mid-twentieth century. It expects to generate new knowledge about Aboriginal Storytelling and about the history of urban Aboriginals. Expected outcomes include\u0000 a schema connecting Aboriginal Storytelling with immersive digital technologies, and truth-telling that advances understanding of modern Australia and urban Aboriginal people. The research should promote better mental, social and emotional health and wellbeing for Indigenous Australians and\u0000 benefit all Australians culturally, socially and economically.","PeriodicalId":52193,"journal":{"name":"Virtual Creativity","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76535656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}