Abstract
This study examines the methods employed across two virtual reality (VR) co-design projects which critically engage with the concept of presence in VR. Undertaken within a practice-based PhD, the co-design projects explore how notions of presence relate to formulations of the experiential, using art practice and design methods to develop a new understanding of the specific affordances of VR when used as a platform to approach the life experience of another. Here, presence is understood as the sub-representative, pre-cognitive condition that signals the emergence of a co-dependent, subject/object forming relationality between a participant and virtual space. It is through a design for presence that the ground for an embodied, affective relationality between a participant and the experience of another may be formed. The first project, ‘Life is Beautiful. Always.’, explores the life experience of multi-disciplinary artist and vascular dementia sufferer, Marcel Schreur. Two works produced in the second project, ‘I Look For Them’ and ‘Be That Ocean’, explore the memories of ninety-six-year-old Ukrainian and survivor of the Soviet Gulag, Ivanna Masczcak. Through a reflective comparison of the methods used to produce the works across both projects, a discussion is catalysed on the various ways of being in virtual space and how they relate to real life experiences. The exploration considers how different manifestations of presence encourage specific types of affective engagement with VR experiences, and the appropriateness of methods employed to extrapolate and express another’s real-life experience in virtual space in different contexts.
Presenters
Daniel BacchusPrincipal Lecturer - Subject Group Leader Animation and Digital Media Production, Media Arts and Communications, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Here Comes the Metaverse: Designing the Virtual and the Real
KEYWORDS
Virtual Reality, Non-fiction Narrative, Immersive Storytelling, Presence, Co-design, Affect
