1. Context / Background / Issue
It is up for debate whether virtual spaces are adding value to the way that we communicate with each other and/or what social implications they are having on western societies. Virtual Realities are most commonly used for gaming and performance where the subject might be perceived to be escaping the real world in search or reliance on another. The research i have done so far informs me that these spaces are not embodied in the sense that real life is embodied, but advances in technology is pushing the boundaries of how we interpret virtual entities as extensions of our own and how we inhabit these virtual spaces. Virtual spaces are creating another pedagogy for humans to learn social understanding and overcome potential social boundaries.
2. Research aims and questions
There is potential through the use of Virtual Realities to understand and connect to others in or/and outside of our communities through spatial design. Questions that have arose through my initial research are:
- Does VR have the capacity to embody a human mind?
- Can VR technology help to connect humans to others?
- Can through the use of digital entities humans feel a responsibility to their spatial environments?
- Can empathy be provoked through the use of virtual spatial environments?
3. Literature review
Examples of topics that I have discovered through research:
Performance and technology:
- Virtual reality sculpts a perception of time in space by distancing the eyes view from movement where the eye is locates it self on a time spectrum (Deleuze)
- Virtual Reality questions the body, in rejecting the common ways that humans move through space. This might also question how we define 'the physical body' and 'the avatar'.
- Remediation of virtual space, always being a reinterpreted space where the original is not encountered. How this space is interpreted as unconvincing and potentially manipulated, however the visual artist may intend to be unseen through the performance.
- Forms of virtual space always intend to expand the point of view of the audience. The work constructing itself in the acts of the relationship between the environment and the viewer.
Embodiment:
- The relationship between the environment and the human, whether it be manufactured architecture or outdoor environments, is the true sense of embodiment. (Pallassma)
- The relationship between physical objects which create physiological links to our cognitive function. How we interpret familiarity, fear and social normative performances throughout our spaces.
- Spatial environments create social, gendered, cultured environments that influence the way that we use our bodies through space.
- Virtual Realities question the way that we use our physical spaces on earth but embodiment in these spaces still is yet to be proven with the current understanding of the term.
Bio-Virtual Era:
- Discussion around the impact that these Virtual Spaces have on our society.
- The constant expansion of technology integrating into the human life which questions what is at the forefront of our realities, the human or the technology. This is because of the way that we are constantly using technology to inform us about the world and the reliance that we have on these technologies. The technologies is now beside us, helping us to create as much as we help it to keep iterating.
- Discussion on how this relationship is impacting on our society; how our pedegoies are being formulated around technology. What disconnection to humans we are encountering because of this replacement of interaction.
4. Precedent Review
The Role of Interaction in Virtual Embodiment: Effects of the Virtual Representation of the Hand - A experiment where scholars investigate the phycological connection to a virtual hand through motion tracking. The experiment tests the phycological response to the hand being in harms way and the agency of the hand in performing a task.
Empathy Device: The use of VR in provoking empathy to humans in different communities to act and have agency towards helping those in need.
Light Performance: Using virtual shadows to inform the mind to what the body could be experiencing?
5. Methodology
I aim to test what VR experiences are available to me in order to make some considerations about how the experience and spatial environment connects to the cognitive functions that we experience in real life. I aim to present a space and/or spaces which attempt to evoke an emotional response to further explore the understanding of the embodiment or disembodiment of VR.
6. Experiment
- Google earth: Experiencing familiarity and intrusion through Google Earth VR.
- Understanding which factors of spaces reflect embodiment through a diary of lived experiences.
- Experiencing someone else experience through VR.
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