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Me

In The Space

I I m agin e d

An Ethnography of

Virtual Reality

Jasper Stevens

word count: 9,856


supervisor: Abel Maciel

London, 2017
Abstract

For decades, the design of virtual space has been focused


on creating increasingly accurate simulations of the physical
world in order to enable believable virtual spatial experiences.
This thesis seeks to question this dependency through a
video reflective micro ethnography.

A small sample of participants used Google Tilt Brush, a


TO M.M.D virtual reality drawing program, two times over the course of
for making it happen 6 months. They were interviewed before and after entering
Virtual Reality, and were also asked to watch a film of them
using VR and explain their processes. This has produced
a series of results which demonstrate to what extent the
believability of a post-physical experience relies on a priori
knowledge of the physical world, the virtual simulation of
physical spatial cues, and also tests the lasting impact of
a virtual experience on successive physical experiences.
These results establish a framework around which future
post-physical architectures can be constructed that are both
spatially innovative and experientially believable.
CONTENTS

1. Introduction 7

2. Literature Review 13
2.1 Creation of Virtual Reality 15

2.2 Reality of Virtual Reality 23


2.3 Investigation of Virtual Reality 27

3. Hypothesis + Methodology 31
3.1 The Approach 33

3.2 The Process 35

4. Results 39
4.1 Interview 01 43
4.2 Tilt Brush Experiment 45

4.3 Video Response 53


4.4 Interview 02 57

4.5 Ethnographic Summary 61

5. Discussion 67
5.1 The Realities of Virtual Reality 69

5.2 The Physicality of Virtual Reality 73

6. Conclusion 79
6.1 Dissonant Design 81

Bibliography 86

Appendix
01
INTRODUCTION

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0LFKDHO+HLPThe Metaphysics
of Virtual Reality (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993), p.109

7
1.0

Introduction

In 1981, Baudrillard suggested the concept of the hyperreal - A real without


origin or reality 1 - to discuss the increasingly fabricated nature of the physical
built environment. Although these theories pre-dated the integration of
the virtual into the physical that followed, they feel more relevant than
ever today. In the last three decades since Simulation and Simulacra, the
virtual world has become an extension of the built environment, with now
ubiquitous smart phones providing access whenever desired. Meanwhile,
multinational publishing companies are commodifying the digital world and
its inhabitants, with the free to play business model, which would be better
described as pay to win, becoming the dominant economic structure. The
digital world, a reality which could allow not only democratisation of design
but also of spatial experience, currently exists as a shallow parallel of the
physical world, replacing Disneyland as the most authentic fake.

This need not be the case, and indeed was not always. In the late twentieth
century, as early virtual reality technology was being developed, art, fiction
and film, not constrained by the possibility of an attainable hyperreal,
explored the potential of an inhabitable, spatial reality free from physical
limitations. However, as processing power, popularity, and production
budgets increased, it became possible to ever more accurately simulate
physical reality, and so virtual environments became ever more authentic
fakes.

Virtual Reality is hard to define, difficult to discuss, but utterly captivating


to experience. Far from being a high-tech gimmick, VR offers users the
opportunity to bodily inhabit virtual environments, no longer having to
associate themselves with on-screen avatars. The design of the virtual
environments themselves, however, has, for decades, relied on recreating
the known physical reality to facilitate this association. This reliance on
mimicry of the physical over exploring virtual potential has stifled spatial
innovation and neglected the vast, a-physical possibilities of virtual reality.

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8 9
C H A P T E R 1 : I n t r o d u c t i o n

In recent years VR technology has had a renaissance, with renewed interest,


optimism, and appetite for innovation. During 2016, Sony, Facebook, HTC,
Google and Samsung all released VR headsets, filling many living rooms
with these new realities. VR appears likely to not only offer new ways
to experience space, but new ways to design it too, with several large
architectural practices establishing VR departments to showcase their
projects. 2 Now is the time to challenge the design of Virtual Environments,
explore their a-physical possibilities, and investigate how they are
experienced and understood.

A distinction that is crucial for discussion in this field is that between the
technology and the space of Virtual Reality(VR). In Digital Sensations,
Ken Hillis uses the term VR to refer to the technology that facilitates the
experience, and defines a VE as being the 3-D computer-generated virtual
environments [that VR] permits 3. This paper will focus on the relationship
between VR and VEs, and, through a video reflective micro ethnography, will
investigate how VEs are understood and experienced through VR. Although
ethnography is more commonly associated with the study of social cultures,
its method, to grasp the natives point of viewto realize his vision of his
world 4, is a powerful and productive approach to trying to understand the
new phenomena in a reality without an established language. The paper
begins with a study on the effect of the development of VR on the design
of VEs, as well as a summary of current discussion on VEs and experiments
in VR.

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10 11
02
L I T E R AT U R E
REVIEW AND
BACKGROUND

Advances in computation
form a pool of techniques
from which virtual technology
researchers can draw,

speculative entertainment
equally sustains the will
to develop VEs and is
eloquently revealed in the

.HQ+LOOLVDigital Sensations
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1999), p.17

12 13
2.1

The Creation of Virtual Reality

Fig.01. Virtual Reality has a long history of exchange between technological


innovation and fictional imagineering, and it is important to understand
these aspirational explorations made before the technological implications
were considered, as they provide an insight into the furthest possibilities of
the medium. The notion of a headpiece that allowed the user to experience
alternative realities was first explored in Stanley G. Weinbaums remarkably
prescient short story Pygmalions Spectacles (Fig.01), written in 1935, more
than 30 years before the invention of a head mounted VR system. The main
character Dan Burke meets Albert Ludwig, who made real a dream through
the invention of a pair of goggles that display a movie that gives one sight
and sound ... taste, smell, and touch. ... You are in the story, you speak to the
shadows and they reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all
about you, and you are in it. 5 Burke is at first skeptical, but is quickly drawn
into this virtual world, eventually falling in love with its main character.

Twenty years later, cinematographer and VR technology pioneer Morton


Heilig wrote The Cinema of The Future, a technological manifesto based on
his expertise in the field. In the essay, Heilig charts the evolution of drawing
through to cinema as mans attempt to freeze and recreate visual imagery,
and, with the addition of sound, cinema had set itself the task of expressing
in all its variety and vitality the full consciousness of man 6. He proposes that
to progress, one should study the nature of mans consciousness 7, before
proceeding to deconstruct the apparatus of consciousness in order to
demonstrate the sensory faculties that have been neglected: , Open your
eyes, listen, smell, and feel-sense the world in all in magnificent colours,
depth, sounds, odours, and texture - this is the cinema of the future! 8
It was these principles that lead Heilig to invent the Sensorama in 1957,
Fig. 01.

The cover of Pygmallions Spectacles

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7 ibid

8 ibid

14 15
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widely regarded as the first VR machine 9. The Sensorama provided 3-D


motion picture with smell, stereo sound, vibrations of the seat, and wind
in the hair 10 (Fig.02). Key to this experience was the feeling of embodiment
provided, just as imagined in Pygmalions Spectacles, achieved by feeding
almost all of mans sensory apparatus with information from the scenes...
the experience theater makes the spectator in the audience feel that he
has been physically transported into and made part of the scene itself. 11
However, due to the high costs involved with both process and product, the
Sensorama never took off. 12

Core to our experience of space is not simply being within in, but also
being able to move through it. 13 Whilst the Sensorama did provide multi-
sensory experiences, the user was still passive within the machine - this was
Fig. 02. still cinema, just more immersive cinema. It took another decade for Ivan
The Sensorama Sutherland to invent the first head mounted display (HMD), mischievously
nicknamed The Sword of Damocles (Fig.03), in 1968, which facilitated
explorable and interactive virtual environments. The HMD granted users
the ability to go beyond technical limitations of conventional film and
TV that necessitate a space between the technology and the viewer 14,
providing the interactivity the Sensorama could not by allowing the virtual
environment to be spatially explored. Although this device could only display
a simple wireframe cube, Sutherland set out his vision for the technologys
development in his essay The Ultimate Display, stating that the ultimate
display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control
the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good

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: L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w a n d B a c k g r o u n d

enough to sit in. 15. While other viewing technologies have been explored
since, it is the HMD that has most consistently been developed and was the
approach used in both the past and present peaks of VR.

In the early 1980s, after a further decade of private technological


development, the possibilities of embodied inhabitation of VEs became a
mainstream cultural interest. The film TRON, released in 1982, depicted the
world inside of an arcade game, a virtual reality populated by embodied
artificial intelligences (Fig. 04). As one of the first feature films to use computer
animation, TRON presented a radical vision of a unique world to viewers.
Another crucial speculative work was Neuromancer, William Gibsons
1984 novel, which infamously coined the term cyberspace. Neuromancer
portrayed the virtual world of cyberspace as a communal abstract spatial
representation of data, a consensual hallucination experienced daily by
billions of legitimate operatorsLines of light ranged in the nonspace of the
mind. 16

These crucial works imagined spectacular virtual worlds, entirely different


Fig. 04. from the known physical, derived more from a three dimensional spatialisation
The virtual architecture of the of computer systems and software than from existing architectures. Ken
inhabitable digital world of TRON
Hillis remarks in Critical History of Virtual Reality that William Gibsons
Neuromancer is a science fiction vision widely acknowledged as having
offered...a blueprint of the virtual world 17, going on to state that It is hard to
overstate Neuromancers influence on the VR research community. Scarcely
a thing written about VE and virtual technology neglects to pay the novel
homage 18.

These imaginative visions came at a time when the cutting edge of consumer
interaction with virtual environments was through simplistic arcade games,
which lead to a surge in interest in VR (Fig. 05). Seeking to capitalise on

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released
18 ibid

18 19
C H A P T E R 2 : L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w a n d B a c k g r o u n d

this, multiple large gaming corporations released VR systems during this VR


boom of early 1990s, from multiplayer arcade arenas(Fig. 07) to affordable
home systems (Fig. 06). This interest was short lived, however:

After 1995, virtual reality was promising as a technology but it was clear
that it wasnt ready for gaming. The engineering challenges required
Manhattan Project-levels of funding...and what else happened in 1995?
The Internet. Suddenly everyone was connected, and virtual reality was
this ugly little brother lagging behind. 19

Although the fictional portrayals of the possibilities of VR fueled the first


wave of its uptake, it was also its downfall, as the technology of the time
could not live up to these fictional precedents. Ironically, the causes of
the VR bust, as of the failure of the Sensorama before that, were almost
identical to the fictional rejection of Weinbaums goggles more than fifty
Fig. 06. years previously:
An Intel advert for home VR
It isnt clear! Only one person can use it at a time! Its too expensive! 20.

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Fig. 07.

Multiplayer arcade VR system by


Virtuality

20 21
2.2

The Reality of Virtual Reality

There is a tradition in philosophy going back to (And most strongly


present in) Plato for which virtual reality might be seen as problematic
on a number of grounds...In this tradition, the unreality of virtual objects
calls into question the appropriateness of associating them with
knowledge and value 21

After this VR bust, the development of Virtual Environments retreated


behind 2D screens, all but abandoning embodiment aspirations for nearly
20 years. Virtual Reality has far higher technological demands than simple
screen viewing, but there have been substantial technological improvements
throughout the last two decades, allowing modern VR systems to offer
wide field of view angles, fast response times, and high resolution displays,
whilst remaining affordable. Something that has not been solved, however,
is the question of the reality of the space experienced.

Michael Heim states in The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality:

If for two thousand years Western culture has puzzled over the
meaning of reality, we cannot expect ourselves in two minutes, or even
two decades, to arrive at the meaning of virtual reality. 22

Whilst this is certainly true, it is important to have an overview of different


approaches to the question, as they demonstrate the complicated nature
of the existence of VR. Heim defined seven divergent definitions of Virtual
Reality, each representing a different approach - Simulation, Interaction,
Artificiality, Immersion, Telepresence, Full Body Immersion, and Networked
Communications 23. Of these seven, it is Immersion - sensory immersion in
a virtual environment 24 - that is the most enduring, and is the focus of this
paper.

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23 ibid

 ibid

22 23
C H A P T E R 2 : L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w a n d B a c k g r o u n d

It has been argued 25 that whether Virtual Reality is considered real depends participant no longer inhabits the physical space 32, but this notion of a total
on how closely it matches physical reality, since the concept of virtual separation between physical and virtual what is known as the immersive
reality suggests an approximation to reality, and therefore its application fallacy 33.
to cases in which no real-world situation exists is incoherent 26. This can be
refuted 27 by arguing that what is happening within Virtual Reality, rather than The Immersive Fallacy describes the assumption that media should strive
the simulation of a given item, ...is the simulation of systematic relations. to present a fictional world so convincing that its audience would forget
An attempt is made to simulate (if that is the right word) the conditions that the real world in which they interact with the media 34. This assumption is
obtain between objects and a perceiver such that they are experienced in present in the study of many virtual media, from board games to video
a way similar to the way reality is experienced . This describes the aim of
28 games, and is a fundamental misunderstand of the way constructed
Immersive Virtual Reality - to create a virtual experience that is experientially realities are experienced. In Mixed Realism, Timothy Welsh demonstrates
equivalent to physical reality - equally real. that interactions with the virtual environments through video games, and by
extension through Virtual Reality, are fundamentally meta communicative...
There is a key distinction in Immersive Virtual Reality between Presence and if users truly believed that, after putting on a headset and glove, they were
Immersion. In A Framework For Immersive Virtual Environments, Slater and suddenly on the surface of the moon...the experience would be utterly
Wilbur state the difference between these two terms to be that Immersion terrifying 35. However, the meta-communicative nature of games, physical
can be an objective and quantifiable description of what any particular or virtual, does not diminish their reality:
system does provide , whereas Presence is a state of consciousness, the
29 playing a game is a real event, even if the fictional environment it
(psychological) sense of being in the virtual environment 30. For them, the projects is only a representation... where video game studies has lost
aim of VR is that participants who are highly present should experience touch with the virtual, comes from the next step in saying that because
the VE as the more engaging reality than the surrounding physical world, the fictional is a representation it is derivative and inessential. The
and consider the environment specified by the displays as places visited dragon may not be a dragon, but it is a projection of a dragon, and
rather than as images seen. 31
In order to measure presence, the exact projections of dragons are real. 36
requirements need to be known to both participant and observer, but this is The reality of these virtual experiences can be clearly demonstrated
a complicated issue. Some definitions of presence require a belief that the through the effect of an interaction with a specific virtual environment - the
simulated Venice of Assassins Creed 2.

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25 MOORADIAN, N. (2006). VIRTUAL REALITY, ONTOLOGY, AND VALUE. Metaphilosophy, 37(5),
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28 ibid 35 ibid

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30 ibid

31 ibid

24 25
2.3

The Investigation of Virtual Reality

Assassins Creed 2 (AC2), released in 2009, is a game set in Renaissance


Venice (Fig.08). One of the key gameplay mechanics is parkour, allowing
you to climb facades, scale towers, and run across rooftops, subverting
the traditional modes of pedestrian. The world of AC2 is a picture postcard
collage of Venice, weaving a selection of instantly recognisable landmarks
together with crumbling cobbled alleyways to create a virtual city that is
distinctly Venice-ish. The result is an incredibly convincing simulation that
exploits the widely proliferated image of Venice, relying on the virtual
visitors prior knowledge of the physical world to construct its reality.

The simulation is so effective, in fact, that when visiting physical Venice, places
visited virtually are recognised and recalled as if experienced physically.
More than simply providing recognition though, the virtual experience
changes the way the physical world is perceived, with physical buildings
being understood in terms of how they were virtually climbed. 37 While
images or film may produce a feeling of familiarity with certain landmarks,
interacting with a virtual environment provides a spatial experience that
has a cognitive equivalence with an actual physical experience, even if
projected through the proxy self of a virtual avatar.

To understand the transfer of knowledge between the two realities, it is useful


to understand the distinction between a priori knowledge - knowledge
altogether independent of experience 38 - and a posteriori knowledge -
empirical knowledge which has its sourcesin experience. 39 Knowledge
gained from the physical world is independent of virtual experience, and
is therefore known a priori when engaging with a virtual environment. It
is this existing understanding of space that is used as a cognitive shortcut
and depended on to facilitate greater believability and spatial engagement.
What AC2 demonstrates, however, is that this transfer also works in reverse
knowledge gained from virtual experiences is known a priori within the

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AC2 Virtual Venice landmarks, Physical Venice landmarks, 39 ibid

26 27
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with knowledge from either reality informing understanding of the other.
Boellstorff immersed himself in this virtual world, exploring its systems
It is because of this equal value that VEs are being studied with increasing
and structures as Malinowski and other anthropologists before had studied
seriousness. At the height of VRs popularity, the potential negative
remote tribes and secluded cultures. Boellstorff went on to co-author
implications of an immersive alternate reality began to be considered:
Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method with three other
People thought that there would be addictions to VR that people
prominent virtual anthropologists.
would end up living in virtual worlds and never coming out. There
was concern that there would be physical damage as well as mental
Ethnography and Virtual Worlds seeks to provide ethnographers with a
damage. 40
practical set of tools and approaches for conducting successful fieldwork in
This notion of VR as another delusional drug 41 was a contributing factor to
virtual worlds 47, in order to aid further investigation into the cultures present
its fall from grace, and these negative associations have stayed with both
within them. Their work, however, deals exclusively with a single typology
VR and VEs throughout their history. While many studies and experiments
of Virtual Environments, what they refer to as Virtual Worlds. They define
have explored possible side effects, from effect on aggression and
this as a VE that has a sense of world-ness, is multi-user in nature, is
hostility 42, to impairment of hippocampal activity 43, there has also been
persistent: they continue to exist in some form even as participants log
numerous investigations into the potential of this reality. Albert Skip Rizzos
off, and lastly, they allow participants to embody themselves. It is the
work has used VR as exposure therapy to treat PTSD suffers 44
, while Mel
interactions and social structures that develop within these virtual worlds
Slater and Anthony Steeds work has sought to understand the concept
that these authors focus on, rather than the spatial environments of the
and measurement of presence in virtual environments 45.
worlds themselves.
Alongside these technological investigations, the emerging field of Virtual
Ethnography has been gaining ground. In Coming of Age in Second Life, Between experimentation with the technology of VR, and ethnographic
the first anthropological study of the virtual world of Second Life, Tom studies of the cultures within Virtual Worlds, there lie unexamined questions.
Boellstorff applied ethnographic methods to study its emerging online Both of these lines of inquiry explore virtual environments that spatially
culture, stating that: simulate physical reality, neglecting the a-physical possibilities explored in
the fictional imaginations that VR once inspired. During VRs long absence
as a consumer technology, there have been virtual environments that have
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28 29
03
HYPOTHESIS
AND
METHODOLOGY

The more the SORW line


potentially removes a person
from everyday reality, and
presents an alternate self-
contained world, the greater
the chance for presence.

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30 31
C H A P T E R 3 : H y p o t h e s i s a n d M e t h o d o l o g y
3.1

The Approach

The design of Virtual Environments currently relies on the simulation of


physical reality to facilitate presence. This focus on simulation could lead
to an assumption that the more realistic the virtual environment, the
more real the experience. However, in A Framework for Immersive Virtual
Environments, Mel Slaters examination of Immersion and Presence in virtual
environments, it is stated that:

The more the plot line potentially removes a person from everyday
reality, and presents an alternate self-contained world, the greater the
chance for presence. 49

This being the case, it is possible an a-physical virtual environment can


both facilitate presence, and be experientially equivalent to physical reality.
The focus of this research is to understand the qualitative aspects of the
cognition of virtual reality, and the question posed by this hypothesis will
therefore be approached through a video reflective micro-ethnography.

The ethnographic process involves understanding a culture through the


investigation, analysis, and categorisation of the language used to describe
it by its own practitioners. In The Ethnographic Interview, James Spradley
states that

Language is more than a means of communication about reality: it is


a tool for constructing reality. Different languages create and express
different realities. They categorize experience in different ways. 50

The results of the ethnographic process make explicit a language, which can
itself then be used for further communication and exploration. This cyclical
aspect of ethnography can generate new hypotheses while seeking to
answer the initial question. This paper will explore knowledge gained as far

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50 6SUDGOH\-  7KH(WKQRJUDSKLF,QWHUYLHZVWHG0LQQHVRWD+ROW5LQHKDUWDQG:LQVWRQS

32 33
C H A P T E R 3 : H y p o t h e s i s a n d M e t h o d o l o g y
3.2

The Process

as is feasible within its limited scale, seeking to understand how a-physical Traditionally in ethnographies, the informant is required to be a thoroughly
virtual environments experienced through VR are perceived by studying encultured member of the culture being studied, with Spradley suggesting
the language used by participants. It is hoped that this understanding will a minimum of at least a years full time involvement 51 to qualify as an useful
inform the limits of the design of future VEs. source. In this study, however, participants with little enculturation were
deliberately chosen to enable an investigation into the experience of VR
Participants in this study will spend a fixed amount of time experiencing an free of existing knowledge or expectation. Although all participants were
a-physical VE through VR, with footage captured from both the physical common computer users, none had experienced VR before.
and virtual environment. The participants will then be asked to watch the
footage back and explain their actions and experience, before an being This process began with an unrecorded, informal exposure to VR, with
questioned on their various statements. The language used will then be participants freely exploring various software and VEs. It was from
analysed and presented in the results section, followed by a discussion on conversations following this experience that the notion of conducting an
the implications of the results. ethnographic study was formed. Six months after this initial exposure, four
participants were invited back for a series of recorded observations.
The VR system used in the experiment will be the HTC VIVE, a HMD based VR
system that facilitates room scale positional tracking, as well as interaction The steps of the observations were:
with the VE through two handheld controllers (Fig. 11). The VE used in the
experiment will be Googles Tilt Brush - a virtual reality drawing program. INTERVIEW 01
Tilt Brush gives users a series of virtual drawing tools - a wide variety of Participants were asked a series of questions regarding the initial VR
brushes, drawing guides such as straight edges and a mirror function, exposure. As well as gathering information on the participants themselves,
and transformation tools that allow the user to re-scale and reposition the these questions investigated how the VR experienced was perceived, and
environment. The VE manifests itself as a blank, canvas space, and allows how it had been remembered. (Fig. 10)
user to draw in 3d dimensional space using the controllers, with the drawn
strokes hanging suspended in the air where the hand travelled. The various TILT BRUSH EXPERIMENT
brushes vary from light and smoke to psychedelic oil slicks and cyberspace Participants were placed into a blank space within Tilt Brush and given
hypercubes, allowing a wide variety of creation. 10 minutes 52 tasked with the simple of brief of creating a space with the
toolset available inside the VE. The feed from the headset was recorded
alongside a camera feed from the physical room. At the end of the time
limit, participants were asked if they would like to take a virtual photo from
within the VE.

VIDEO REFLECTION
Participants watched the recording of their headset feed and were asked
to describe what they were doing. This interview was recorded and is
presented in sync with the experiment recordings in the films.

51 6SUDGOH\-  7KH(WKQRJUDSKLF,QWHUYLHZVWHG0LQQHVRWD+ROW5LQHKDUWDQG:LQVWRQS

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DEOHWRILQGLQZKLFKWLPHHPHUJHGDVDVLJQLILFDQWIDFWRUDQGWKHUHIRUHDWLPHOLPLWZDVXVHGWRNHHSUHFRUGHGGDWD
PDQDJHDEOH

34 35
C H A P T E R 3 : H y p o t h e s i s a n d M e t h o d o l o g y

DETAILS ON VR EXPERIENCE INTERVIEW 02


Name How long ago? Participants were asked the same set of questions as Interview 01, this time
Age How long did you spend? regarding the Tilt Brush experiment, to observe the difference in perception
Technological proficiency 1-10 What did you do? between a distant and recent VR experience. Statements made by
How long do you spend with computers a week? How did it feel? participants during the video reflection were also question for clarification
Artistic proficiency 1-10 Did you feel like you achieved anything? If so what? and further exploration of their perception of its reality.
How often do you draw? Were there any memorable moments? Although, as an ethnographic work, this study does not seek to create a
Had you used VR before the initial exposure? Was it like any other activity? Whats the closest existing tightly controlled testing environment, efforts were made to minimise
experience you can compare it to? potential confounding variables. All participants experienced VR in the same
How would you explain it to someone who has not physical room and in the same VE, starting in the same position and having
experienced VR? a fixed time limit. The observations were all conducted in the evening, and
Have you thought of it since? participants did not observe each others experiences, or talk to each other
Fig. 10. Have you wanted to visit again? about the previous experience or interviews before, or during the process.
Interview 01 questions Is it real or unreal? Questions asked of the participants were, wherever possible, framed using
their own language in order to not impose vocabulary upon them.

In seeking to address the hypothesis, particular interest was paid in


observing participants perception of the a-physical techniques, tools, and
experiences within the VE, and to what extent this diminished the reality of
the experience. Presence and breaks in presence are of interest in this aim,
but rather than asking participants to report during the experiment 53, signs
will be looked for in language used in description.

53 7KLVPHWKRGZDVXVHGLQ0RUH%UHDNV/HVV3UHVHQFHEXWLVOHVVDSSURSULDWHIRUWKLVVWXG\DVLWLPSRVHVD
FHUWDLQODQJXDJHDQGXQGHUVWDQGLQJRQWRSDUWLFLSDQWV

Fig. 11.

VR setup in physical room.


Positional tracker locations circled.

36 37
04
R E S U LT S

38 39
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

This section presents key findings from each stage of the observations,
followed by key findings of the ethnographic process. Within the results
section, the following labels are used to refer to the participants and the
stages of the observation:

Names
DOMINIC JENNY
Dominic - DS
Age: 46 Age: 43 Jenny - JS
Profession: IT Support Profession: Lawyer
Tech proficiency: 7 Tech proficiency: 4
Agostino - AN
Hours spent with computers/week: 40 Hours spent with computers/week: 40 Johanna JJ
Artistic proficiency: 6 Artistic proficiency: 3
How often do you draw: Once a month How often do you draw: Once a year
Used VR before: no Used VR before: no Stage Code
Interview 01 - IN1
Tilt Brush Experiment - TBE
Video Response - VDR
Interview 02 - IN2

All footage recorded during the observations has been collated into four
films one for each participant. These can be found on the enclosed
storage device and online 54, with full transcripts in the appendix.
References to the observations are labelled with the system:

Name : Stage Code : Film Timecode (MMSS)

For example, a quote from Dominics Interview 01 at 20 minutes and 45


seconds would be DS:IN1:2045
JOHANNA AGOSTINO

Age: 25 Age: 26
Tech proficiency: 8 Tech proficiency: 8
Profession: Architect Profession: Architect
Hours spent with computers/week: Everyday Hours spent with computers/week: >70
Artistic proficiency: 9 Artistic proficiency: 5
How often do you draw: All the time How often do you draw: 2 days a week
Used VR before: no Used VR before: - no
 7+(6,6SOD\OLVWDWKWWSVZZZ\RXWXEHFRPXVHU-DJJVSHU

THE PARTICIPANTS

40 41
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s
4.1

Interview 01 : On Previous VR Experience

1 : How did it feel?

DS:IN1:0120 - weird, immersive...its not your normal conception of reality. It


was like being in another skin, seeing through someone elses eyes.
JS:IN1:0105 - very real, very quickly... I think because of the three
dimensionality of it and being able to walk around it is like reality - an
alternative reality, but definitely a reality
AN:IN1:0220 - Claustrophobic at first...but looking around is a really liberating
feeling. It really starts to click once you start walking within the space.
Despite the initial exposure to VR taking place six months before this
JJ:IN1:0140 - more real...really exciting
interview, all participants had strong and vivid memories of the experience.
Most participants said they had thought about since, with all participants
2: Whats the closest existing experience you can compare it to? expressing excitement at the prospect of another exposure. Three specific
questions yielded an interesting variety of rich descriptions from participants.
DS:IN1:0305 - its similar to playing a videogame but much more immersive
and interactive While there was no immediate consensus, the answers to 1 and 3 suggest
JS:IN1:0300 - an immersive art experience in a gallery...because you forget that the VR experience is remembered as real, even if that reality is not
where you are. Even though you know its not real, it starts to feel more real exactly equivalent to physical reality. Meanwhile, the mentions of art
than reality. experiences, videogames, and diving in answers to question 2 begin to
AN:IN1:0430 - being in a white room in which you can spray paint all over... suggest the notion of VR being perceived as a separated reality that both
space that is completely up to you
is and isnt like the physical world. This is a notion that will be reinforced in
JJ:IN1:0256 - being underwater...like diving, having a mask on
later observations.

3 : Real or u nre al?

DS:IN1:0535 - when youre doing it, its real...and afterwards you forget the
immersive experience...like a dream, a memory that you cant quite grasp
JS:IN1:0444 - very real
AN:IN1:0650 - its real because it becomes a prosthesis for your senses
JJ:IN1:0345 - real in a weird way. Not real like being in this room, but a
different kind of real

42 43
4.2

Tilt Brush Experiment Jenny

JS:TBE:0500

JS:TBE:0720

JS:TBE:1625

JS:TBE:1435

VIRTUAL PHYSICAL

44 45
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

Dominic

DS:TBE:0715

Fig. 12.

Participants Photo from inside


the Virtual Construction

DS:TBE:0930

DS:TBE:1040

DS:TBE:1435
Fig. 13.
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
Participants Photo from outside
the Virtual Construction

46 47
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s CC HH AA PP TT EE RR 41 :: R
J A
e sS uP lEt Rs

Johanna

JJ:TBE:0515

Fig. 14.

Participants Photo from inside


the Virtual Construction

JJ:TBE:1045

JJ:TBE:1435

JJ:TBE:1615
Fig. 15.
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
Participants Photo from outside
the Virtual Construction

48 49
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s C H A P T E R 1 : J A S P E R

Agostino

AN:TBE:0815

Fig. 16.

Participants Photo from inside


the Virtual Construction

AN:TBE:1115

AN:TBE:1735

AN:TBE:1835
Fig. 17.
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
Participants Photo from outside
the Virtual Construction

50 51
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s
4.3

Video Response

This section presents participants descriptions from the video reflections.


In order to enable discussion of the vast amount of data collected, findings
have been summarised and grouped into four main areas. These areas are
defined not by an outside position, but by participants own overlapping
language and descriptions, representing the first stages of a definition of the
experience of VR. These areas went on to form the basis of the questioning
in the second interview. For full transcripts, refer to the appendix.

4.3.A Cocoons and Physicality


DS, AN and JJ all instinctively created spaces around themselves,
constructing them from within. When watching the recording back, both
DS and AN described their space as a cocoon 5556 multiple times, as well
as talking about wanting to delineate space through the reach of their
body 57 or by drawing around themselves 58. DS and AN also both mentioned
stepping outside of their space and finding their different perception of
it interesting, with AN stating that its weird to not have any transition
between inside and outside...you can just move straight through something
you have drawn 59. DS described the act of virtual drawing as having the
physicalness of painting 60, stating that you dont normally get that with
a computer interaction...its nice to be physical with it 61. JS expressed a
similar distinction, between watching the recording and being within VR,
stating: my experience was that I was there, and now Im just watching it
on a screen. Its not the same 62 and its like watching this has nothing to do
with what I was doing. It just looks rubbish and fake 63.

55 '69'5

56 $19'5

57 $19'5

58 '69'5

59 $19'5

60 '69'5

61 '69'5

62 -69'5

63 -69'5

52 53
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

4.3.B Lines and Solids 4.3.D Glitches and Collisions


JJ, AN and DS all made a distinction between line brushes and solid Although all participants collided with the edge of the physical room when
brushes and their effects upon the perception of the space they delineated. drawing, none rescaled or moved the virtual environment in response.
JJ mentioned filling in the walls, stating thats its actually really nice when Of the collision, DS stated: Id completely forgotten about the outside
its dense like a wall 64, and that she found the smoke brush to be the most environment until I smashed into something 75, and AN mentioned when
real element...if you put it around its actually like smoke which is much colliding that he could really feel the confinements of the space outside of
nicer than the pen 65. DS aimed to make a light environment and described virtual reality 76. JJ and AN both had glitches whilst drawing, and described
the default light brush as just drawing lines , saying when finding the
66
their frustration at this and the desire to keep the space clean 77 78
, with
fire brush that was great because it was more of a wall . AN found the
67
AN showing personal investment in his drawing when using terms such as
paper brush interesting because its thick and thin...and really promising to housekeeping and repairing 79 to describe the act of deleting glitched lines.
delineate space 68
AN also mentioned his annoyance at being dependent on the vision of
the outside cameras 80 to accurately reflect his physical actions within the
4.3.C Scales and Wonderlands VE. In contrast, JS and DS expressed wanting to make as much mess as I
DS, JS and JJ did use the scaling tool whilst drawing. JJ compared adjusting could 81 and to create some chaos 82 respectively, suggesting a rather more
the scale of her door to being Alice In Wonderland , echoing JSs earlier
69
detached perception of the VE.
mention of the same reference. JJ and JS also talked about the scale
of known physical objects of the door and the dress form as right and
wrong 7071, with JJ mentioning that changing the scale of the space changed
her perception of her own size: you become like a tiny person 72. DS also
rescaled his space to see what it looked like from the outside 73, and when
outside, said it looked really strange, I just wanted to be back inside it...
when I was inside it felt more like mine 74.

 --9'5

65 --9'5

66 '69'5

67 '69'5 75 '69'5

68 $19'5 76 $19'5

69 --9'5 77 $19'5

70 --9'5 78 --9'5

71 -69'5 79 $19'5

72 --9'5 80 $19'5

73 '69'5 81 -69'5

 '69'5 82 '69'5

54 55
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s
4.4

Interview 02

1 : How did it feel?

DS:IN2:1600 - great, it felt great, it was really bright and sunny. It made me The second interview, conducted shortly after the Video Response, began
happy. with a repeat of the questions from Interview 01. The change in response
JS:IN2:1905 - it felt nice to be back...like it was somewhere I had been to these questions demonstrates the difference between a recent and a
before. remembered perception of VR. Answers to the same three questions shown
AN:IN2:2015 - great in 4.1 are presented here for direct comparison.
JJ:IN2:1735 - strange because I was asked to draw a space...when I used the
first pen I drew some static things, but what actually makes it more spatial is
While the participants opinions on the reality of VR didnt change, the
when you try to cover everything around you. It makes it much more spatial
answers to question 2 all show a significance difference in perception.
for you than just drawing an object
The responses in Interview 01 described abstract detached worlds,
whereas these responses are all much more focused on physicality and
embodiment. Through questioning, this transpired to be a crucial element
2: Whats the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
of the experience of VR for the participants.
DS:IN2:1735 - dancing
AN:IN2:2135 - like sitting on a beach and building a huge sand ball around Following the initial repeat questioning, participants were asked to elaborate
you where you have endless resources of material and you start playing on statements made within the experiment and response. Using the areas
with itbut its really difficult to relate it to anything outside of VR of interest established in 4.3, these further explorations are summarised
JJ:IN2:1840 - Painting a wall...but it is like being underwater somehow... below. Section headings demonstrate further knowledge gained on each
especially when you cant really feel the end of the space, its all black area through the questioning.
around you... you dont really know where the boundaries are which makes
me feel really strange...insecure. You could go everywhere, but you know 4.4.A Cocoons and Physicality facilitate Ownership and Inhabitation
you cant go everywhere

When questioned, all participants considered inhabitation and interaction


to be a crucial part of the spatial experience, with emphasis on the ability to
3 : Real or u nre al?
simultaneously construct and inhabit as a unique quality of the experience.
Discussing his construction, DS mentioned being satisfied with having
DS:IN2:3215 - it was definitely real. I feel like its gone now...I want to create
created it so that I could then inhabit it 83 and describing it as something I
another one with a different mood.
JS:IN2:2920 - its completely real could never inhabit other than in that situation 84. When asked if he wouldve
AN:IN2:3325 - in between I almost started to treat the space as real...but at had the same happiness in someone elses construction, however, he
some point you just get the idea that thats just an illusion, a representation of responded: probably not because I wouldnt have had the physicality of
something, its just within the drawing and not within the physical boundary. doing it... it wasnt really about the being in it, it was about the making of it 85.
I guess this proved it to be much more virtual This suggests that the act of doing is as important as inhabiting.
JJ:IN2:3120 - different real...it is real because it exists as a space. Its not
unreal. Its like in a dream 83 '6,1

 '6,1

85 '6,1

56 57
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

JS also mentioned creating objects to be experienced, saying: I made the The delineation that these elements provided created a strong experiential
bars so that I could walk through them...I was drawing things that I could distinction between the space inside the construction and that outside.
then experience 86, and that thats the kind of thing that you cant do in the Inside was described using words such as homely, comfortable, and
real world but you can do in that space 87. JJ showed the same intent, saying referred to as my space, while outside was described as disconcerting,
that as soon as you define the space you try to use it , and stating of
88
nowhere, blank. Being outside the construction changed participants
drawing around herself that its it was really fun... like something you cant perception of the construction itself, with AN seeing the it from an object
do in any other space 89. When explaining the difference between watching point of view and not from a space point of view any more 94, and DS
the recording and being in VR, JJ described inhabitation as a key aspect of explaining that he stepped outside to see if I could see the feeling I was
VRs reality, stating: in the VR its actually there...you feel like its more real. having inside from outside, but it was just a mess 95.
When you see it on the screen its really flat and youre aware that this is
not really a room 90. This distinction was made by all participants, showing 4.4.C Scales and Wonderlands complicate Reality and Consequence
that the embodiment of VR is clearly essential to its perception as a reality, When directly asked whether the space was real or unreal, there was not
distinguishing it from more separated methods of experiencing VEs. a consensus, with participants split between completely real 96 and not
unreal 97. When describing the experience, however, no participant referred
4.4.B Lines and Solids differentiate Nowhere and Walls to the virtual space as real, but all referred to the physical world as the real
When constructing their spaces, participants referred to various elements world to distinguish it from the Virtual. 98 Further complicating the use of the
using terms such as wall, floor, ceiling, stair, door, and expressed a need to term, DS and JS, both of whom answered real to the final question, also
have these elements to define the space. Explaining her earlier statement described wanting to create chaos and make a mess. When questioned
having walls is nice, JJ said when you think of space, you want things on this urge, DS described enjoying the freedom of VR, explaining that you
to define the space 91, and elaborated on the distinction between line can create chaos and then you just press delete...theres no consequence 99,
brushes and solid brushes. DS described his space as needing a floor, and confirming the perception of VR as a detached reality.
when questioned, explained that once I had a floor in place I was more
comfortable that I wasnt falling through space or wasnt in nowhere 92, 4.4.D Collisions and Glitches deteriorate Presence and Agency
saying of the physical floor that it didnt matter, because I couldnt perceive When asked to explain the feeling and effects of colliding with the physical
it 93. environment, participants broadly agreed that, although it gave them an

86 -6,1  $1,1

87 -6,1 95 '6,1

88 --,1 96 -6,1

89 --,1 97 --,1

90 --,1 98 '6,1


 -6,1
91 --,1  $1,1
 --,1
92 '6,1
99 '6,1
93 '6,1

58 59
4.5

Ethnographic Study

increased awareness of the physical environment around them, this didnt The unintended intuitive richness of the language can be clearly shown
really bring them out. JS and JJ both described the physical limits of the through a single quote: me in the space I imagined 105. This statement
room restricting their virtual experience, stating I felt like I could go further was given when the participant was asked how they would explain the
than that, but then you find yourself hitting into things...Its annoying, its like photograph they took within the VE, which showed a representation of their
that real world is impinging on my experience 100
and you dont see that virtual avatar in the construction. When broken down, this single sentence
there is an end and you wish that there is no end to it 101. DS on the other reveals a great amount about the participants perception of the virtual
hand, although aware of the physical from multiple collisions, described experience:
his perception of the physical from inside the virtual as otherworldly 102
,
explaining that, when colliding with physical objects, it was like a different ME identifying with virtual avatar
reality that I was affecting but it wasnt in my experience at the time 103. IN feeling spatially present
Glitches had more of a negative experiential effect on participants, with THE SPACE experiencing VR as a spatial reality
AN saying he felt frustrated, helpless, and violated, describing the glitch I feeling ownership of the virtual construction
as something you have no agency over and its piercing you and its IMAGINED created from ideas / an illusory creation
uncomfortable 104
.
Although these observations and interviews contain a vast amount of
qualitative data, they also clearly demonstrate the difficultly of discussion
in this field. The perception of VR is highly implicit to understand it, it must
100 -6,1
be experienced an incredibly limiting factor in its progress. To develop
101 --,1
cultures further, knowledge must be made explicit, allowing discussion
102 '6,1
and understanding to be exchanged without requiring experience. This is
103 '6,1
the aim of ethnography: to make implicit cultural knowledge explicit, and
 $1,1
knowable to those outside of the culture itself.

To achieve this, data collected from the interviews is analysed according the
process laid out in James Spradleys handbook, The Ethnographic Interview.
Spradley describes the process as examining some phenomenon, dividing
it into its constituent parts, then identifying the relationships among the
parts and their relationship to the whole 106. Key to ethnographic analysis
is avoiding imposing categories from the outside that create order and
pattern rather than discover it[it] is the search for parts of a culture and
their relationships as conceptualised by the informants 107.

The full ethnographic analysis can be found in the appendix, but this summary will present specific findings that

are relevant to the discussion that follows.

105 --,1

106 6SUDGOH\-  7KH(WKQRJUDSKLF,QWHUYLHZVWHG0LQQHVRWD+ROW5LQHKDUWDQG:LQVWRQS

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60 61
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

Ta x o n o m i e s

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ITcThecRoomc ITcVirtualcConstructionc Paintingc Encasementc
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Thecrealcworldc Spherec Undoc Helplessc
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Objectc Cleaningc Annoyancec
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c
Blackcskyc c c
Nowherec C: WAYScTOcCONSTRUCTcINcVIR
Blankcspacec Creatingc
Non-realityc Solidctoolsc
SensorycProsthesisc Firec
Illusionc Smokec
Representationc Bubblescc
Dreamc LinecToolsc
ImaginedcSpacec Lightc
AnothercSkincc FunctioncToolsc
c Linearc
Mirrorc
Erasingc
Housekeepingc
Repairingcc
Undoingcc
c
c
62 63
G: Kindscofc Dimensionscofccontrastc
Feelingsc
SpatialcTermc SuggestscPresencec POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc
P a r a d i g m Wo r k s h e e t s
PRESENCEc

Encasementc YESc YESc POSITIVEc

Ownershipc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

c Happinessc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Func NOc YESc POSITIVEc


E: Descriptionsc Dimensionscofccontrastc
Satisfactionc NOc YESc POSITIVEc
ofcVirtualc
SpatialcTermc TermcofcExistencec ReferencectocReality:c
Environmentc Violatedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc
POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc
Buriedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc
Boundlessc YESc YESc POSITIVEc

Piercedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc


BlackcSkyc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Helplessc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc


Nowherecc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Disconcertedc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc


BlankcSpacec YESc YESc NEGATIVEc

BREAKcINcPRESENCEc
Outsidec YESc YESc POSITIVEc

Noncrealityc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc Annoyedc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Sensorycprosthesisc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc Frustratedc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Illusionc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc Dependantc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Representationc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc Uncomfortablec NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Dreamc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc RealisingcIllusionc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

ImaginedcSpacec YESc NOc NEGATIVEc Controlledc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

AnothercSkinc /c YESc POSITIVEc Skepticalc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

c c

F: Descriptionsc Dimensionscofccontrastc
H: Descriptionscofc Dimensionscofccontrastc
ofcPhysicalc Virtualc
SpatialcTermc ReferencectocSpatialc MancMadecTypologyc NaturalcTypologyc
Environmentc SpatialcTermc TermcofcExistencec ReferencectocReality:c Constructionc
Reality:c
POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc
POSITIVEcorc
PhysicalcBoundaryc YESc YESc POSITIVEc
NEGATIVEc

Outsidec YESc YESc POSITIVEc Drawingc NOc NEGATIVEc YESc NOc

ExteriorcSpacecc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Cocoonc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

ThecRealcroomc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Hutcc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Thecactualcroomc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Cavec YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

Exteriorcspherec YESc YESc POSITIVEc MycSpacec YESc POSITIVEc NOc NOc

ThecNormalcWorldc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Insidec YESc POSITIVEc /c /c

Thecrealcworldc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Encasementc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

Othercspacec YESc /c POSITIVEc Domec YESc POSITIVEc YESc YESc

PhysicalcRealityc YESc YESc POSITIVEc Roomc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

c Structurec YESc POSITIVEc YESc YESc

Facadec YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Objectc YESc POSITIVEc /c /c

Wombc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

Wonderlandc YESc NEGATIVEc /c /c

Wallc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Ceilingc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Floorc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

cc

64 65
05
DISCUSSION

The nature of the value of


intellectual and aesthetic
activity in VR environments
and its relation to ontology is
its own topic, one worthy of
future research.*

MOORADIAN, N. (2006). VIRTUAL

REALITY, ONTOLOGY, AND VALUE.

Metaphilosophy, 37(5),

66 67
C H A P T E R 5 : D i s c u s s i o n
5.1

The Realities of Virtual Reality

HY P OTHESIS: A-P HYSICAL V IRTUAL SPACE IS EX P ER IENTIALLY


EQU IVALENT TO P HYSICAL R EALITY.

Although it is tempting to use the four participants responses to the


straightforward question real or unreal - completely real, definitely real,
different real, and more virtual - as answers to the initial hypothesis, they
only partially convey the complexity of the experience. Even in participants
own descriptions, they contradicted and complicated their own position.
While there are two kinds of reality involved - Physical and Virtual - the
Kinds of Space taxonomy demonstrates that there are three distinct kinds
of space involved in the experience of Virtual Reality, that differ in terms of
how they are experienced, how they feel, and how real they are perceived
to be. They can be described as:

In Physical Reality
1. The Physical Room
The physical space in which the virtual reality experience takes place -
in this experiment, a bedroom. Referred to as: the real room, the outside
environment, exterior space

In Virtual Reality
2. The Virtual Environment
The empty space of the program - in this experiment, the canvas
space of Tilt Brush. Referred to as: outside, nowhere, blank space
3. The Virtual Construction
The three dimensional experienced space - in this experiment, the
drawing created by participants. Referred to as: inside, cocoon, my
space

During the video response and interviews, all three spaces were discussed
by participants using the words inside and outside, and the multiple
Fig. 19. relative uses of these terms by participants highlights the perceived spatial
Fig. 18.
Overlaid physical and virtual relationships between the distinct spaces. There was an inside/outside
Alice in Wonderland and Through imagery to show experience of
The Looking Glass sapce.

68 69
C H A P T E R 5 : D i s c u s s i o n

relationship between virtual reality(inside) and physical reality(outside), but This demonstrates the complex nature of the existence of virtual reality -
also within virtual reality itself, between the virtual construction(inside) and there is a first act of separation into the illusion, and then an acceptance
the virtual environment(outside). This can be summarised as: of the reality within that illusion. In their descriptions, two participants
specifically referenced Alice In Wonderland (Fig. 18), and, although
The virtual construction is inside the virtual environment, which is inside referencing different aspects of Wonderland, it is a telling comparison. It
the physical room. was a reference also used by the creator of the first HMD VR system, Ivan
Sutherland, who described the perfect virtual reality - his Ultimate Display
However, there was not a strong perception of being inside both the - as a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter...
physical room and the virtual environment simultaneously. Collisions and such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked. 108
glitches that caused breaks in presence gave participants an awareness of Just like the mentions of dreams and illusions, as well as the comparisons
the world outside, but when present, the participant described being in a to diving and theatre, alluding to Wonderland shows that Virtual Reality is
separate reality, not being inside the physical room. Therefore: experienced as a world like ours but different, detached - an other reality.
That participants accepted both of the dissonant realities demonstrates
TO BE INSIDE THE PHYSICAL ROOM is to be outside the virtual construction, that the notion of presence requiring a belief that the participant no longer
outside the virtual environment, outside virtual reality. inhabits the physical space 109 is indeed an immersion fallacy, reinforcing
[outside-outside] the meta-fictional 110 understanding of virtual space.

TO BE INSIDE THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT is to be outside the virtual This relative reality also highlights the crucial role that delineation of space
construction, inside the virtual environment, inside virtual reality. plays in perception and experience. As one participant stated regarding
[outside-inside] their virtual construction: once I had a [virtual] floor in place I was more
comfortable that I wasnt...in nowhere. 111 While physicality is an important
TO BE INSIDE THE VIRTUAL CONSTRUCTION is to be inside the virtual part of the experience, there is no difference between the technology
construction, inside the virtual environment, inside virtual reality displaying the environment and the construction, but a few textured lines in
[inside-inside] explorable space transform a blank sky into a cocoon, outside into inside,
and nowhere into somewhere.
It is crucial to distinguish the two distinct kinds of virtual space, because they
were perceived to have different states of reality. The virtual environment
is described with words of emptiness and non-existence - blank and
nowhere - whilst the virtual construction is described with spatial and
inhabitable words - a cocoon, a hut, a womb. However, when describing
108 6XWKHUODQG,  7KH8OWLPDWH'LVSOD\VWHG>HERRN@$YDLODEOHDWKWWSZRUU\GUHDPFRPUHIV
virtual reality as a whole, it was referred to as a non-reality, an illusion, a 6XWKHUODQG7KH8OWLPDWH'LVSOD\SGI>$FFHVVHG'HF@

dream, in comparison to the real world of physical reality. This leads to the 109 6ODWHU0  'HSWKRI3UHVHQFHLQ9LUWXDO(QYLURQPHQWV>RQOLQH@$YDLODEOHDWKWWSSXEOLFDWLRQVOLVWRUJ
VDPD]RQDZVFRPGDWDPHOVODWHUUHIGHSWKRISUHVHQFHSGI
conclusion that:
110 :HOVK7  0L[HGUHDOLVPVWHG0LQQHVRWD8QLYHUVLW\RI0LQQHVRWD3UHVV
The virtual construction is less real than the physical room, but more real 111 '6,1
than the virtual environment.

70 71
C H A P T E R 5 : D i s c u s s i o n
5.2

The Physicality of Virtual Reality

While the language used to describe the virtual construction does


suggest it is perceived as a real space, it seems from the terms used that
this perception is based on physical simulation. The construction was
described using almost exclusively physical terms: either simple man made
terminologies wall, floor, hut, - or naturally occurring enclosures cocoon,
cave, womb 112. In this era of technological integration, there is no shortage
of common virtual terms that could have been used, and yet physical terms
were preferred - in fact, only one participant used the word virtual at all
when referring to their construction.

Elements described as WALLS


It is clear from looking at the constructions themselves however, that
these are more than simply simulations. In just ten minutes, participants
created space made of light that described feelings, space that could be
experienced differently at different scales, and space designed to encase
the body. Whilst some virtual elements were described with physical spatial
terms, even they do not truly simulate them. The virtual elements described
as walls were simply the lines that surrounded the participant, the floor the
lines beneath them - their actual design and construction owed nothing to
the physical room from which they entered the Virtual Reality.(Fig. 20)

Elements described as STAIRS This linguistic mimicry highlights the lack of, and the need for, an established
vocabulary regarding Virtual Reality. Although participants did describe their
construction as a cocoon or hut, they often referred to them as simply it,
or the thing. One quote by on participant demonstrates the complexities of
attempting to explain the overlapping spaces involved, and the inadequacy
of the language used to describe them:

I felt fine scaling it at the beginning because I didnt have the thing, but
once I had the thing I didnt want to turn it around anymore. You have
constructed the thing and its like this - you dont want to move it around
because its static in this space 113

In the first sentence of the statement, it is used to refer to the virtual


A lightbuld and a smoke floor
environment, and the thing to the virtual construction, but in the second
Fig. 20.

Original virtual elements with 112 ,WLVLPSRUWDQWWRHPSKDVLVHWKDWWKLVGLVWLQFWLRQZDVQRWEHWZHHQDUFKLWHFWXUDODQGQRQDUFKLWHFWXUDO


simulated physical descriptions SDUWLFLSDQWVDOOSDUWLFLSDQWVXVHGERWKW\SHVRIWHUP

113 --,1

72 73
C H A P T E R 4 : R e s u l t s

sentence, it is used to refer to both spaces, as well as the virtual environment This kind of roof is covered with leaves put together, so that neither
being referred to as this space. Although statements like this can be the sun nor the rain can penetrate therein; and now the man is lodged.
decoded when analysed, they can obfuscate meaning and complicate Indeed cold and heat will make him fencible of their inconveniences
explanations, and are almost meaningless outside of the context of their in his house, open on every part; but then he will fill up between the
context. A defined set of terms would allow both those who experience the space of the pillars, and will then find himself secure. Such is the step
space to describe it and those who do not to understand it. Giving future of simple nature: It is to the imitation of her proceedings, to which art
participants terms derived from descriptions - such as virtual environment owes its birth 114
and virtual construction - to describe their experience would facilitate more
detailed communication. The participants process was almost identical to this, but rather than
seeking shelter from the rain, they sought
The physical language demonstrates more than a lack of vocabulary,
however. Investigating the type of physical term used also sheds light an inside delineated from nowhere, and, needing to make an
on the way in which Virtual Reality is perceived and experienced. Several encasement but not a simulation, choose the most solid brushes
participants specifically mentioned that physicality is crucial to Virtual to create walls at the reach of their arms, and now the participant is
Reality, describing it as that which distinguishes it as an interface with present.
Virtual Environments from the traditional screen and controller that are the
current standard: in Virtual Reality you dont have to create that separation Laugier suggested his theory of the creation of the primitive hut in order to
you are inside it. Being an essential aspect of the experience, physicality criticise the architecture of the time. It demonstrated what he believed to be
had a direct bearing on the way the constructions were created and the the essential and forgotten aspects of the creation of space, which should
how they were described. Whether from man made or natural typologies, return to being the focus of architectural design. In the primitiveness of their
the terms used all describe simple spaces, all at a scale directly related to construction, the participants cocoons exhibit the essential aspects of their
that of the body. Participants did not seek towering virtual holograms, but creation, defined not by the proportions of materials, or the need for shelter,
homely cocoon huts. but by the scale of the participants body, and the non-reality of a boundless
virtual environment. While the participants were no doubt influenced by the
This inclination to surround themselves in encasements at the scale of their various constraints of the experiment, the spaces defined and the language
body is strikingly similar to Laugiers concept of the origin of architecture used to describe them still clearly demonstrate that the scale of the body
as the primitive hut. (Fig.21) Laugier describes the primitive man, seeking and the physicality in interaction are essential to the reality of the virtual.
shelter from the rain: This has been the downfall of so many virtual environments, with countless
The man is willing to make himself an abode which covers but not visions of virtual space that bear no relationship to the scale of the person
buries him. Some branches broken down in the forest are the proper experiencing the space itself, imagined cyberspaces that are derived more
materials for his design. He chooses four of the strongest, which he from the nature of the program that produces them than the person that
raises perpendicularly and which he disposes into a square. Above he explores them.
puts four others across, and upon there he raises some that incline from
both sides.

 /DXJLHU0  (VVD\RQ$UFKLWHFWXUHVWHG/RQGRQ3ULQWHGIRU72VERUQHDQG6KLSWRQS

74 75
When setting out the initial concept of what would later develop into VR,
Morton Heilig said that although It would seem from the preceding analysis
that my conception of the function of the cinema of the future is to faithfully
reproduce mans superficial and immediate perception of the world about
him. Nothing could be further from the truth. The history of art demonstrates
over and over again that some of the most valid experiences come from the
inner and not the outer world. 115. These primitive virtual huts certainly owe
their birth to inner experience, and, like the primitive physical huts before
them, exhibit the essentials of virtual architecture which should inform
future virtual architectural design.

+HLOLJ0  (/&LQHGHO)XWXUR7KH&LQHPDRIWKH)XWXUH3UHVHQFH7HOHRSHUDWRUVDQG9LUWXDO(QYLURQPHQWV


  SS

Fig. 21.
Fig. 22.
The primitive hut at the birth
of architecture The primitive virtual hut

76 77
06
CONCLUSION

The ultimate promise of VR


may be to transform, to redeem
our awareness of reality-
something that the highest
art has attempted to do and
something hinted at in the very
label virtual reality, a label that
has stuck, despite all objections,
and that sums up a century of
technological innovation*

Heim, M. (1994). The Metaphysics of

Virtual Reality. 1st ed. New York: Oxford

University Press.

78 79
C H A P T E R 6 : C o n c l u s i o n
6.1

Dissonant Design

This thesis began with the desire to unshackle virtual reality from the
physical world, but the ethnographic approach to participants experiences
has demonstrated that physicality is integral to our understanding of space
and our perception of reality. While the experience provided by modern VR
systems is restricted by the constraints of current technology - the headsets
field of view, the processing power of a computer, the 3 neglected senses -
even a theoretically perfect VR system would still contend with an exisiting
understanding of the physical world.

As has been stated by others, and demonstrated in this experiment, the


notion of total immersion is a fallacy. Presence in virtual reality does not
require physical reality to be forgotten, it requires an understanding of the
awareness of both realities and an environment that enables an acceptance
of this dissonance. The difference between acceptable and unacceptable
dissonance can be seen in JJ and ANs interactions with their constructions.
JJ created a door whilst sitting on the floor, only realising that is was far too
small when she attempted to move through it. Rather than causing a break
in presence, this moment of acceptable dissonance, between expected
and experienced relative scales, strengthened her presence, changing her
perception of the scale of her own body. In contrast, after completing his
cocoon from the inside, AN walked through its walls to view it from the
outside, lifting his leg up as if stepping through a gap. When asked about
this afterwards, he described this moment of passing through the walls
without any impact or threshold as something that made his construction
belong to the virtual world and not to the real world 116, an unacceptable
dissonance that diminished the reality of the experience.

Rather than restricting the possibilities of virtual construction, awareness


of both realities enables the design of Virtual Reality environments to be
informed by Mixed Reality considerations. Mixed Reality (MR) refers to
systems that allow direct perception of both physical and virtual realities

116 $1,1

80 81
C H A P T E R 6 : C o n c l u s i o n

simultaneously, integrating virtual objects into physical environments that


interact with and are indistinguishable from it. The key difference between
the concepts of VR and MR is that whereas the VR paradigm presumes
an opposition between virtual and material environments, the mixed reality
paradigm acknowledges the fluid interpenetration of realms. 117 While
MR represents a different method of experiencing Virtual Environments,
acknowledging this fluid interpretation of reality in VR as well will allow the
creation of innovative virtual architectures and provide greater experiential
presence.

This paper is the beginning of a conversation, and the ethnographic process


Physicality is not simply a cognitive shortcut to reality, it is experientially
has resulted in the definition of a language that can facilitate it. The creations
hardwired within us. Rather than wholly rejecting it, it can be manipulated
of the participants, however, are simply rough sketches of spatial concepts
and reinterpreted through the design freedom of virtual space. Interesting
in need of much development, with a-physical possibilities only beginning
possibilities for a-physical architecture exist in the overlapping boundary
to be explored. Many potential experiments present themselves following
between the two realities, a boundary that I have investigated in my own
these results. An investigation into the types of virtual space participants
architectural design projects. These proposals use VR to separate the visual
may construct; exposing participants to each others virtual constructions
perception of space from the tactile interactions with constructions, creating
and examining how it is understood; constructing curated a-physical
two overlapping spatial realities that depend upon one another. Their
spaces to test certain aspects - the possibilities are vast. What is truly
design demonstrates the impact of virtual reality on physical architecture,
crucial, however, is exploration outside of research studies. As architects
creating haptic infrastructures that exist to maintain the virtuals reality, but
constructing proposals for physical space through virtual interfaces daily, we
in relying on physical architecture to provide this reality, the design of the
must question not only the possibilities of the tools virtual reality provides,
virtual is restricted to physical possibilities. VR that could provide the haptic
but the endless potential of the inhabitable spatial reality that it offers.
response that AN desired would enable virtual design freedom.

Virtual Reality is still in its infancy, but multisensory immersive systems


are a logical development of the HMD. While total VR immersion may
one day be a possibility, and the virtual architecture of that reality may be
wholly a-physical, current systems require an engagement with dissonant
nature of the experience. As for the software, Tilt Brush is the VR equivalent
of Microsoft Paint, a simplistic tool that certainly does not maximise the
potential of the system. This does not, and should not stop the design of
virtual spaces exploring a-physical qualities, but this exploration should be
predicated on an understanding of the essential nature of physicality in the
experience of any spatial reality.

117 :HOVK7  0L[HGUHDOLVPVWHG0LQQHVRWD8QLYHUVLW\RI0LQQHVRWD3UHVV

82 83
84 85
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88 89
Figures

Fig. 01 https://www.jerkersearcher.com/sffaudio_pdfs/
PygmalionsSpectaclesByStanleyGWeinbaumFS.pdf

Fig. 02 http://www.mortonheilig.com

Fig. 03 http://noobist.com/gaming/accessibility-of-vr-the-future-of-
virtual-reality/

Fig. 04 TRON screenshot


Fig. 05 http://www.vizzed.com/games/ms-pacman-(bootleg-(encrypted))-

mame-arcade-52978-game
Fig. 06 http://www.theverge.com/a/virtual-reality
Fig. 07 http://www.theverge.com/a/virtual-reality

Fig. 08 http://assassinscreed.wikia.com
Fig. 09 http://assassinscreed.wikia.com
Fig. 10 Authors own
Fig. 11 Authors own
Fig. 12 Authors own
Fig. 13 Authors own
Fig. 14 Authors own
Fig. 15 Authors own
Fig. 16 Authors own

Fig. 17 Authors own


Fig. 18 http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net
Fig. 19 Authors own

Fig. 20 Authors own


Fig. 21 http://www.promolegno.com/fileadmin/promolegno/media.it/
materialegno/Buch_seite248_01.jpg
Fig. 22 Authors own

90 91
Appendices

A. Ethnographic Study 3

A.1 Data Collection 4

A.2 Descriptive Question Matrix 5


A.3 Domain Analyses 10

A . 4 Ta x o n o m i c A n a l y s e s 13
A.5 Compential Analyses 15

B. Transcripts 19

B.1 Johanna 21
B.2 Dominic 27
B.3 Jenny 33

B.4 Agostino 37
Stepc1c-ccDatacCollectionc

Interviews
Recordings:cc
Filmsconcattachedcdrivec
Viewableconlinecat:chttps://www.youtube.com/user/Jaggsperc
Transcripts:catcthecendcofcthecappendixc
Images
Participantscphotos:concattachedcdrivec
Authorscphotos:concattachedcdrivec
Models
TiltcBrushcandcFBXcfilesconcattachedcdrivec
Viewableconlinecat:chttps://sketchfab.com/elburro/modelsc

c c

Ethnographic Study

c
3 4
AboutcSPACEc
Stepc2c-cDescriptivecObservationc Spacevs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings

DescriptivecQuestioncMatrixc Space/Spacec
Physicalccontainingcspacec-cthecroomcincwhichcthecparticipantciscexperiencingcVRc
cc SPACEc OBJECTc ACTc ACTIVITYc TIMEc ACTORc GOALc FEELINGc
Virtualcenvironmentc-cThecemptycvirtualcworldcofcpotentialc
InsidecVirtualcspacec-cthecspaceccreatedcthroughcusecofcvirtualctoolc
SPACEc Cancyouc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallcthec Whatcspatialc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Whatcspacescarec Outsidecvirtualcspacec
describecinc thecwaysc thecwaysc wayscspacecisc changesc thecwaysc thecwayscisc associatedcwithc
detailcallc spacecisc spacecisc organizedcbyc occurc spaceciscusedc relatedctoc feelings?c HybridcPerceivedcspacec-cspacecimaginedconto/intendedcincvirtualcspacec
places?c organizedcbyc organizedc activities?c overtime?c bycactors?c goals?c
objects?c bycacts?c c
Space/Objectsc
Physicalc Spacec -c Visualc Interface,c Controlc Interface,c Synchronisedc objects,c
unsynchronisedcphysicalcobjectsc
OBJECTc Wherecarec Cancyouc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallcthec Howcarec Whatcarecallc Howcarec Whatcarecallcthec
objectsc describecinc thecwaysc wayscobjectscarec objectscusedc thecwaysc objectscusedc wayscobjectscevokec Virtualc worldc -c Virtualc UI,c Virtualc Tools,c Synchronisedc objects,c unsynchronisedc virtualc
located?c detailcallc objectscarec usedcinc atcdifferentc objectscarec incseekingc feelings?c
objects?c usedcinc activities?c times?c usedcbyc goals?c
objects,cvirtuallycconstructedcobjectsc
acts?c actors?c Virtualcconstructedcspacec-cvirtuallycconstructedcobjectsc
c
ACTc Wherecdoc Howcdocactsc Cancyouc Howcarecactscac Howcdocactsc Whatcarecthec Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallcthec
actscoccur?c incorporatec describecinc partcofcactivities?c varycoverc wayscactscarec thecwayscactsc wayscactscareclinkedc
Space/Actc
thecusecofc detailcallc time?c performedcbyc arecrelatedctoc tocfeelings?c
objects?c acts?c actors?c goal?c
Allc Actsc occurc simultaneouslyc inc bothc thec physicalc andc virtualc space,c butc manifestc
themselvescdifferentlyc

ACTIVITYc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Cancyouc Howcdoc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Howcdocactivitiesc


c
thecplacesc thecwaysc thecwaysc describecinc activitiescvaryc thecwaysc thecwaysc involvecfeelings?c
activityc activitiesc activitiesc detailcallc atcdifferentc activitiesc activitiesc
Space/Timec
occur?c incorporatec incorporatec activities?c times?c involvec involvecgoals?c
PhysicalcSpacec-cBeforecenteringcVirtual,caftercleavingcvirtualc
objects?c acts?c actors?c
VirtualcSpacec-cwhencincvirtualc
Perceivedcspacec-cbreakcincpresencec
TIMEc Wherecdoc Whatcarecallc Howcdocactsc Howcdocactivitiesc Cancyouc Whencarecallc Howcarec Whencarecfeelingsc
timec thecwaysc fallcintoc fallcintoctimec describecinc thectimesc goalscrelatedc evoked?c c
periodsc timecaffectc periods?c periods?c detailcallctimec actorscareconc toctimec
occur?c objects?c periods?c stage?c periods?c Space/Actorsc
Physicalcspacec-cParticipantscphysicalcselfc
ACTORc Wherecdoc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Howcarecactorsc Howcdocactorsc Cancyouc Whichcactorsc Whatcarecthec Virtualcspacec-cParticipant'scvirtualcavatar,cvirtualccharacters?c
actorscplacec thecwaysc thecwaysc involvedcinc changecoverc describecinc areclinkedctoc feelingsc
themselves actorscusec actorscusec activities?c timecorcatc detailcallc whichcgoals?c experiencedcbyc PerceivedcSpacec-cParticipant'scvirtualcavatarc
?c objects?c acts?c differentc actors?c actors?c
times?c
c
Space/Goalsc
GOALc Wherecarec Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Whatcactivitiesc Whichcgoalsc Howcdocthec Cancyouc Whatcarecallcthec VirtualcSpacec-ctocconstructcandcexperiencecvirtualcspacec
goalsc thecwaysc thecwaysc arecgoalcseekingc arecscheduledc variouscgoalsc describecinc wayscgoalscevokec
soughtcandc goalscinvolvec goalsc ofclinkingctoc forcwhichc affectscthec detailcallc feelings?c HybridcPerceivedcspacec-ctoccreatecincendlesscvirtualcwithincphysicalcboundaryc
achieve?c usecofc involvec goals?c time?c variousc goals?c
objects?c acts?c actors?c
c
Space/Feelingsc
FEELINGc Wherecdoc Whatc Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallcthec Howcarec Whatcarecallc Whatcarecallc Cancyoucdescribecinc Physicalc Spacec -c Breakc inc presence,c Virtualc actionc impulsec whenc outsidec ofc virtualc
thecvariousc feelingscleadc thecwaysc wayscfeelingsc feelingsc thecwaysc thecwaysc detailcallcfeelings?c
feelingsc tocthecusecofc feelingsc affectcactivities?c relatedctoc feelingsc feelingsc worldc(iecassassinsccreed,cwantingctocclimbcwalls),cNauseac
statesc whatc affectcacts?c variousctimec involvec influencec VirtualcSpacec-cimmersion,cawe?c
occur?c objects?c periods?c actors?c goals?c
c
cc c c
c
c c

c c
5 6
AboutcOBJECTSc Objects/Timec
Objectsvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings PhysicalcVisualcInterfacec+cPhysicalcControlcInterfacec
Beforec+caftercenteringcvirtual:cacpiececofctechnologicalchardware.c
Objects/Objectsc Whenc insidec virtual:c awarenessc ofc physicalc objectsc lost,c butc theyc enablec
PhysicalcVisualcInterfacec-cthecheadsetcwornctocseecVRc physical/virtualcinteractionc
PhysicalcControlcInterfacec-ctheccontrollercusedctocactcwithincVRc VirtualcUsercInterfacec
VirtualcUsercInterfacec-cmenuscandctoolbarscusedctocselectctoolsc Beforec+caftercenteringcvirtual:cnotcperceivedc
VirtualcToolsc-cvarietycofctools/pens/brushescusedctocconstructcwithincvirtualc Whencinsidecvirtual:cinterfacecforcselectingcvirtualctoolsc
Toolsc VirtualcToolsc
Texturesc Beforecenteringcvirtual:cnotcperceivedc
Brushescc Whenc insidec virtual:c methodc ofc actingc withinc virtualc world:cinteracting,cconstructing,c
Synchronisedc Virtual/Physicalc Objectsc -cobjectscvirtuallycreconstructedcandcmappedc recordingcandcnavigatingcthroughcthecvirtualcspacec
withincvirtualcspacectocmirrorcphysicalcspacecandcprovidechapticcfeedbackc Aftercleavingcvirtual:crememberedcandcpotentiallycmissed/attemptedctocusec(AC2)c
Unsynchronisedc Physicalc Objectsc -cnoncvirtuallycreconstructedcobjectscexistingcwithinc SynchronisedcVirtual/PhysicalcObjectscc
thecphysicalcspacecthatcmaycaccidentallycbeccollidedcwithc Beforecenteringcvirtual:cphysicalcobjectsc
UnsynchronisedcVirtualcObjectsc-cvirtualcobjectscthatchavecnocphysicalcparallelc Whenc insidec virtual:c virtualc objectsc withc physicalc hapticc feedbackc andc physicalc
Interactivecandcnoncinteractivecobjects?cc memoriesc(ifcnoticed)c
Virtuallycconstructedcobjects?c Aftercleavingcvirtual:cphysicalcobjectscwithcvirtualcmemoriesc
Physicalc/cPostcphysicalcobjects?c UnsynchronisedcPhysicalcObjectscc
Beforecenteringcvirtual:cphysicalcobjectsc
c
Whencinsidecvirtual:cnotcperceived.ccollisionccausescbreakcincpresencec
Objects/Spacec
Afterc leavingcvirtual:cphysicalcobjects,cifccollidedcwith,cmaycbecassociatedcwithcvirtualc
Physicalc Visualc Interfacec -c blocksc visualc perceptionc ofc physicalc spacec andc providesc memoryc(ohcitcwascthecfireplacecthatcichit!)c
virtualcvisualcinputc UnsynchronisedcVirtualcObjectsc
Physicalc Controlc Interfacec -c mapsc physicalc movementc ontoc virtualc movementc Beforec+aftercenteringcvirtual:cnotcperceivedc
providingcphysicalcbodycscalectocvirtualcspacec Whencinsidecvirtual:cobjectscthatcfillcvirtualcspacec
VirtualcUsercInterfacec-cprovidescvirtualcvisualclinkctocphysicalcinterfacec
c
VirtualcToolsc-callowscusersctocembodycandcinteractcwithcvirtualcspacec
Objects/Feelingsc
Synchronisedc Virtual/Physicalc Objectsc -c physicalc embodimentc ofc virtualc objectsc
synchronisesc bothc spaces,c creatingc ac unifiedc perceivedc realityc (thec oppositec ofc ac PhysicalcVisualc+cControlcInterfacec-cdelayccanccausecbreakcincpresencecandcnauseac
breakcincpresence)c Synchronisedc Virtual/Physicalc Objectsc -c memoryc canc causec virtualc actionc impulsecinc
Unsynchronisedc Physicalc Objectsc -c causesc separationc inc perceptionc ofc physicalc andc physicalcworldc
virtualc spacec (ac breakc inc presence),c withc userc rememberingc illusionc ofc virtualc andc UnsynchronisedcPhysicalcObjectsc-ccollisionccanccausecbreakcincpresencec
embodimentc ofc physicalc -c virtualc spacecceasesctocbecperceivedcascspace,citciscreducedc UnsynchronisedcVirtualcObjectsc-cinteractionccanccausecfurthercinvestmentcincvirtualc
tocimagec c
Unsynchronisedc Virtualc Objectsc -c ifc immersedc inc virtualc experience,c willcbecacceptedc AboutcACTSc
ascacbelievablecpartcofcfabriccofcvirtualcspacecthatccancbecvirtuallycinteractedcwithc ACTSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
c

Objects/Actsc Acts/Actsc
PhysicalcVisualcInterfacec-cusedctocperceivecandcpartakecincallcvirtualcactsc Movecarmc
PhysicalcControlcInterfacec-cusedctocphysicallycembodycallcvirtualcactsc Pressccontrollerc
VirtualcUsercInterfacec-cusedctocselectcvirtualctoolsc Choosectoolc
VirtualcToolsc-cusedctocenactcallcvirtualcactsc VirtualcDrawingcstroke(allctools)c
SynchronisedcVirtual/PhysicalcObjectsc-cc Rescalecvirtualcconstructionc
UnsynchronisedcPhysicalcObjectsc-cc Rotatecvirtualcconstructionc
UnsynchronisedcVirtualcObjectsc-ccancbecvirtuallycinteractedcwithc Erasec
c Undoc
TakecphotoscwithincVRc

c c
8
Movecphysicalcpositionc AboutcFEELINGSc
Teleportc(Movecvirtualcposition)c FEELINGSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Stepc3c-cDomaincAnalysesc
Virtualcinteractionsc
Physicalccollisionc Feelingsc/cFeelingsc Stepc3.1cDomainccompositioncandcidentificationc
Glitchcc
Immersionc
Re-catchc
Annoyancecc
Re-syncc
Satisfactioncc 1-VOCABULARYc 2-INCLUDEDcTERMSc 3-POSSIBLEcCOVERcTERMSc

Frustrationc (FROMRECORDINGS) (CLASSIFYINGDISCOVEREDVOCABULARY) (MOSTGENERICGROUPING)


AboutcACTIVITIESc Encasementc
ACTIVITIESvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings Funcc ThecrealcWorldc PhysicalcSpacec Namescofcspacesc
Breakcincpresencec ThecPhysicalcRoomc CameracFieldcofcViewc
c
Activitiesc/cActivitiesc Virtualcactioncimpulsecwhencoutsidecofcvirtualcworldc MycSpacec VirtualcEnvironmentc

Nauseac Drawingc InsidecVirtualcDrawingc cc


Drawingc
Cocoonc OutsidecVirtualcDrawingc
Deletingc Awec cc
Hutc c
Movingc Excitementc
Modellingc Discoveryc Toolsc Solidctoolsc NamescofcObjectsc
RecordingcImagesc Empowermentc Texturesc Linectoolsc
Freedomc c
Controllersc
c
Happyc Headsetc

Ownershipc Smokec
AboutcTIMEc Firec
Skepticismc
TIMEvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings Linesc
Violatedc
Coloursc
Helplessc
Time/cTimec Strangenessc Putconcheadsetc EnteringcVRc NamescofcActsc
Beforecenteringcvirtualc Surprisecc RemovingcHeadsetc ExitingcVRc
c
Whencinsidecvirtualc Disconcertingc Movecarmc Toccreatec

Aftercvirtualcexperiencec Boredomc Pressccontrollerc Tocmovec


Choosectoolc Tocrecordc
Experiencingcacbreakcincpresencecwhencwithincvirtualc
VirtualcDrawingcstrokec TocCollidec
c Fillingcinc TocPointc
c
AboutcACTORSc Surroundingcyourselfc TocSketchc

ACTORSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings Rescalecvirtualcconstructionc TocScribblec

c Rotatecvirtualcconstructionc Toctakecnotesc
Erasec TocSpeakc
Actorsc/cActorsc
Undoc TocInhabitc
ParticipantscPhysicalcSelfc c c TakecphotoscincVRc TocGlitchc
Participant'scVirtualcAvatarc RecordcFilmcincVRc

VirtualcCharacters?c Movecphysicalcpositionc
Teleportc(Movecvirtualc
c position)c

AboutcGOALSc Virtualcinteractionsc
Physicalccollisionc
GOALSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Glitchc

Cleaningc
Goalsc/cGoalc Housekeepingc
Toccreatecacvirtualcspacec Inhabitationc

Tocexperiencecacvirtualcspacec Selfiec
c
Encasementcc
c

c c c
9
Immersionc PositivecPresencec c
NamescofcFeelingsc
Annoyancecc NegativecPresencec
c
Encasementc BreakcincPresencec
Stepc3.2cc-cSemanticcanalysisc
Funcc
Breakcincpresencec
c
Virtualcactioncimpulsec
Nauseac SINGLEcSEMANTICcRELATIONSHIPS
Awec
Excitementc
RELATIONSHIPc FORMc EXAMPLEc
Discoveryc
Empowermentc
STRICT (X is a kind of Y) - Acvirtualcconstructionciscackindcofcspacec
Freedomc - Cocoonciscackindcofcvirtualcconstruction
Happyc INCLUSION
Ownershipc
Skepticismc SPATIAL (X is a place or part of Y) - Thec virtualc constructionc isc partc ofc thec virtualc
environmentc c
Strangenessc
- Insideciscacplacecincthecvirtualcconstructionc
Surrealcc - Outsideciscacplacecincthecvirtualcenvironment

c (X is a result of Y) - Ownershipciscacresultcofcrepairingc
CAUSE-EFFECT
- Immersionciscacresultcofcsurroundingcyourselfc
c
- Violationciscacresultcofcacglitch
c c
RATIONALE (X is a reason for doing Y) - Creatingc enclosurec isc ac reasonc forc usingc thec
solidctoolsc
- Ownershipc ofc thec spacec isc ac reasonc forc
repairingcglitchesc c
- interactionciscacreasoncforcconstructionc
- Presenceciscacreasonctocre-sync

LOCATION FOR (X is a place for doing Y) - Thec virtualc environmentc isc ac placec toc createc
chaosc
ACTION - Thec virtualc environmentc isc ac placec toc createc
enclosure

FUNCTION (X is used for Y) - Thecsmokeciscusedctoccreatecsolidityc


- Theceraserciscusedctocrepair

MEANS-END (X is a way to do Y) - Movingcyourcarmciscacwayctocdraw

SEQUENCE (X is a step (stage) in Y) - Considercphysicalcspacecbeforecmoving

ATTRIBUTION (X is an attribution or - Enclosurecofcthecsolidcbrushes


characteristic of Y)

c
c c

c c
11 12
Stepc4c-TaxonomiccAnalysesc

CTc-cCovercTermc CTcVirtualcRealityc KINDScOFcACTc KINDScOFcFEELINGcc


ITcVirtualcConstructionc ITcCreatingc CTcPresencec
ITc-cIncludedcTermc Drawingcc Drawingc ITcPositivecFeelingsc
c Cocoonc Paintingc Encasementc
Hutc Fillingcinc Ownershipc
KINDScOFcSPACEc
Cavec Surroundingc Happinessc
cCTcPhysicalcRealityc Mycspacec Decoratingc Func
ITcThecRoomc Insidec Constructingc Satisfactionc
Physicalcboundaryc Encasementc Buildingc Homelycc
Camerascfieldcofcviewc Domec ITcChoosingcToolc ITcNegativecFeelingscc
Roomc Pointingcc Violatedc
Outsidecenvironmentc
Spherec ITcErasingc Buriedc
Exteriorcspacec
Facadec Erasec Piercedcc
Thecrealcroomc Structuresc Undoc Helplessc
Thecactualcroomc Objectc Housekeepingc Disconcertingc
ExteriorcSpherec Wombc Repairingc CTcBreakcincpresencec
ITcThecPhysicalcWorldc Wonderlandc Cleaningc Annoyancec
Thecnormalcworldc Wallc Scalingc Frustrationc
Ceilingc Movingc Dependancecc
Thecrealcworldc
Floorc Glitchc Uncomfortablec
Othercspacec
ITcVirtualcEnvironmentc Inhabitingc Realisingcthecillusionc
PhysicalcRealityc Outsidec Recordingc Controlledc
c Boundlessc Photographingc Skepticismc
Blackcskyc Selfiec VirtualcActioncImpulsec
c c
Nowherec
c c
Blankcspacec
c c WAYScTOcCONSTRUCTcINcVIRTUALcREALITYc
Non-realityc
SensorycProsthesisc Creatingc
Illusionc Solidctoolsc
Representationc Firec
Dreamc Smokec
ImaginedcSpacec Bubblescc
AnothercSkincc LinecToolsc
Lightc
c
FunctioncToolsc
c c
Linearc
Mirrorc
Erasingc
Housekeepingc
Repairingcc
Undoingcc
c
c
c

c c

c c c

c
13 14
c
Stepc5c-cComponentialcAnalysesc
Descriptionscofc Dimensionscofccontrastc
c
Virtualc
SpatialcTermc ReferencectocSpatialc MancMadecTypologyc NaturalcTypologyc
Constructionc
Descriptionsc Dimensionscofccontrastc Reality:c
POSITIVEcorc
ofcPhysicalc
NEGATIVEc
Environmentc SpatialcTermc TermcofcExistencec ReferencectocReality:c
POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc
Drawingc NOc NEGATIVEc YESc NOc

PhysicalcBoundaryc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Cocoonc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

Outsidec YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Hutcc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

ExteriorcSpacecc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Cavec YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

ThecRealcroomc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


MycSpacec YESc POSITIVEc NOc NOc

Thecactualcroomc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Insidec YESc POSITIVEc /c /c

Exteriorcspherec YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Encasementc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc

ThecNormalcWorldc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Domec YESc POSITIVEc YESc YESc

Thecrealcworldc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Roomc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Othercspacec YESc /c POSITIVEc


Structurec YESc POSITIVEc YESc YESc

PhysicalcRealityc YESc YESc POSITIVEc


Facadec YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

c
Objectc YESc POSITIVEc /c /c

Wombc YESc POSITIVEc NOc YESc


Descriptionsc Dimensionscofccontrastc
ofcVirtualc Wonderlandc YESc NEGATIVEc /c /c
SpatialcTermc TermcofcExistencec ReferencectocReality:c
Environmentc
POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc Wallc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc

Ceilingc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc


Boundlessc YESc YESc POSITIVEc

Floorc YESc POSITIVEc YESc NOc


BlackcSkyc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Nowherecc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc


cc

BlankcSpacec YESc YESc NEGATIVEc c


Outsidec YESc YESc POSITIVEc
c c
Noncrealityc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Sensorycprosthesisc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc

Illusionc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Representationc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Dreamc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

ImaginedcSpacec YESc NOc NEGATIVEc

AnothercSkinc /c YESc POSITIVEc

c c

c c
15 16
c

Kindscofc Dimensionscofccontrastc
Feelingsc
SpatialcTermc SuggestscPresencec POSITIVEcorcNEGATIVEc

PRESENCEc

Encasementc YESc YESc POSITIVEc

Ownershipc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Happinessc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Func NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Satisfactionc NOc YESc POSITIVEc

Violatedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc

Buriedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc

Piercedc YESc YESc NEGATIVEc

Helplessc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc

Disconcertedc NOc YESc NEGATIVEc

BREAKcINcPRESENCEc

Annoyedc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Frustratedc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Dependantc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Uncomfortablec NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

RealisingcIllusionc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Controlledc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

Skepticalc NOc NOc NEGATIVEc

c
17 18
B

Tr a n s c r i p t s

19 20
0900 it's really fun scaling it up again and trying to go through the door...it's like alice in wonderland
0930 went into the second room, i wanted it to be more fun
JOHANNA 1000 i wanted to build a dome and draw around me, but the whole thing was too small so it was a bit
strange

INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 04:10 1010 i like to be not standing...i could see everything better...i had the feeling that if i am closer to the ground it's
easier
1040 it was really fun to draw over my head, it's really different from how you would draw any space in a 3d
Name Johanna program
Age 25 1110 then i filled in the walls...all segments with different pens...it's actually really nice, when it's really dense
Tech proficiency 8 it's like a wall
How long do you spend with computers a week Everyday
1200 it would be nice to fill them with one click
Artistic proficiency 9
How often do you draw? All the time 1230 then it got like a really christmassy decorated room
Used VR before? - no 1300 i like smoke...it was the most real element...if you put it around it's actually like smoke which is much
nicer than the pen
About First VR Experiment 1350 i like the things that move, they are less static...they make the space very different
How long ago? - 6 months 1445 then i walked through the door and i realised that it's far too small...it was two different sizes. The stair
How long did you spend? - 1 hour had one scale and everything else was different
What did you do? - lines in space, playing a game, moving stuff 1515 then i decorated the ceiling with some lights
1535 then i went back in to do a selfie...this one actually really felt more like a space than the first room
because of the ceiling and crazy lights
How did it feel?
1600 oh it's so strange (seeing selfie taking)
0140 more real, really exciting

1640 (from end of experiment) it's really weird scaling stuff...when you scale it down and you don't scale it up
Any memorable moments?
again, you become like a tiny person
0220 moving things when i turned around and the zombies were there...the glowing strobe lights

INTERVIEW 02 17:15 - 31:50


Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
0256 being underwater...like diving, having a mask on About TILT BRUSH Experiment
How long ago? - 15 minutes
Have you thought of it since? Not really How long did you spend? - 10 minutes

Have you wanted to visit again? Yes, i'm kind of excited What did you do?
Real or unreal? 1730 i was drawing a space
0345 real in a weird way. Not real like being in this room, but a different kind of real
0355 not like youre passive in it, you can actually have influence on the space which is different How did it feel?
1735 strange because i was asked to draw a space...the time before i didn't really try to draw a space but it was
some sort of a space afterwards, but now i feel like i need to construct a space i really under pressure
EXPERIMENT RESPONSE 04:10 - 17:15
1750 when i used the first pen i drew some static things, but what actually makes it more spatial is when you
0426 putting the thing on, being skeptical try to cover everything around you. It makes it much more spatial for you than just drawing an object
0440 I wasn't sure which brush to use...then wasn't sure which scale to draw in, started drawing a small room
0535 i thought it would be a room, but then i decided it would be a stair Any memorable moments?
0610 it took me really long 1820 Taking a picture in it, it felt really strange. It was like a party selfie somehow, with all the shining lights
0610 I thought i could draw the whole room around me...then it glitched behind me
0640 i tried to be really professional with it so i erased every time it went a bit wrong
0720 i tried to do a different level and a wall, but this didn't work very well Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
0800 i really like how it works using both hands, you point at stuff, it makes a sound and you think you're 1840 Painting a wall...but it is like being underwater somehow..especially when you can't really feel the end
actually doing something of the space, it's all black around you... you don't really know where the boundaries are which makes me feel
really strange...insecure. You could go everywhere, but you know you can't go everywhere
0835 controller is like and iphone display - you swipe
0845 it's very weird to scale it and see it in different size because then you see everything that went wrong

21 22
Why can't you go everywhere? 2500 yeah i realised how long it took to build the stair which seemed really easy, very basic to imagine. But
1920 because you know it's physically bound to one space actually drawing it i think if i had drawn it at a tiny scale and scaled it up it would've been much easier. The
second part i drew really fast compared to this... because i got more loose with being in the space after i
scaled and walked through it.
So you're aware of the physical?
1930 when it glitched. I tried to be not aware, but then you're still standing on the ground...When it glitched
You kept saying tried to - was it difficult?
you're like oh fuck why can't i just draw on the floor because you know this is the floor, you made it the floor,
so you want it to be there. But it didn't really bring me out 2540 i compare it with real things - i know how a stair looks so i tried to draw a stair as if it would be a real
stair...and then it's still not...it's really hard doing it really precise. In the second part i didn't really try to do
1950 I think the most in the virtual i felt was when i had finished and i was in this dome
anything, i just did it, and it nicer, it felt more like a space.

Explain the space you constructed.


You said you like how it feels to use both hands?
2005 I constructed an entrance...i started constructing a stair, you would walk through a door and be in a
2635 in the beginning it's strange having both controllers, but as soon as you get into it's really weird. It's like
dome. Both spaces had different scales but i noticed this when it was too late
not your real hands but your real hands...you select stuff, almost like doing it on your phone, so it doesn't feel
very unrealistic...you change things and it actually changes things...really connected with the thing.
What tools did you use and why?
2035 all the brushes to see what they looked like...i started with an easy one that wasn't too distracting You said you found it easier closer to the ground, why do you think that is?
2715 i had the same feeling last time...it felt more close...maybe because i scaled the thing wrong and the door
Why did you choose to take the image that you did? was so small so i became a tiny person.
2100 to try to get as much of the space in as possible, get a good angle. I quite liked the space when you
looked up, so i tried to take a photo looking up But you didn't want to scale the world?
2739 no...maybe because i don't really know the space, i don't know where the floor is, you can't see any
When you were in the VR, you hit the bin. Can you describe how this felt? definition of the wall, maybe if i am closer to the ground i feel less insecure about running into things.
2135 i felt like, why isn't this space wider? Why did i just hit something? It's really weird because you don't
see that there is an end and you wish that there is no end to it You kept saying you wanted to draw around you, can you explain that impulse?
2815 it was really fun...like something you can't do in any other space. Its really fun to go around and follow
You also said you liked the scaling. Why did you like the scaling? and be on every side at the same time.
2155 because this is something you never have...in the real world! It's like when in alice in wonderland, and
she grows and the space is small - this is like the inverse of that. I felt really surprised afterwards when i tried to You said having walls is nice, why?
walk through the door i made - As soon as you define the space you try to use it - and it was too small, but
2845 because when you think of space, you want things to define the space, and the lines don't really define
just because i made it this way. This was really fun
the space for me...but even the bubbles or lights felt more spatial because they are in the space...they glow,
they felt really spatial, much more than a line
Why did you mostly stay in one corner of the Physical room?
2245 It was because i wasn't used to using all the options of the space. Maybe because I'm in front of the How did it feel when you took the selfie and you could see the little square that represented your head?
screen drawing in one perspective all the time. But then as soon as i started drawing around me it was like
2920 i didn't really see it at first, i thought where am I?...taking a picture made it feel really like i am in a weird
oh this is the thing that makes this really cool, and drawing over yourself, and looking around.
place and i want people to remember it, which is really strange. It was as I would go to an event and take a
picture of myself
Can you describe how it felt going through your tiny door? 2955 in my mind i am like oh i am actually taking this picture of myself in the space. It's really hard to
2321 it felt really surreal. I drew the thing, scaled it, and went through it, pretending i am actually in my own describe but it makes it really real - the space itself...because you can actually take a picture of it and show it
space, using the space as i drew it. It was really strange.

How would you describe this photo to someone?


Why did you not move the (virtual) space when you kept walking into the (physical) table? 3025 it's me in the space i imagined
2345 I felt fine scaling it at the beginning because I didn't have the thing, but once i had the thing I didn't want
to turn it around anymore. You have constructed the thing and it's like this - you don't want to move it around
When you saw yourself in the photo you were laughing
because it's static in this space
3035 it's really surreal, you can't see yourself actually in the room. When you're there it's so different than
seeing it.
You said you were skeptical when putting on the headset?
2425 i find it really confusing at the beginning...using the two hands as tools. I find it really unusual using your
How is it different?
hands, having objects in your hands, pointing.
3045 it's not there anymore on the screen, it doesn't exist. But when you're in it, it exists

You were surprised when watching the experiment how long it took you to draw the stairs

23 24
3100 in the VR it's actually there, you can actually imagine ok this is a space and it's there and you feel like it's
more real. When you see it on the screen it's really flat and you're aware that this is not really a room

Is it real or unreal?
3120 different real...it is real because it exists as a space. It's not unreal. It's like in a dream...its like a space you
can't really describe but you can still be in

25 26
0415 it's like being inside something else, having all your sense taken away and a load of new ones imposed
upon you. Your normal cause and reaction is different...normally when you move your arm, you see your arm
move, but it could be anything.

DOMINIC Did it always feel like something other?


0445 well no that's why it's so immersive. You forget about your other self, your real self and you become,
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 06:25 inside the virtual reality, you become immersed. When you're in there it's totally like that's normal, but then
when you come out it's like it was fictionalised.

Name Dominic
Have you wanted to visit again?
Age 46
Profession IT Support 0500 Yes, definitely. But i think it'll be dangerous for me to immerse myself too much. You could get lost in
Tech proficiency 7 there, you could definitely have too much non-reality.
How long do you spend with computers a week 40
How often do you play video games Real or unreal?
Artistic proficiency 6
0535 when you're doing it, it's real...and afterwards you forget the immersive experience...like a dream, a
How often do you draw? Once a month
memory that you can't quite grasp
Used VR before? no

About First VR Experiment Different to a place that you've visited?


How long ago? - 6 months 0550 yes definitely...it's the difference between being totally immersed in it so that you feel that you are there,
and then when you come out you can't recreate that out in the physical space. You can't create that feeling, so
How long did you spend? - 20 minutes
its a remembered experience. When you're in it it's definitely real to you because it's taken over your sense, but
What did you do? - magic brush, space app, experimented when you come out...it's hard to remember it

How did it feel?


EXPERIMENT RESPONSE 06:30 - 15:40
0120 weird, immersive...it's not your normal conception of reality. It was like being in another skin, seeing
through someone else's eyes. 0645 as soon as i saw the light i knew i wanted to do something really bright...i wanted to make an
Environment that was super bright and colourful because the light was so nice against the darkness
0715 whatever i was using was Just drawing lines of light. I Wanted a complete light environment so i
Did you feel like you achieved anything?
explored other ways to complete the environment...wanted something thicker
0146 Id like to spend more time when i'm happy with the controls...if you knew what the toolkit was you could
0800 i was drawing a sphere around myself at this point so i could be encased in colour
use it more
0825 After that i wanted to create a womb i suppose. Then i needed to do a floor as well so i thought of a
different texture. I thought the smoke would be more like walking through smoke, but it was more like
Any memorable moments? ribbons...i wanted a foggy floor
0226 with the mirror wall, and the you step through the mirror wall. That was a bit freaky because you expect 0855 Was just fun, the physicalness of painting...which is very unusual - you don't normally get that with a
a mirror to be solid but in the virtual space it's not, you could step through to the other side of the mirror and computer interaction...what you're creating, it's nice to be physical with it
view it from the other side.
0920 then i found the fire, and that was great because it was more of a wall...i carried on making my cocoon
0245 also the spark wand, where the embers go up...because you're drawing with something animated rather out of colour
than, normally when you draw something it's static, you don't normally draw with things that then move on
0945 i knew i was time limited [sound was not on video reflexive - memory of time check linked to virtual
their own
experience]
0950 I wanted to get it done quickly so i could interact with it and see how that environment i created made
Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to? me feel
0305 no...it's similar to playing a videogame but much more immersive and interactive 1030 at this point i knew i wanted to surround myself so i thought the best way to do it would be to spin
around. Id completely forgotten about the outside environment, until i smashed into something
Have you thought of it since? 1045 instructed to calm down [again, memory of instruction linked to virtual experience recall]
0320 yes we've talked about it and tried to explain it to other people 1120 I was really happy inside it
1125 i was playing with the mirrors. I thought if i could then use a mirror and paint i could create some
How did you explain it to other people? chaos...but the chaos was too chaotic, i didn't really understand what i was creating. I had No terms of reference
for what was going on
0329 tried to explain how it felt to be that immersed, but people don't understand. Its very hard to talk to
people about it and get them to understand because you're so convinced that it's real. From another person's 1205 I wanted to see it from the outside. Id created this thing and i wanted to see what it looked like from the
point of view it just looks like fiction. outside. When i got outside of it it looked really strange, i just wanted to be back inside it, although it was quite
interesting to see it from the outside...it was kind of like a globe, like an electron

27 28
1230 When i was outside of it, i wasn't interacting with it. When i was inside it felt more like mine 1850 yes definitely, i'm very happy with it. Any preconceived ideas i had were to create something i could
1245 toying with the idea of creating textured spheres to exist in and then walk from one to the other walk through, like a forest, but once i was in there the fact that you could create something outside of the
normal experience was much more appealing
1305 wondered how my creation would interact with other structures. Had the thought of putting it on a
pedestal...kind of changed the aspect of the whole thing
1355 had enough of trying to manipulate the environment, i just wanted to be back in it You talked a lot about encasement and cocooning

1420 it's a sensory experience i don't think you could have anywhere else really. 1915 yes it felt really comforting to be inside a ball of light. It's like being inside the sun

1435 Trying to take photos was weird because it's just too enormous to record...it did nothing for the feeling of
it. I don't think you could record it - if i looked at the pictures i don't think id remember how i felt inside Was the feeling of inside important?
1925 it seemed to be yes. Once id encased myself i was very comfortable, i just wanted to stay in there and
interact with it. Although, i'd have to keep adding to it. I think it was the fact of creating it was the enjoyable bit.
INTERVIEW 02 15:45 - 31:50
When id stopped creating it it was just kind of there...i wanted to know how it would feel to be inside something
About TILT BRUSH Experiment i wouldn't normally be inside...that's the opportunity really of being in a virtual space, you can interact with
How long ago? - 10 minutes things you can't normally
How long did you spend? - 10 minutes
You said it needed a floor - why?
What did you do? 2015 i think at that point i want to be enclosed more...i guess it's disconcerting having nothing underneath me
so once i had a floor in place i was more comfortable that i wasn't falling through space or wasn't in
1555 i created a crazy sphere thing to live in
nowhere. I had a floor and i had walls and i had a cocoon.

How did it feel?


But you had a physical floor
1600 great, it felt great, it was really bright and sunny. It made me happy.
2045 the floor i was standing on...in the real world...that didn't matter, because i couldn't perceive it i suppose.
Even if it was smoke - i didn't want to recreate the floor that was real - but i wanted something
Any memorable moments?
1615 when i discovered the fire...the fire was big enough, so i was happy with that. It was a bit disappointing Why didn't you want to recreate the floor that was real?
when i added the pedestal and it was something concrete with my non-concrete space, just ruined it...i'd
2100 you could go in there and create a room like the room you're standing in, but there would be no point
created something more about how i felt than real, then i created something real and it was just like, oh, that
would there? You could just take the helmet off and be in the room you're in. So it would be good to create a
doesn't belong here, so i need to get rid of it
floor of smoke or fire or something different.

So would you consider the thing you built not real?


You said you had completely forgotten about the outside environment - did you ever have perception of
1705 real as in i could interact with it, but not real as in it resembled anything in the normal world both?
So where did it come from? 2130 When i bashed into things, but i didn't really mind that. It was kind of fun, i didn't care what it was, whether
1720 just being happy i think...happiness in the doing of it. It was like a physical act it was the wardrobe or whatever, it didn't bother me. I was in my space - it didn't matter what i was bashing into.
If i had smashed a bottle it wouldn't have mattered at that time, because i was removed i guess.
Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
1735 no...dancing? Were you perceiving the physical at all?
2200 no not at all. I could understand that i was interacting with the physical but i wasn't bothered about it, it
didn't take me out of it. It was like a different reality that i was kind of affecting but it wasn't in my experience at
Explain the space you constructed.
the time
1740 it was a sphere of light and craziness that i could interact with
2250 it's strange to think about but when you're in there it's not a strange thing because it's otherworldly, the
physical things that you're interacting with. But thinking about it when you're outside it's like oh yes i should've
What tools did you use and why? cared that i was going to smash the light...but i know that if i was back in there i wouldn't care again
1750 the fire tool, the sparks and the smoke, i tried to use the mirror but it wasn't very successful 2320 it probably would be problematic coming out but it was so much fun being in there that it outweighs any
damage that i might have done
Why did you choose to take the image that you did?
1810 the first one i thought it would represent what it felt like inside but it didn't at all, it just became a postage You said it had the physicalness of painting which you don't normally get with a keyboard, what's the
stamp of a whole environment. Then i shrunk it down but that wasn't very good either...none of the images i difference?
took resembled it 2400 with a keyboard you're always having to use some creative energy to project yourself into whatever you
are creating, be it playing a game or painting on the screen sat in a chair, it's kind of a separation that you have
to create for yourself, whereas in Virtual Reality you don't have to create that separation, it's there so you are
Do you feel fulfilled with what you've made?
separated. That whole i'm sitting here doing that over there doesn't exist - you are inside it.

29 30
2440 also the fact that its physical really helps because physicality release endorphins in your brain, and that's 3000 I wanted to have an out of body experience. I wanted to see that feeling from the outside. But when it
like a feedback. So you're being physical and creating stuff and that's making you more happy. was outside it was just a mess, so then i thought i'd just go back inside because it didn't really mean anything. I
wanted to see it from the outside to see if i could see the feeling i was having inside from outside, but it wasn't.

And that's different to playing a video game? 3040 it was museum exhibit a of something that somebody created and it just looked like a ball so it wasn't
particularly good.
2510 yes because you're not being physical, you're not having that interaction...it's the fact that you can be
physical and create something or interact with something technological. 3100 if i'd been here all day i would've created a series of cocoons all of different feelings...but then i didn't
know how to interact with the software enough to move that on top of that and create another one.

You kept saying you're really happy inside it. Can you explain that?
When taking the photo you said it's too enormous to record...i don't think it's what i feel - what was lost?
2530 i think it was so bright, i was so happy. Not that i had created it, just that it was a space that i could inhabit.
And it was something that i could never inhabit other than in that situation so i was very happy. 3140 it surrounded me, you can't take a photo of something that surrounds you unless you've got a 3d
camera, but again you'd have to display that in a two dimensional way. Because it is all around me that would
never come out in a 2d format...it could only be there, it couldn't be anywhere else
What do you mean by happy?
2550 joyous. like when you create something, when you write a great poem...it gives you a sense of
Is it real or unreal?
satisfaction. I was very satisfied...not that i created it, but i was satisfied with having created it so that i could then
inhabit it. Like if you write a story, then when you read it back it makes you feel happy that that world has been 3215 it was definitely real. I feel like it's gone now...i want to create another one with a different mood.
created...and then you can inhabit that world

Do you think you would have the same happiness stepping into someone else's world?
2630 probably not because i wouldn't have had the physicality of doing it...i think i was happy because i was
prancing around and i didn't care...once i was in it it was a manifestation of that careless creation
2655 but when i stopped creating it, it was like oh what do i do now? This is great but now i need to add some
more...once id done it, i just wanted to keep building it, because it wasn't really about the being in it it was about
the making of it

You also said you wanted to create chaos, why this urge?
2725 i think you read a lot about chaotic systems, be it atoms or whatever, and everything is so ordered in your
existence...if you can create chaos and be in it, it's great, why not?

You could do that in the physical world


2750 smash everything up and make a rubbish dump?...but you just press delete and it's gone. If i had spray
can and went around your bedroom, i could create that with paint probably, but then it would be like oh no ive
destroyed your room...you'd have to deal with the aftermath

So you enjoy that quality of it?


2815 freedom, yes, the fact that you can create chaos and then you just press delete and you're back to
square one. There's no consequence.

Unless you smashed something in the physical world


2830 i don't think it matters...until you have to say sorry afterwards...i didn't care

After you came out, were you interested in what happened in the physical world?
2845 after a bit, after id calmed now a bit. I was like oh what did i knock over. But i guess i knew really that i
hadn't done any major damage...i didn't really care

You never felt separated from the virtual world?


2915 no it never snapped me out of it, like a punctuation error in a book, it wasn't like that at all. I kind of liked it,
it was almost like i don't care. I was enjoying the fact that i was bashing into things, and it didn't have any effect.

Why did you want to see it from the outside?

31 32
Have you thought of it since?
0350 yes a lot. I didn't want to leave, i didn't want to take it off, and then for a couple of days after that i kept
going back to that experience and i just wanted that to be where i was. It stayed with me a lot

JENNY 0415 initially it was like a place Id been and I wanted to go back there. Now it feels more like an experience I
had. It's kind of fading, like holiday memories fade over time.

INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 04:40 Real or unreal?


0444 very real
Name Jenny
Age 43 EXPERIMENT RESPONSE 04:45 - 18:25
Profession Lawyer
Tech proficiency 4 0450 i started with the mirror because that's my favourite thing
How long do you spend with computers a week 40 0505 when i found the smoke texture i thought i can make smoke and then walk through it and come out on
How often do you play video games Once a year the other side. Which was strange. Especially when you're on the other side of the mirror and the smoke is
Artistic proficiency 3 there where you left it
How often do you draw? Once a year 0600 At this point i just wanted to make as much mess as i could and then inhabit it
Used VR before? no
0620 Watching it like this is not my experience of it. My experience was that i was there, and now i'm just
watching it on a screen. It's not the same
About First VR Experiment
0645 I'd decided i'd make some bars so it could be like prison, and then i could go through and break out
How long ago? - 3 months
0655 I forgot that because it's a mirror, the bars would also be on the other side of the mirror. I thought i would
How long did you spend? - 30 minutes pass through and there would be nothing there and it kind of surprised me
What did you do? - used drawing and painting tools, reflection tools, space drawing, inhabiting space 0800 this was very disconcerting. I pressed the teleport button and i was no longer in the same space and i
couldn't find my way back to it...i didn't really understand where i had teleported to or how to get back. That felt
How did it feel? very very strange, i just wanted to be back in the space i had just made and i was just nowhere
0105 very real, very quickly. The moon stayed with me in particular because you could make it bigger, walk 0850 i was trying to get back to my mirrored space but i still wasn't quite sure where it was
around it, see underneath it. I think because of the three dimensionality of it and being able to walk around it is 0945 i decided i'd make some stairs...as i was making the stairs i thought i would be able to walk up them, but
like reality - an alternative reality, but definitely a reality when id drawn it i realised that obviously that couldn't happen
1135 this was me trying to work the technology...all i wanted to do was to make the moon bigger
Did you feel like you achieved anything? 1200 It's like watching this has nothing to do with what i was doing. It just looks rubbish and fake. I was in that
0135 i feel like my mind expanded. I don't feel like i achieved anything other than having a completely new space with that moon in front of me and now it's just flat
experience 1240 It didn't feel like it was this long that i was messing around trying to do what i wanted to do with it. It felt
much shorter than that...i'm surprised how long this is...it felt like a minute or two minutes maybe
Any memorable moments? 1310 then i remembered when i looked down there would be nothing under my feet just space
0146 reflection was amazing because you could draw something and then step to the other side of the mirror 1400 I was very happy when i worked it out
- like alice in wonderland - and youre on the other side, looking back at where you were a minute ago 1420 I really like this sensation of having a huge moon over me
0215 there was a game i was playing...there was something on the other side of a grate that i was trying to get 1445 When i was moving it around i don't really remember seeing the controllers, although i know they were
to, and i was actually up against the fireplace in the room i was in. Even though i knew i was against a real there because that's how i was controlling it, but i don't remember that.
fireplace, i was still trying to get through...it felt more real than the real room i was in 1500 i just wanted to move it around, walk around it, walk underneath it. I was just enjoying being in that
0240 it's so immersive. Even though i could hear people talking around me in the real world, it felt more real space, i didn't particularly want to do anything else, just hang out there
than the real world 1545 i tried the night sky but i was instantly bored because there was nothing in it
1620 i clicked on this and expected it to be a dress from that was about the same size as i was, and there was
Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to? this huge structure in front of me, completely out of scale to what i would expect...i wanted it the right size
0300 i don't think there is anything like it. The closest thing is probably an immersive art experience in a 1715 i was trying to draw around it and then i realised i could walk around it and that would work much better.
gallery...because you forget where you are. Even though you know it's not real, it starts to feel more real than I almost forgot it was 3d
reality. 1800 as i made it bigger the floor was also coming up, so i felt like, i Couldn't see my feet when i looked down,
and i felt up to my waist in snow, very strange
How did you explain it to other people?
0340 unless people have experienced it, they can't comprehend that experience at all. It seems to be INTERVIEW 02 18:30 - 31:50
something that you can't translate to somebody else
About TILT BRUSH Experiment

33 34
How long ago? - 15 minutes So walking through was part of the reason why you made the bars?
How long did you spend? - 15 minutes 2300 yes i made the bars so that i could walk through them and be on the other side...i was drawing things
that i could then experience

What did you do?


1830 put the mirror program on, played with different textures in the mirror, use smoke, make bars, walk in When you teleported, you said it was disconcerting...
and out of it. I also went into the space program and moved the moon around...Also used the dress form 2320 it was very disconcerting. I was quite happy in my mirrored space creating things...and all of a sudden i
was just in blank space and i didn't know where my mirrored space was and i didn't know how to get back to
it...there just seemed to be no way back and i felt a little bit lost.
How did it feel?
1905 it felt nice to be back in the space program, like it was somewhere i had been before and i'd come
back. So you felt that you were in a different space?
2350 a completely different space...nowhere, id teleported to a blank space.

Do you feel that you achieved anything?


1930 no, just like i continued the experience i had last time, it was just nice to be back there You said going back to your space...
2410 i made that, it was my space...i could do anything i wanted

Any memorable moments?


1940 the snow was very memorable, because it did feel like the floor had gone. Even when you look down And you couldn't do that in the space you had teleported to?
and can't see the floor at this point it was level with my waist, it was like i was buried, but i had no physical 2420 i could have done, but i felt like that wasn't my space. I felt like i had gone somewhere...that i didn't
sensation, it was all a mental sensation really want to be...even though i could have just recreated it

Explain the space you constructed. How did it feel to realise you couldn't walk up the stairs?
2000 several spaces. The first one was just a mirror so it felt very 2d in as much as it was either side of the 2445 The reason i felt that i couldn't walk up them is because they were completely 2d, not that they're not
mirror, rather than being a big 3d physical space. But i forgot that if you do one thing on one side of the mirror real...as i finished drawing them and looked at them from the side i realised they were just a single line so how
it will be there on the other side, so that surprised me and i had to readjust to that. could i possibly walk up those...it wasn't that they're not really stairs, i hadn't even got to that stage yet
2030 i felt like i wanted to explore further within that space, but i could see the edges of the room. Even
though i felt like they weren't there anymore, i was backing up against things so i knew that i was at the edge When you watched the recording you said it has nothing to do with what i was doing...it looks fake...i was in
of the actual room which took me out of the program, so i very quickly got back into the middle. the space. How would you describe the difference between using VR and watching the recording?
2530 they are completely different things. Watching it is just like watching a flat video of something that bears
Did you have that awareness of the actual room last time you used it? a resemblance to what i did but is no way the same thing because where i was was completely 3D, I could
2105 yes, but again, only when i was banging into things. Even though you can see the edges of the room, it move around it, look at it, but this was just a flat thing happening on the screen that i couldn't interact with.
didn't feel like that was the edge, i felt like i could go further than that, but then you find yourself hitting into 2600 it's a bit like the difference between a cinema...and going to see a play...where there's interaction and
things...It's annoying, it's like that real world is impinging on my experience, i find it very frustrating you're part of what is happening

Why did you construct the space that you did? You said the dress form was like a huge structure and that it was unexpected. What was your
2130 I really like the concept of the mirror because in the real world mirrors are, there are reflections but you perception of that object?
can't go to the other side of it, so i like the fact that you can inhabit both sides of that. 2725 it was like something else, that's not what a dress form should look like, it should be about the size of a
normal person, so the first thing i wanted to do was bring it down to what it should be...it should be about the
same size as me
So do you see the mirror as part of your space?
2145 yes, well the mirror was there but it was something that i could just pass through...it was part of the
space...i put it there and it was there When you were drawing on the dress form, you said you almost forgot that it was 3d...
2800 yes, i was trying to draw around it from where i was standing and it wasn't working, and then i was like
oh i can just walk around it
You said that you wanted to make as much mess as you could and inhabit it, why?
2220 there are so many colours and textures, it was like how much can i make that i can then pass through,
see it from a distance, walk through it. That's the kind of thing that you can't do in the real world but you can That's a little strange considering how you said how immersive and three dimensional you found the
do in that space moon to be - why might there be a difference between those two objects?
2830 it was a stranger object...in terms of the moon, it took on different properties as i made it bigger and
smaller but it was still this moon that i recognised, whereas the dress form should only be one size...it just felt a
You said you were surprised by bars on the other side of the mirror...
bit flat...i didn't really have a reaction with it, i wasn't really involved with it, which i think made me forget that i
2245 i forgot that it was a mirror, so it was like i was going to draw the bars on one side, walk through, get to could walk around it
the other side of the mirror and i'd be free. But it's a mirror so they were still there.

Is it real or unreal?
2920 it's completely real

35 36
EXPERIMENT RESPONSE 07:30 - 19:30
0752 Like when going to dive...actually that's quite a similar experience
0817 Paper tool interesting because it's thick and thin...really promising to delineate space

AGOSTINO 0835 reach of my body standing on one spot, what space would it produce
0845 Cocoon
0920 Stopped at my back...because i Didn't want to switch the position of my feet
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 07:30 0950 Had to keep my space really really clean...glitches like this were really annoying so i had to get rid of
them as soon as possible they were intruding into my space
Name Agostino 1040 left side...right side memory of starting position
Age 26 1100 Something that you can never do...you can never build a space from within a space.
Tech proficiency 8
1120 Experienced a lot of terrible glitches, had to get rid of them...actually quite satisfying
How long do you spend with computers a week >70
Artistic proficiency 5 1153 it was quite annoying that you feel that you're not only dependant on the thing you draw and on your
own capabilities of delineating space but also on the vision of the outside cameras that you have no
How often do you draw? - 2 days a week
awareness of
Draw with computers? - Yes
Used VR before? - no 1215 start to hit points in which you can't succeed
1305 Bottom bit especially frustrating, which is normally easiest part to build
About First VR Experiment 1325 Did some more housekeeping, repaired some bits
How long ago? - 4 months 1330 Could already feel the space you could produce using your own body which was really interesting
How long did you spend? - 40 mins/ 1 hour 1415 This was actually quite frustrating
What did you do? - sample scenes, gridded ground development preview, zombie shooting games, threw 1430 This was the point where i hit the pavement, so i couldn't go any further
stuff on the floor 1455 quite happy with the space i have defined, thought about what i could add to it
1500 Went through the pallet... found this really nice thing called light...started to draw a lightbulb on my
How did it feel? ceiling
0220 Claustrophobic at first...but looking around is a really liberating feeling. It really starts to click once you 1555 thought about what other pen i could introduce, or what other tool
start walking within the space. 1610 Stepped out of my cocoon and i decided to add some facade from the outside
1620 Which was fun because i could trace geometry i created from within from outside the cocoon which
Did you feel like you achieved anything? If so what? was quite interesting.
0230 yeah a new way to interact with space especially when drawing which is something impossible in the 1700 at this point i could really feel the confinements of the space outside of virtual reality which was really
real world the world we see as being our physical reality. Gravity as difference. defined, so i started to hit all sorts of shelves and things
1755 sometimes I had to step back into it to erase things
Any memorable moments? 1815 I felt really weird because you don't have any transition between inside and outside...you can just move
0345 symmetry was really satisfying. Huge 3m bird. straight through something you have drawn, there's no resistance to it which is really weird...something you
create within VR is really purely virtual because it doesn't oppose anything to your movement
1850 at this point my hut was nearly finished, you could some internal and external structures
Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
0430 being in a white room in which you can spray paint all over space that is completely up to you

How would you explain it to someone who had never used?


0500 struggling, i don't know..it's really hard to compare to anything it's a feeling that you can't really give
over to someone else without them having tried it before
INTERVIEW 02 19:35 - 34:00
0550 you are in a different environment being conscious that you are not
About TILT BRUSH Experiment
Have you thought of it since? Yeah How long ago? - 10 minutes
Have you wanted to visit again? Yes. it depends on what you do in VR How long did you spend? - 10 minutes
Real or unreal?
0650 it's real because it becomes a prosthesis for your senses What did you do?
0710 your eyes can only give you an image of reality that is not comparable to someone else's reality, so VR is 2000 drew this space that is defined by my own capability of reaching it
like putting it on those eyes

37 38
How did it feel? bounds of what you can do...it would be much more interesting to know that you can really move freely in
2015 great space not just in the view of these two cameras
2850 i find the idea of some exterior sensors controlling you quite strange

Did you feel like you achieved anything? If so what?


2018 i built a little cocoon that represented the outside perimeters of what i could touch from one point Were you aware of those all the time?
2900 no, you just get aware of them as soon as you start to experience glitches

Any memorable moments? 2920 at some point my controller appeared one metre in front of my hand which was really annoying as it was
like my hand had been virtually stretched one metre
2040 Added a lightbulb quite intuitive and strangeobviously i think spaces need them
2930 fix the glitch and re-catch my controller [waves hand] so that it went back into space
Also stepping inside and outside

Any ways to describe this feeling other that annoying?


Was it like any other activity? What's the closest existing experience you can compare it to?
3000 you feel really helpless because you don't know what happened...it's frustrating...it's a bit like something
2120 Clean up after the glitches that would intrude...really annoying because they had nothing to do with my
is violating your space because it's something you have no agency over and its piercing you and it's
body
uncomfortable
2135 that's difficult...maybe like sitting on a beach and building a huge sand ball around you where you have
endless resources of material and you start playing with it..but it's really difficult to relate it to anything outside
of VR You talked about housekeeping and repairing, these are quite loaded terms, why did you use these?
3030 i was really aware that what i was doing was some kind of man made cave or cocoon...every glitch that
went into the space i needed to get rid of to keep the space clear
Can you explain the feeling of the glitches?
2220 trying to do something defined by your body and then interfered with by things over which you have no
agency... a whole exterior sphere...it really feels uncomfortable because it's something you didn't create but it How was the feeling of tracing the geometry of the facade?
sticks through your guts 3120 really strange and different...it was something drawn really intuitively, and stepping outside you need to
make all sorts of weird movements to trace the shape that you did before...i found it quite amusing that
something that is really easy from the inside is really unnatural and strange when you do it from the outside
Why did you walk outside not move the object?
2330 I really like the idea of it being a 1:1 representation of space...you introduce the scale of the body into
something within the computer You talked about inside and outside the cocoon, how do they feel different?
3220 well one is like a dome that encapsulated you, and when you step outside you just see black sky
[mimes quotation marks] and the thing from an object point of view and not from a space point of view any
Can you explain the feeling in the moment of physical collision?
more
2430 it wasn't too bad...I was aware that at some point i would hit the edge of the room i was doing this in

Is it real or unreal?
When you stepped back into the Cocoon, you lifted your leg up...
3300 before i said it is realand in some aspects it is, but something i found very strange is the fact that your
2513 i found that really strange because i didn't consider any opening...stepping in and stepping out you body is not impacting with it. I find that this is something makes it belong to the virtual world and not to the
always experience a sort of threshold and its really strange not to have that in VR real world
2540 it was weird to realise there is nothing stopping me from stepping back into it 3325 inbetween i almost started to treat the space as real...but at some point you just get the idea that that's
just an illusion, a representation of something, its just within the drawing and not within the physical
You said it was like diving? boundary. I guess this proved it to be much more virtual

2610 you have a completely different relation to gravity, relation of how to move and of what you can
achieve Which is your lasting memory of the space?
3400 it was quite homely...
Why did you use the word Cocoon?
2630 it's the closest you get to the enclosure of the body in architectural terms

You kept calling it my space - did you feel a sense of ownership?


2650 oh yes definitely...it's a space that only i could delineate...no one else would build it the way i did it...it is
really inherent to my body

You said you were annoyed by the cameras...


2800 I find it quite annoying to know that the only movement that you are doing is movement that is
perceived by two cameras, and as soon as you move out of the focus of those two cameras you are out of

39 40

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