My blog in VR – Unit1&2

Chart 1: Gameplay mechanics

Chart 2:

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 User testing consisted of three parts. In the first part the user was given the VR experience and was asked to interact with the interactable props in the scene, and navigate themselves onto each scene.

The second part was an experimental data collection part of the project. The user was provided with four sheets of paper, a collection of geometric shapes, and a collection of color pens. Each sheet of paper represented one of the scenes in the experience. In other words, sheet number 1 represented scene number 1. Their task was to choose a minimum of one geometric shape for each sheet. Then, draw the perimeter of the shape(s) on the sheet. With the colors available, draw and/or write anything that came to their minds when they thought of that scene;  inside the surface area of the shape(s).

The third part was a form handed to the users a few days after the completion of part 1 & 2 that included a video walkthrough of the experience to restore their memories, and questions about their own interpretations of the experience.

Results:

First is scene 1, where most participants used words such as panic, unsettling, angst, shock, and disgust when asked to describe their emotional states whilst in that scene. Although usage and meaning of words can be very subjective it is fai to suggest that a scene that represents the whole ‘madness’ of the pandemic can induce emotions like those described by the participants. In terms of whether the stimuli were too much, participants mentioned that the coughing sound in an interaction did make them feel a little too uncomfortable and disgusted. It is worth mentioning that many participants had a face of disgust when the coughing sound appeared.

Scene two represents the feeling of suffocation due to the lockdown. Quoting one participant “   I wanted to run away in general, almost social anxiety in a way, where it feels like there is a person in your personal space” whilst another said “Scene 2 was an emotional suffocation”. It is fair to claim that the second scene did in fact induce the feeling of suffocation. There was one user who claimed the sound in the scene was too much for them “Sound for sure, made me feel like I wanna leave”. 

Moving on to scene 3 which represents the realization that the virus is not as scary and extreme as we initially thought. For this scene almost all participants used the word “calm” when describing their emotional state, specifically one participant described it as “calm, safe, and sterilized”. Scene 3 was purposefully not intense in sensory stimuli and so none of the participants felt uncomfortable. 

Finally, most participants described scene 4 as “disgusting” except for one who also claimed that “scene 4 was a party of all kinds”. The final scene is meant to allow the user to lerp from grossness to fascination and it is in fact a germ playground. This suggests that the participants’ characterizations of both disgusting and party-like are in line with the purpose of scene 4. It should be noted that two participants said that the consistency and movement of the interactive green germ was too scary and disgusting.

Overall, the participants’ emotional states were in line with what each scene represented and intended to make the audience feel which suggests that VR can be a tool to elicit certain desired emotions through the use of sensory stimuli. It is also worth mentioning that each participant had their own limits of over stimulation; however, there were common opinions on certain stimuli that are a bit “too much”.

Limitations:

Of course, this study uses qualitative research methods for its findings, and although it questions and enables a deeper understanding into concepts and phenomena, it cannot be generalized to a universal level (especially given the small number of participants).  The study is an artistic experiment where all participants are allowed to express themselves without the need for a specific meaning/connotation of both their creations and answers.  The answer of each participant is completely subjective and the interpretation varies. 

A limitation of this study is the demographic variation of the participants who took part in it. As mentioned above, the number of participants was small (five), and all belong either in my close group of friends or my workplace. All participants have had experience with virtual reality, live in the UK, and are in the age group of 23-26. This means that the participants are not by any means a representative sample of the general population.

Additionally, I myself will interpret the participant’s responses in my own biased way. The first bias present in my interpretation is confirmation bias, which is present because I will interpret the results to confirm my initial theory on emotions and sensory stimuli on each scene. In this case, confirmation bias comes hand-in-hand with selection bias, for the same reason.  Finally, another bias is group bias that derives from the notion that all of the participants belong in my close circle (and are aware of the purpose of the project), that means that one’s responses may affect the other’s. 

Finally, the experimental data collection part of the study must also be mentioned, as it was a creative experimental aspect meant to allow the participants to express their emotions in a different way, through shapes and colors.  Of course this is a complementary data collection and cannot be interpreted accurately in any way. As mentioned above there are similarities in patterns, shapes, and colors, but obviously this is neither sufficient nor accurate data to draw any conclusions.  

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Video Overview:

Visual design:

In this last scene, the emotions I want to reproduce are both enthusiasm and grossness. For this reason I decided this final environment to act more as a user ‘playground’ instead of a specific task based environment. The user is free to explore the environment with no specific purpose. The color scheme of this environment is based on the initial color palette I had designed for the experience. A complementary color palette ranging from purple to green colors. For more information see Image 1. 

The space is an open restaurant area with a skybox color of the ‘ugly green’, a color that reminds us of natural dirt. The restaurant has flashing purple LED lights to virtually ‘sanitize’ the user from the color of the skybox. However, the tables are green with germs moving on their surface, as a constant reminder that restaurant and bar tables are quite unsanitary. Apart from the basic furniture that reminds us of a restaurant, the room is full of different objects that either look completely sanitary or fully unsanitary. For example, it has a variety of different germ types with different consistencies when interacted with. In the middle there is a huge mushroom with germs moving on it.  The scale and navigation speed are realistic. 

Overall, this environment is meant to visually fascinate the user through the exaggeration of all these visual effects which will subsequently and/or simultaneously evoke the feeling of disgust, since the user is constantly reminded of germs, living organisms, and the concept of what is sanitary and what isn’t.

Sound Design:

Layers:

1. General room tone: eerie room tone similar to a hospital room tone.
2. Interaction sounds:
   1. On select enter: a light whoosh sound on any interactable object
   2. On select exit: a heavier whoosh sound on the interacted object to make the act of throwing more realistic
3. Mushroom music: There are two different mushrooms in the scene, each of which, when hovered onto, play a different house music tune. 

4. Constant coughs as background noise

Haptic Feedback:

• On Select enter: 
  • Haptic Intensity: 0.5
  • Duration: 0.4
• On hover enter:
  • Haptic Intensity: 0.2
  • Duration: 0.1

An interactive multi sensorial VR experience prototype in the form of an art experiment  that tackles the societal ‘adjustments’ in affection and touch that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic.  The experience is a social commentary on the sociocultural effects of the pandemic, especially on touch and affection, and aims to evoke a sequence of emotions to the user as well as test how much the sensorial feedback that is  present in the experience affects the intensity of the emotions induced by the user.  The experience drives the user to undergo a sequence of emotions from suffocation to realisation via audio, visual, and haptic feedback.

Video Overview:

Visual design:

For the emotional satiric state that entails realisation of this COVID madness I chose to design a black tunnel with bright off-color lavender smokes on the sides, a color that is linked to satire (Pedge, 2019), and turquoise gemstone color at the end of the tunnel, a color that is linked to self-realization (Bourn, 2016). At the end of the tunnel lies a picture that “mocks” the coronavirus crisis. The user must navigate till the end of the tunnel in order to reach the final scene. The ground is cement/metallic-looking to resemble that of a hard ground.

The hands are stylistically in line with the color scheme and theme of the environment as the look metallic.. The proportions of the environment are close to a 1:1 realistic scale to enhance the sense of being grounded. Lastly, the navigation is the average continuous movement speed in VR.

Sound Design:

Layers:

1. General Room Tone: base noise
2. TV fake broadcast clip: The theme of environment 3 is satire and realisation. For that reason I downloaded from Epidemic Sound a fictitious News Broadcast that announced the spread of a new virus that creates zombies. The audio clip is called “News Broadcast TV 2”  by Epidemic Sound.
3. Constant spray noise of some antibacterial cleaning spray

Haptic Feedback:

The only interactable object in this scene is the portal which is triggered by hovering, thus, the only haptic feedback needed is an “on hover enter” feedback.

• On hover enter:
  • Haptic Intensity: 1.0
  • Duration: 0.1

Video Overview:

Visual Design:

For the feeling of suffocation I used black, dark purple, and dark blue colors to reference the cyanotic tissue colors of asphyxiation. Cyanotic tissue is described as blue, black, purplish in color. After death, changes in blood chemistry and the breakdown of clotting factors lower the viscosity of blood (Rod, 2015). Additionally, the environment is really small with not enough space to move around and with dark stripes alarmingly close to where the user is standing meant to “suffocate” the user. Similar to environment 1, the ground is a UV light blue/purple tone to represent the idea that it is disinfected and one can walk on it. 

Embodiment through visual feedback is achieved with the inclusion of virtual hands of the player. The hands are stylistically in line with the suffocation color theme depicted in a transparent purple color.

 The proportions of the environment are distorted in such a way for everything to look small and suffocating, as if there is nowhere to go. The interactable mushrooms interchange from big to small scale to enhance the feeling of entrapment. When a player hovers onto a mushroom, a new mushroom appears in the scene, slowly filling the whole environment. Lastly, the navigation is also slightly slower than the average continuous movement speed in VR. 

Sound Design:

Layers:

1. General room tone
2. News broadcast clip from Boris Johnson’ announcement of the first lockdown: The theme of environment number 2 is suffocation. For that reason I wanted the background sound to enhance that sense of confinement and for that I used bits of Boris’ Johnson announcement of the first lockdown and what it entails. You can listen to the full announcement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc11uZ7_PnU&t=289s.
3. Hover Interaction Sound: When the user hovers on a mushroom a heavy breathing sound is present that is line with the scale change of each mushroom

Haptic Feedback:

In this scene the interactable objects only need to be hovered on in order to unlock an “event”. Therefore, the haptic feedback needed is only for when hovering.

• On hover enter:
  • Haptic Intensity: 0.5
  • Duration: 0.2

Video Overview:

Visual Design

The environment design for the feeling of madness is a ‘van-Goghianesque’ scenery with the color yellow as a protagonist. Yellow has been associated with insanity for a variety of reasons throughout cultural history. More specifically, in Russia a common title for an insane asylum is “Yellow House”(Morton, 2015). Moreover, “Safety Yellow”is a bright yellow that resembles the natural color of several venomous snakes and insects. Humans instinctively perceive yellow as stressful and/or dangerous. Van-Gogh had paintings with the color of yellow dominating close to the end of his life, similarly, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman, has been tied to some  sort of OCD. Finally, studies on the effects of psychedelic drugs such as LSD have shown art works by  “crazy” people with much more yellow as the effects of the drugs advanced (Morton, 2015). That is why in this environment design yellow is a dominating color that is depicted in a multitude of shapes and flowy-moving forms to recreate a restless and irrational feeling. The plane is a UV light blue/purple tone to represent the idea that it is disinfected and one can walk on it. 

Embodiment through visual feedback is achieved with the inclusion of virtual hands of the player. The hands are stylistically in line with the madness color theme with interchanging colors of yellow. The proportions of the environment are distorted in such a way for everything to look huge. The interactable mushrooms are large in scale and bounce around to enhance the madness of the scenery. When a player hovers onto a mushroom, a sneezing lady appears. Lastly, the navigation is also slightly faster than the average continuous movement speed in VR. 

Sound Design

Layers:

1. General room tone
2. News Broadcast clips of the first 100 days of the coronavirus in the UK: The theme of environment number 1 is Coronavirus madness. For that reason I wanted the background sound to be a hectic absurdity of different news clips from the first 100 days of COVID-19 in the UK.  The main sound of the scene is based on the audio of this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJycNmK7KPk&t=2s. 
3. Hover Interaction Sound: When the user hovers on interactable objects, in this case mushrooms, there is audio feedback to let the user know that these objects are more than just environment design.
4. Animation Sound: The consequence of interacting with each mushroom is an animation of a woman sneezing. While that animation is at play the sneezing sound is present as well.

Haptic Feedback:

• On Select enter: 
  • Haptic Intensity: 1.0
  • Duration: 0.15
• On hover enter:
  • Haptic Intensity: 0.4
  • Duration: 0.1

The narrative of this experience is unfolded primarily through the use of sensory feedback. The narrative is not a traditional written script but a linear sequence of emotions the user will experience. More specifically the user will firstly undergo the madness of constant doubt. By “madness of constant doubt” I mean the recurring self questioning, during the years of 2020 and 2021 (in other words during the COVID-19 outbreak), on actions such as whether we have washed our hands well enough, or whether going to an event may have been too risky and a mistake, or whether we should see our parents and/or grandparents, or whether we have COVID-19 because we sneezed once, and so forth.  Next is the feeling of suffocation, a feeling I relate to often, especially after doubting myself, and it is a feeling connected to the idea that enough is enough and that I have no more patience for this madness anymore and I would like to free myself from it.  The way I cope with the feeling of suffocation is by detaching myself momentarily from what is going on in the world by being nihilistic (kind of like what Rick does in Rick and Morty) and hence mock society for the extremities of this madness called pandemic. This brings me to the following emotion which is societal mockery and satire. Detachment and societal mockery ultimately make me more grounded into seeing the facts as they are and that is when I reach realization of the present moment, hopefully, a stage that the user will experience as well. As a closing state of mind, I want to play with the user’s negative and positive emotions and have them lerp between fascination and the grossness of the visual surroundings. 

In this experience I am experimenting with a variety of different ways of evoking this sequence of feelings.

1. Visual Design
2. Sound Design
3. Haptic Feedback

Interactions (VR interactions): Experimenting with different interactions in the experience that may evoke different feelings e.g. using walk motion instead of teleportation because it can cause mild dizziness that may potentially evoke a dazed feeling. Interactions are part of all three sensory stimuli: Visual Design, Sound design, Haptic feedback