Clive Fencott SpIDERStudio School of Computing University of Teesside
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Transcript of Clive Fencott SpIDERStudio School of Computing University of Teesside
Clive FencottSpIDERStudio
School of ComputingUniversity of Teesside
A Methodology of Design For Virtual Environments
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Introduction
• Methodology– Particularly content modelling– Integration
• Problems and further research
• SpIDERStudio
• Strange Agency Limited
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Me
• Idle waster
• Poet and performance artist
• Formal Methods
• Methods Integration research
• Virtual Environment Theory
• Entrepreneur
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is the problem?
• Designing VEs is difficult and time consuming
• Have to reconcile engineering and aesthetics
• Need methods and tools
• That’s why we’re here …
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is a Method?
• An underlying model
• A language
• A process model
• Heuristics(Kronlof, 1993)
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What Underlying Model?
• Turing Machines, Lambda Calculus not expressive enough
• Interaction Machines
• Semiotics
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Semiotics
• The study of how people find meaning in the world around them
• Signs made up of:– Signifier– Signified
• Huge body of theory built up from this basic insight
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What Language do we use?
• UML on the engineering side
• Can Semiotics help us on the aesthetic side?
• Yes, but it needs to be adapted for interaction
• Do they work together?
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Interactive Content
• but it might also be:– Something to stand on– Something to fight with– Something to buy and sell– A symbol of status, a throne for instance
• The meaning paradox:– A chair doesn’t function as a chair– It does function as interactive content
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Content Modelling
• Theories of:– The meanings people make of interactive
content– The types of responses they make as a
result
• Has to be:– Multi-levelled– Multi-faceted
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
VE Aesthetics
• Agency– Intention– Perceivable Consequence
• Narrative Potential
• Co-presence
• Transformation
• Presence
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Now and Future
• Object Aesthetics– POs as OO attributes of content code
• Agency at the heart of all VR– Tools don’t support the design of agency– Most tools make implementing agency very
difficult at best
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
SpIDERS
• Semiosphere: Interactive Digital Environment Research Studio
• Semiosphere:– An ecology of meaning in which differing
languages and media interact
• Yuri Lotman, a Russian semiotician• Semiotics:
– The study of how humans make meaning out of the world around them
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
What is SpIDERS?
• An interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, experimental psychologists and artists and designers
• Conduct research into theories of interactive content
• Experimental verification of theories• Practical research into the nature of
interactive media applications• Particularly computer games
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Ethos
• There are many ways of investigating the world:– Empirical science– Qualitative methods– Art practice and other humanities based
approaches– And so on
• They are all of use
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Experiments
• Predictive content modelling– Genre theory, aesthetics, perceptual
opportunities, the semiotics of interaction
• Unrealisms• Specialised experimental methods:
– Mood and presence– patterns of choice
• VR as object of study
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Methodology
• Specialist technology, e.g.. Eye-tracker:– To correlate focus of attention with
observed behaviour
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Applications Research
• VR as subject of study
• People with Dementia (PWD):– The use of Virtual Reality to help PWDs
learn new environments
• Computer Games for exercise:– Games that respond to exercise bikes etc.
• Computer Games and Older Adults
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
• University Spin-out company
• Proof of Content:– The analysis of computer games before
they are playable
Clive Fencott, A Methodology of Design for VEs
Conclusions
• Interactive content a major field for research and commercialisation
• Content modelling way behind the technology of interactive content
• We are still only at the beginning:– Even computer games are in their infancy