Aesthetics of Immersion in Interactive Immersive

Environments:Towards Phenomenological Research

a paper by Jinsil Seo,

Simon Fraser University

Seo's research aims

to question the nature of aesthetics in interactive immersive environments

to explore the MEANING of immersion shared between an artist and a participant

Components & Background

minimal components were adopted, for light and sound, with interactive elements

Seo's paper based on prior exhibits, nite_aura & Light Strings

Scope of research

Seo limited research to interactive physical art installations, eschewing VR, gaming, architecture and athletics.

Literature & prior art review

Historic origins in frescoes & cave paintings through works by Char Davies (Osmose & Ephemere) and metaphorical submersion

Also works of Myron Krueger, Camille Utterback & Romy Achituv

Definition of Immersion

Seo's possible definition:

“any sensory experience where integrated conscious and pre-conscious states thoroughly interrelate mind, body and environment.”

Cultural background

Seo is Korean and feels a “natural” link with her philosophy and her country's spiritual practice of “Ki,” in particular the notion of “flows” between the skin and the internal body

Research Methods

move from traditional scientific positivist approaches

emphasis on phenomenological methods of Merleau-Ponty, after Varela

Works

Tactile threads of light Side-glowing fibre optic lights Beams responding to visitors' touch Number of modes of aesthetic interaction

Data collection & Analysis

1st person data - the researcher's experience recorded through journals

2nd person data – the participants' experience, questioned in the above journals (drawings, writing, photos)

3rd person data – video recordings of experience

All for future analysis.

Validity

Seo mentions a post-positivist phase, with no hypothesis, just a phenomenological hermeneutic approach

However, this leads to charges of “modernism” and “semiotic” experiment.