ME in The SPACE I IMAGINED

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
TO M.M.D
for making it happen
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

virtual reality drawing program, two times over the course of
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 . I n t r o d u c t i o n 7
2 . L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w 1 3
2 . 1 C r e a t i o n o f V i r t u a l R e a l i t y 15
2 . 2 R e a l i t y o f V i r t u a l R e a l i t y 2 3
2 . 3 I n v e s t i g a t i o n o f V i r t u a l R e a l i t y 27
3 . H y p o t h e s i s + M e t h o d o l o g y 31
3 . 1 T h e A p p r o a c h 3 3
3 . 2 T h e P r o c e s s 3 5
4. Results
3 9
4 . 1 I n t e r v i e w 0 1 4 3
4 . 2 T i l t B r u s h E x p e r i m e n t 4 5
4 . 3 V i d e o R e s p o n s e 5 3
4 . 4 I n t e r v i e w 0 2 5 7
4 . 5 E t h n o g r a p h i c S u m m a r y 6 1
5 . D i s c u s s i o n 6 7
5 . 1 T h e R e a l i t i e s o f V i r t u a l R e a l i t y 69
5 . 2 T h e P h y s i c a l i t y o f V i r t u a l R e a l i t y 73
6 . C o n c l u s i o n 7 9
6 . 1 D i s s o n a n t D e s i g n 8 1
B i b l i o g r a p h y 8 6
A p p e n d i x
01
INTRODUCTION
VIRTUAL = being in essence or effect though not

formally recognized or admitted.
REALITY = a real event, entity, or state of affairs.
VIRTUAL REALITY = an event or entity that is

real in effect but not in fact.
Michael Heim, The Metaphysics

of Virtual Reality (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993), p.109
7
8
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.
1 Baudrillard, J. and Glaser, S. (2014). Simulacra and simulation. 1st ed. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press
9
10
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.
2 Dezeen. (2017). Virtual reality design | Dezeen. [online] Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/tag/virtu
al-reality/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2017].
3 Hillis, K. (2002). Digital sensations. 1st ed. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.
4 Spradley, J. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. 1st ed. Minnesota: Holt, Rinehart and Winston p.3
11
12
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,
select, refine, and redeploy
speculative entertainment
equally sustains the will
to develop VEs and is
eloquently revealed in the
pages of science fiction.
Ken Hillis, Digital Sensations

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1999), p.17
13
Fig. 01.
The cover of Pygmallions Spectacles
14
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,
5 Weinbaum, S. (1949). A Martian odyssey. 1st ed. Reading, Pa.: Fantasy Press.
6 Heilig, M. (1992). EL Cine del Futuro: The Cinema of the Future. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Envi-
ronments, 1(3), pp.279-294.
7 ibid
8 ibid
15
Fig. 02.
The Sensorama
Fig. 03.
The Sword of Damocles. The headset

was so heavy that it had to be
suspended from the ceiling
16
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
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
still cinema, just more immersive cinema. It took another decade for Ivan
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
9 Schreer, O., Kauff, P. and Sikora, T. (2006). 3D Videocommunication. 1st ed. John Wiley & Sons.
10 Mortonheilig.com. (n.d.). THE FATHER OF VIRTUAL REALITY. [online] Available at: http://www.mortonheilig.
com [Accessed 15 Dec. 2016].
11 Heilig Morton (2017). [online] Available at: http://www.mortonheilig.com/SensoramaPatent.pdf [Accessed

26 Apr. 2017].
12 Rheingold, H. (1995). Virtual reality. 1st ed. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p.58
13 theorist James J. Gibson 10 asserts that how we navigate our 3-D world and handle things within it deter-
mines and shapes our vision of the world (1966, chap. 13),
Hillis, K. (2002). Digital sensations. 1st ed. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.
17
Fig. 04.
The virtual architecture of the

inhabitable digital world of TRON
Fig. 05.
The virtual environment of Ms.

Pacman, winner of a Game of the
Year award the year TRON was
released
18
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

from the known physical, derived more from a three dimensional spatialisation
of computer systems and software than from existing architectures. Ken
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
15 Sutherland, I. (2017). The Ultimate Display. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://worrydream.com/refs/Suther-
land%20-%20The%20Ultimate%20Display.pdf [Accessed 11 Dec. 2017].
16 Gibson, W. (2000). Neuromancer. 1st ed. New York: Penguin Publishing Group.
18 ibid
19
Fig. 06.
An Intel advert for home VR
Fig. 07.
Multiplayer arcade VR system by

Virtuality
20
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
years previously:
It isnt clear! Only one person can use it at a time! Its too expensive! 20.
19 The Verge. (2017). The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality. [online] Available at: http://www.theverge.
com/a/virtual-reality [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].
20 Weinbaum, S. (1949). A Martian odyssey. 1st ed. Reading, Pa.: Fantasy Press.
21
22
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.
21 MOORADIAN, N. (2006). VIRTUAL REALITY, ONTOLOGY, AND VALUE. Metaphilosophy, pp.673-690.
22 Heim, M. (1994). The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
23 ibid
24 ibid
23
It has been argued 25 that whether Virtual Reality is considered real depends
on how closely it matches physical reality, since the concept of virtual
reality suggests an approximation to reality, and therefore its application
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 simulation of a given item, ...is the simulation of systematic relations.
An attempt is made to simulate (if that is the right word) the conditions that
obtain between objects and a perceiver such that they are experienced in
a way similar to the way reality is experienced 28. This describes the aim of
Immersive Virtual Reality - to create a virtual experience that is experientially
equivalent to physical reality - equally real.
There is a key distinction in Immersive Virtual Reality between Presence and

Immersion. In A Framework For Immersive Virtual Environments, Slater and
Wilbur state the difference between these two terms to be that Immersion
can be an objective and quantifiable description of what any particular
system does provide 29, whereas Presence is a state of consciousness, the
(psychological) sense of being in the virtual environment 30. For them, the
aim of VR is that participants who are highly present should experience
the VE as the more engaging reality than the surrounding physical world,
and consider the environment specified by the displays as places visited
rather than as images seen. 31 In order to measure presence, the exact
requirements need to be known to both participant and observer, but this is
a complicated issue. Some definitions of presence require a belief that the
25 MOORADIAN, N. (2006). VIRTUAL REALITY, ONTOLOGY, AND VALUE. Metaphilosophy, 37(5),
pp.673-690
26 ibid
27 ibid
28 ibid
29 Slater, M. and Wilbur, S. (1997). A Framework for Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE): Speculations on
the Role of Presence in Virtual Environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 6(6), pp.603-616.
30 ibid
31 ibid
24
participant no longer inhabits the physical space 32, but this notion of a total
separation between physical and virtual what is known as the immersive
fallacy 33.
The Immersive Fallacy describes the assumption that media should strive
to present a fictional world so convincing that its audience would forget
the real world in which they interact with the media 34. This assumption is
present in the study of many virtual media, from board games to video
games, and is a fundamental misunderstand of the way constructed
realities are experienced. In Mixed Realism, Timothy Welsh demonstrates
that interactions with the virtual environments through video games, and by
extension through Virtual Reality, are fundamentally meta communicative...
if users truly believed that, after putting on a headset and glove, they were
suddenly on the surface of the moon...the experience would be utterly
terrifying 35. However, the meta-communicative nature of games, physical
or virtual, does not diminish their reality:
playing a game is a real event, even if the fictional environment it
projects is only a representation... where video game studies has lost
touch with the virtual, comes from the next step in saying that because
the fictional is a representation it is derivative and inessential. The
dragon may not be a dragon, but it is a projection of a dragon, and
projections of dragons are real. 36
The reality of these virtual experiences can be clearly demonstrated
through the effect of an interaction with a specific virtual environment - the
simulated Venice of Assassins Creed 2.
32 Slater, M. (2017). Depth of Presence in Virtual Environments. [online] Available at: http://publicationslist.org.
s3.amazonaws.com/data/melslater/ref-24/depth%20of%20presence.pdf.
33 Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. (2011). Rules of play. 1st ed. Johanneshov: TPB
34 Welsh, T. (2016). Mixed realism. 1st ed. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
35 ibid
36 ibid
25
Fig. 08. Fig. 09.
AC2 Virtual Venice landmarks, Physical Venice landmarks,
26
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
37 This is a phenomenon that I and others I have spoken to have personally experienced. I have written
about this previously in an essay which can be found at envs3021.wordpress.com
38 Kant, I. and Meiklejohn, J. (1781). The Critique of Pure Reason. 1st ed. Gutenberg.
39 ibid
27
physical world and can affect the perception of physical reality. This suggests
that both virtual and physical environments have equal experiential value,
with knowledge from either reality informing understanding of the other.
It is because of this equal value that VEs are being studied with increasing
seriousness. At the height of VRs popularity, the potential negative
implications of an immersive alternate reality began to be considered:
People thought that there would be addictions to VR that people
would end up living in virtual worlds and never coming out. There
was concern that there would be physical damage as well as mental
damage. 40
This notion of VR as another delusional drug 41 was a contributing factor to
its fall from grace, and these negative associations have stayed with both
VR and VEs throughout their history. While many studies and experiments
have explored possible side effects, from effect on aggression and
hostility 42, to impairment of hippocampal activity 43, there has also been
numerous investigations into the potential of this reality. Albert Skip Rizzos
work has used VR as exposure therapy to treat PTSD suffers 44
, while Mel
Slater and Anthony Steeds work has sought to understand the concept
and measurement of presence in virtual environments 45.
Alongside these technological investigations, the emerging field of Virtual

Ethnography has been gaining ground. In Coming of Age in Second Life,
the first anthropological study of the virtual world of Second Life, Tom
Boellstorff applied ethnographic methods to study its emerging online
culture, stating that:
40 The Verge. (2017). The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality. [online] Available at: http://www.theverge.
com/a/virtual-reality [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].
41 Gozzi, Raymond. VIRTUAL REALITY AS METAPHOR. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, vol. 52, no. 4,
1995, pp. 456460., www.jstor.org/stable/42577680.
42 Sciencedirect.com. (2017). Impact of virtual reality on young adults physiological arousal and aggressive
thoughts: Interaction versus observation - ScienceDirect. [online] Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/
article/pii/0193397394900094 [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].
43 Impaired spatial selectivity and intact phase precession in two-dimensional virtual reality. (2014). Nature
Neuroscience. [online] Available at: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v18/n1/full/nn.3884.html.
44 News.usc.edu. (2017). Skip Rizzo honored for advances in virtual reality therapy. [online] Available at:
https://news.usc.edu/80595/skip-rizzo-honored-for-advances-in-virtual-reality-therapy/ [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].
28
studying virtual worlds in their own terms is not only feasible but
crucial to developing research methods that keep up with the realities
of technological change 46
Boellstorff immersed himself in this virtual world, exploring its systems

and structures as Malinowski and other anthropologists before had studied
remote tribes and secluded cultures. Boellstorff went on to co-author
Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method with three other
prominent virtual anthropologists.
Ethnography and Virtual Worlds seeks to provide ethnographers with a

practical set of tools and approaches for conducting successful fieldwork in
virtual worlds 47, in order to aid further investigation into the cultures present
within them. Their work, however, deals exclusively with a single typology
of Virtual Environments, what they refer to as Virtual Worlds. They define
this as a VE that has a sense of world-ness, is multi-user in nature, is
persistent: they continue to exist in some form even as participants log
off, and lastly, they allow participants to embody themselves. It is the
interactions and social structures that develop within these virtual worlds
that these authors focus on, rather than the spatial environments of the
worlds themselves.
Between experimentation with the technology of VR, and ethnographic

studies of the cultures within Virtual Worlds, there lie unexamined questions.
Both of these lines of inquiry explore virtual environments that spatially
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
begun to question the notion of physical simulation, creating spaces that
exhibit a-physical experiential possibilities that are unique to virtual space 48.
As we stand on the brink of a reintegration of VR into mainstream culture, it
is crucial to discover how VEs are spatially understood in order to explore
their many spatial, and architectural possibilities. This will be the focus of
this ethnography.
46 Boellstorff, T. (2009). Coming of age in Second Life. 1st ed. Princeton University Press.
47 Hine, C. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. 1st ed. Sage Publishing.
48 I have written about one such VE, The Stanley Parable, previously. This paper can be found here: https://
www.scribd.com/document/319259830/Utopic-Simulations
29
30
03
HYPOTHESIS
AND
METHODOLOGY
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.
Slater, M. and Wilbur, S. (1997). A

Framework for Immersive Virtual
Environments (FIVE): Speculations
on the Role of Presence in Virtual
Environments. Presence: Teleoperators
and Virtual Environments, 6(6),
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
32
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
49 Slater, M. and Wilbur, S. (1997). A Framework for Immersive Virtual Environments (FIVE): Speculations on
the Role of Presence in Virtual Environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 6(6), pp.603-616.
50 Spradley, J. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. 1st ed. Minnesota: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.p17
33
as is feasible within its limited scale, seeking to understand how a-physical

virtual environments experienced through VR are perceived by studying
the language used by participants. It is hoped that this understanding will
inform the limits of the design of future VEs.
Participants in this study will spend a fixed amount of time experiencing an

a-physical VE through VR, with footage captured from both the physical
and virtual environment. The participants will then be asked to watch the
footage back and explain their actions and experience, before an being
questioned on their various statements. The language used will then be
analysed and presented in the results section, followed by a discussion on
the implications of the results.
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
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.
Tilt Brush gives users a series of virtual drawing tools - a wide variety of
brushes, drawing guides such as straight edges and a mirror function,
and transformation tools that allow the user to re-scale and reposition the
environment. The VE manifests itself as a blank, canvas space, and allows
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
brushes vary from light and smoke to psychedelic oil slicks and cyberspace
hypercubes, allowing a wide variety of creation.
34
3.2
The Process
Traditionally in ethnographies, the informant is required to be a thoroughly

encultured member of the culture being studied, with Spradley suggesting
a minimum of at least a years full time involvement 51 to qualify as an useful
source. In this study, however, participants with little enculturation were
deliberately chosen to enable an investigation into the experience of VR
free of existing knowledge or expectation. Although all participants were
common computer users, none had experienced VR before.
This process began with an unrecorded, informal exposure to VR, with

participants freely exploring various software and VEs. It was from
conversations following this experience that the notion of conducting an
ethnographic study was formed. Six months after this initial exposure, four
participants were invited back for a series of recorded observations.
The steps of the observations were:
INTERVIEW 01
Participants were asked a series of questions regarding the initial VR
exposure. As well as gathering information on the participants themselves,
these questions investigated how the VR experienced was perceived, and
how it had been remembered. (Fig. 10)
TILT BRUSH EXPERIMENT

Participants were placed into a blank space within Tilt Brush and given
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 Spradley, J. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. 1st ed. Minnesota: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.p48
52 Depth of Presence found that time is not at all significant in the analysisthere was no model that we were
able to find in which time emerged as a significant factor, and therefore a time limit was used to keep recorded data
manageable.
35
DETAILS ON VR EXPERIENCE
Name How long ago?
Age How long did you spend?
Technological proficiency 1-10 What did you do?
How long do you spend with computers a week? How did it feel?
Artistic proficiency 1-10 Did you feel like you achieved anything? If so what?
How often do you draw? Were there any memorable moments?
Had you used VR before the initial exposure? Was it like any other activity? Whats the closest existing
experience you can compare it to?
How would you explain it to someone who has not
experienced VR?
Have you thought of it since?
Fig. 10. Have you wanted to visit again?
Interview 01 questions Is it real or unreal?
Fig. 11.
VR setup in physical room.

Positional tracker locations circled.
36
INTERVIEW 02
Participants were asked the same set of questions as Interview 01, this time
regarding the Tilt Brush experiment, to observe the difference in perception
between a distant and recent VR experience. Statements made by
participants during the video reflection were also question for clarification
and further exploration of their perception of its reality.
Although, as an ethnographic work, this study does not seek to create a
tightly controlled testing environment, efforts were made to minimise
potential confounding variables. All participants experienced VR in the same
physical room and in the same VE, starting in the same position and having
a fixed time limit. The observations were all conducted in the evening, and
participants did not observe each others experiences, or talk to each other
about the previous experience or interviews before, or during the process.
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 This method was used in More Breaks Less Presence, but is less appropriate for this study as it imposes a
certain language and understanding onto participants
37
38
04
R E S U LT S
39
DOMINIC JENNY
Age: 46 Age: 43
Profession: IT Support Profession: Lawyer
Tech proficiency: 7 Tech proficiency: 4
Hours spent with computers/week: 40 Hours spent with computers/week: 40
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
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
THE PARTICIPANTS
40
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 - DS
Jenny - JS
Agostino - AN
Johanna JJ
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
54 THESIS playlist at https://www.youtube.com/user/Jaggsper
41
1: How d i d i t fe e l?
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.
JJ:IN1:0140 - more real...really exciting
2: W h a t s t h e c lo s e s t ex i s t i n g ex pe r i e nce you ca n comp a re i t to?
DS:IN1:0305 - its similar to playing a videogame but much more immersive

and interactive
JS:IN1:0300 - an immersive art experience in a gallery...because you forget
where you are. Even though you know its not real, it starts to feel more real
than reality.
AN:IN1:0430 - being in a white room in which you can spray paint all over...
space that is completely up to you
JJ:IN1:0256 - being underwater...like diving, having a mask on
3 : Rea l or un re a l?
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
4.1
Interview 01 : On Previous VR Experience
Despite the initial exposure to VR taking place six months before this
interview, all participants had strong and vivid memories of the experience.
Most participants said they had thought about since, with all participants
expressing excitement at the prospect of another exposure. Three specific
questions yielded an interesting variety of rich descriptions from participants.
While there was no immediate consensus, the answers to 1 and 3 suggest

that the VR experience is remembered as real, even if that reality is not
exactly equivalent to physical reality. Meanwhile, the mentions of art
experiences, videogames, and diving in answers to question 2 begin to
suggest the notion of VR being perceived as a separated reality that both
is and isnt like the physical world. This is a notion that will be reinforced in
later observations.
43
4.2
Tilt Brush Experiment
44
Jenny
JS:TBE:0500
JS:TBE:0720
JS:TBE:1625
JS:TBE:1435
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
45
Dominic
DS:TBE:0715
DS:TBE:0930
DS:TBE:1040
DS:TBE:1435
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
46
Fig. 12.
Participants Photo from inside

the Virtual Construction
Fig. 13.
Participants Photo from outside

47
Johanna
JJ:TBE:0515
JJ:TBE:1045
JJ:TBE:1435
JJ:TBE:1615
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
48
CC HH AA PP TT EE RR 41 :: R
J A
e sS uP lEt Rs
Fig. 14.

Fig. 15.

49
Agostino
AN:TBE:0815
AN:TBE:1115
AN:TBE:1735
AN:TBE:1835
VIRTUAL PHYSICAL
50
C H A P T E R 1 : J A S P E R
Fig. 16.

Fig. 17.

51
52
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 DS:VDR:0920
56 AN:VDR:0845
57 AN:VDR:0835
58 DS:VDR:1030
59 AN:VDR:1815
60 DS:VDR:0855
61 DS:VDR:0855
62 JS:VDR:0620
63 JS:VDR:1200
53
4.3.B Lines and Solids
JJ, AN and DS all made a distinction between line brushes and solid
brushes and their effects upon the perception of the space they delineated.
JJ mentioned filling in the walls, stating thats its actually really nice when
its dense like a wall 64, and that she found the smoke brush to be the most
real element...if you put it around its actually like smoke which is much
nicer than the pen 65. DS aimed to make a light environment and described
the default light brush as just drawing lines 66, saying when finding the
fire brush that was great because it was more of a wall 67. AN found the
paper brush interesting because its thick and thin...and really promising to
delineate space 68
4.3.C Scales and Wonderlands

DS, JS and JJ did use the scaling tool whilst drawing. JJ compared adjusting
the scale of her door to being Alice In Wonderland 69, echoing JSs earlier
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.
64 JJ:VDR:1110
65 JJ:VDR:1300
66 DS:VDR:0645
67 DS:VDR:0920
68 AN:VDR:0817
69 JJ:VDR:0900
70 JJ:VDR:0845
71 JS:VDR:1620
72 JJ:VDR:1640
73 DS:VDR:1205
74 DS:VDR:1205
54
4.3.D Glitches and Collisions

Although all participants collided with the edge of the physical room when
drawing, none rescaled or moved the virtual environment in response.
Of the collision, DS stated: Id completely forgotten about the outside
environment until I smashed into something 75, and AN mentioned when
colliding that he could really feel the confinements of the space outside of
virtual reality 76. JJ and AN both had glitches whilst drawing, and described
their frustration at this and the desire to keep the space clean 77 78
, with
AN showing personal investment in his drawing when using terms such as
housekeeping and repairing 79 to describe the act of deleting glitched lines.
AN also mentioned his annoyance at being dependent on the vision of
the outside cameras 80 to accurately reflect his physical actions within the
VE. In contrast, JS and DS expressed wanting to make as much mess as I
could 81 and to create some chaos 82 respectively, suggesting a rather more
detached perception of the VE.
75 DS:VDR:1030
76 AN:VDR:1700
77 AN:VDR:0950
78 JJ:VDR:0640
79 AN:VDR:1325
80 AN:VDR:1153
81 JS:VDR:0600
82 DS:VDR:1125
55
1: How d i d i t fe e l?
DS:IN2:1600 - great, it felt great, it was really bright and sunny. It made me
happy.
JS:IN2:1905 - it felt nice to be back...like it was somewhere I had been
before.
AN:IN2:2015 - great
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
when you try to cover everything around you. It makes it much more spatial
for you than just drawing an object
2: W h a t s t h e c lo s e s t ex i s t i n g ex pe r i e nce you ca n comp a re i t to?
DS:IN2:1735 - dancing
AN:IN2:2135 - 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 itbut its really difficult to relate it to anything outside of VR
JJ:IN2:1840 - Painting a wall...but it is like being underwater somehow...
especially when you cant really feel the end of the space, its all black
around you... you dont really know where the boundaries are which makes
me feel really strange...insecure. You could go everywhere, but you know
you cant go everywhere
3 : Rea l or un re a l?
DS:IN2:3215 - it was definitely real. I feel like its gone now...I want to create
another one with a different mood.
JS:IN2:2920 - its completely real
AN:IN2:3325 - in between I almost started to treat the space as real...but at
some point you just get the idea that thats just an illusion, a representation of
something, its just within the drawing and not within the physical boundary.
I guess this proved it to be much more virtual
JJ:IN2:3120 - different real...it is real because it exists as a space. Its not
unreal. Its like in a dream
56
4.4
Interview 02
The second interview, conducted shortly after the Video Response, began
with a repeat of the questions from Interview 01. The change in response
to these questions demonstrates the difference between a recent and a
remembered perception of VR. Answers to the same three questions shown
in 4.1 are presented here for direct comparison.
While the participants opinions on the reality of VR didnt change, the

answers to question 2 all show a significance difference in perception.
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
of the experience of VR for the participants.
Following the initial repeat questioning, participants were asked to elaborate

on statements made within the experiment and response. Using the areas
of interest established in 4.3, these further explorations are summarised
below. Section headings demonstrate further knowledge gained on each
area through the questioning.
4.4.A Cocoons and Physicality facilitate Ownership and Inhabitation
When questioned, all participants considered inhabitation and interaction

to be a crucial part of the spatial experience, with emphasis on the ability to
simultaneously construct and inhabit as a unique quality of the experience.
Discussing his construction, DS mentioned being satisfied with having
created it so that I could then inhabit it 83 and describing it as something I
could never inhabit other than in that situation 84. When asked if he wouldve
had the same happiness in someone elses construction, however, he
responded: probably not because I wouldnt have had the physicality of
doing it... it wasnt really about the being in it, it was about the making of it 85.
This suggests that the act of doing is as important as inhabiting.
83 DS:IN2:2550
84 DS:IN2:2530
85 DS:IN2:2630
57
JS also mentioned creating objects to be experienced, saying: I made the
bars so that I could walk through them...I was drawing things that I could
then experience 86, and that thats the kind of thing that you cant do in the
real world but you can do in that space 87. JJ showed the same intent, saying
that as soon as you define the space you try to use it 88, and stating of
drawing around herself that its it was really fun... like something you cant
do in any other space 89. When explaining the difference between watching
the recording and being in VR, JJ described inhabitation as a key aspect of
VRs reality, stating: in the VR its actually there...you feel like its more real.
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
that the embodiment of VR is clearly essential to its perception as a reality,
distinguishing it from more separated methods of experiencing VEs.
4.4.B Lines and Solids differentiate Nowhere and Walls

When constructing their spaces, participants referred to various elements
using terms such as wall, floor, ceiling, stair, door, and expressed a need to
have these elements to define the space. Explaining her earlier statement
having walls is nice, JJ said when you think of space, you want things
to define the space 91, and elaborated on the distinction between line
brushes and solid brushes. DS described his space as needing a floor, and
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,
saying of the physical floor that it didnt matter, because I couldnt perceive
it 93.
86 JS:IN2:2300
87 JS:IN2:2220
88 JJ:IN2:2155
89 JJ:IN2:2815
90 JJ:IN2:3100
91 JJ:IN2:2845
92 DS:IN2:2015
93 DS:IN2:2015
58
The delineation that these elements provided created a strong experiential

distinction between the space inside the construction and that outside.
Inside was described using words such as homely, comfortable, and
referred to as my space, while outside was described as disconcerting,
nowhere, blank. Being outside the construction changed participants
perception of the construction itself, with AN seeing the it from an object
point of view and not from a space point of view any more 94, and DS
explaining that he stepped outside to see if I could see the feeling I was
having inside from outside, but it was just a mess 95.
4.4.C Scales and Wonderlands complicate Reality and Consequence

When directly asked whether the space was real or unreal, there was not
a consensus, with participants split between completely real 96 and not
unreal 97. When describing the experience, however, no participant referred
to the virtual space as real, but all referred to the physical world as the real
world to distinguish it from the Virtual. 98 Further complicating the use of the
term, DS and JS, both of whom answered real to the final question, also
described wanting to create chaos and make a mess. When questioned
on this urge, DS described enjoying the freedom of VR, explaining that you
can create chaos and then you just press delete...theres no consequence 99,
confirming the perception of VR as a detached reality.
4.4.D Collisions and Glitches deteriorate Presence and Agency

When asked to explain the feeling and effects of colliding with the physical
environment, participants broadly agreed that, although it gave them an
94 AN:IN2:3220
95 DS:IN2:3040
96 JS:IN2:2920
97 JJ:IN2:3120
98 DS:IN2:2045
JS:IN2:2220
AN:IN2:3300
JJ:IN2:2155
99 DS:IN2:2815
59
increased awareness of the physical environment around them, this didnt
really bring them out. JS and JJ both described the physical limits of the
room restricting their virtual experience, stating I felt like I could go further
than that, but then you find yourself hitting into things...Its annoying, its like
that real world is impinging on my experience 100 and you dont see that
there is an end and you wish that there is no end to it 101. DS on the other
hand, although aware of the physical from multiple collisions, described
his perception of the physical from inside the virtual as otherworldly 102,
explaining that, when colliding with physical objects, it was like a different
reality that I was affecting but it wasnt in my experience at the time 103.
Glitches had more of a negative experiential effect on participants, with
AN saying he felt frustrated, helpless, and violated, describing the glitch
as something you have no agency over and its piercing you and its
uncomfortable 104.
100 JS:IN2:2105
101 JJ:IN2:2135
102 DS:IN2:2130
103 DS:IN2:2200
104 AN:IN2:3000
60
4.5
Ethnographic Study
The unintended intuitive richness of the language can be clearly shown

through a single quote: me in the space I imagined 105. This statement
was given when the participant was asked how they would explain the
photograph they took within the VE, which showed a representation of their
virtual avatar in the construction. When broken down, this single sentence
reveals a great amount about the participants perception of the virtual
experience:
ME identifying with virtual avatar

IN feeling spatially present
THE SPACE experiencing VR as a spatial reality
I feeling ownership of the virtual construction
IMAGINED created from ideas / an illusory creation
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
be experienced an incredibly limiting factor in its progress. To develop
cultures further, knowledge must be made explicit, allowing discussion
and understanding to be exchanged without requiring experience. This is
the aim of ethnography: to make implicit cultural knowledge explicit, and
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 JJ:IN2:3025
106 Spradley, J. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. 1st ed. Minnesota: Holt, Rinehart and Winston p92
107 Spradley, J. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. 1st ed. Minnesota: Holt, Rinehart and Winston p93
61
Step4-TaxonomicAnalyses
Ta xCT nCooverTerm
o- mies
CT--IncludedTerm
IT CoverTerm
IT-IncludedTerm
A : KINDSOFSPACE

CTPhysicalReality
KINDSOFSPACE
CT ITTheRoom
PhysicalReality CTVirtualReality
Physicalboundary
ITTheRoom ITVirtualConstruction

Camerasfieldofview
Physicalboundary Drawing

Outside environment
Camerasfieldofview Cocoon

Exteriorspace
Outsideenvironment Hut

Therealroom
Exteriorspace Cave

Theactualroom
Therealroom Myspace

ExteriorSphere
Theactualroom Inside
ITThePhysicalWorld
ExteriorSphere Encasement
Thenormalworld
ITThePhysicalWorld Dome

Therealworld
Thenormalworld Room

Otherspace
Therealworld Sphere

PhysicalReality
Otherspace Facade
PhysicalReality Structures
Object
Womb

Wonderland
Wall
Ceiling
Floor
ITVirtualEnvironment
Outside
Boundless
Blacksky
Nowhere
Blankspace
Non-reality
SensoryProsthesis
Illusion
Representation
Dream
ImaginedSpace
AnotherSkin

62
B : KINDSOFACT
KINDSOFFEELING
D: KINDSOFFEELING
ITCreating CTPresence
CTPresence
Drawing ITPositiveFeelings
ITPositiveFeelings
Painting Encasement
Encasement
Fillingin Ownership
Ownership
Surrounding Happiness
Happiness
Decorating Fun
Fun
Constructing Satisfaction
Satisfaction
Building Homely
Homely
ITChoosingTool ITNegativeFeelings
ITNegativeFeelings
Pointing Violated
Violated
ITErasing Buried
Buried
Erase Pierced
Pierced
Undo Helpless
Helpless
Housekeeping Disconcerting
Disconcerting
Repairing CTBreakinpresence
CTBreakinpresence
Cleaning Annoyance
Annoyance
Scaling Frustration
Frustration
Moving Dependance
Dependance
Glitch Uncomfortable
Uncomfortable
Inhabiting Realisingtheillusion
Realisingtheillusion
Recording Controlled
Controlled
Photographing Skepticism
Skepticism
Selfie VirtualActionImpulse
VirtualActionImpulse

WAYSTOCONSTRUCTINVIRTUALREALITY
C: WAYSTOCONSTRUCTINVIRTUALREALITY
Creating
Creating
Solidtools
Solidtools
Fire
Fire
Smoke
Smoke
Bubbles
Bubbles
LineTools
LineTools
Light
Light
FunctionTools
FunctionTools
Linear
Linear
Mirror
Mirror
Erasing
Erasing
Housekeeping
Housekeeping
Repairing
Repairing
Undoing
Undoing

63

POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
PhysicalBoundary YES YES POSITIVE
Outside YES YES POSITIVE
ExteriorSpace YES YES POSITIVE
TheRealroom YES YES POSITIVE
Theactualroom YES YES POSITIVE
Exteriorsphere YES YES POSITIVE
P a r a d i g m Wo r k s h e e t s
TheNormalWorld YES YES POSITIVE
Therealworld YES YES POSITIVE
Otherspace YES / POSITIVE
PhysicalReality YES YES POSITIVE
E: Descriptions Dimensionsofcontrast
ofVirtual
SpatialTerm TermofExistence ReferencetoReality:
Environment
POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
Boundless YES YES POSITIVE
BlackSky NO YES POSITIVE
Nowhere NO NO NEGATIVE
BlankSpace YES YES NEGATIVE
Nonreality NO NO NEGATIVE
Sensoryprosthesis NO YES NEGATIVE
Illusion NO NO NEGATIVE
Representation NO NO NEGATIVE
Dream NO NO NEGATIVE
ImaginedSpace YES NO NEGATIVE

Step5-ComponentialAnalyses
AnotherSkin / YES POSITIVE
F: Descriptions Dimensionsofcontrast
ofPhysical
Environment SpatialTerm TermofExistence ReferencetoReality:
POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
Descriptions Dimensionsofcontrast
ofVirtual
Environment
POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
64 Nonreality NO NO NEGATIVE

G: Kindsof Dimensionsofcontrast
Feelings
SpatialTerm SuggestsPresence POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
PRESENCE
Encasement YES YES POSITIVE
Ownership NO YES POSITIVE
Happiness NO YES POSITIVE
Fun NO YES POSITIVE
Satisfaction NO YES POSITIVE
Violated YES YES NEGATIVE
Buried YES YES NEGATIVE
Pierced YES YES NEGATIVE
Helpless NO YES NEGATIVE
Disconcerted NO YES NEGATIVE
BREAKINPRESENCE
Annoyed NO NO NEGATIVE
Frustrated NO NO NEGATIVE
Dependant NO NO NEGATIVE
Uncomfortable NO NO NEGATIVE
RealisingIllusion NO NO NEGATIVE
Controlled NO NO NEGATIVE
Skeptical NO NO NEGATIVE
H: Descriptionsof Dimensionsofcontrast
Virtual
SpatialTerm ReferencetoSpatial ManMadeTypology NaturalTypology
Construction
Reality:
POSITIVEor

NEGATIVE
Drawing NO NEGATIVE YES NO
Cocoon YES POSITIVE NO YES
Hut YES POSITIVE YES NO
Cave YES POSITIVE NO YES
MySpace YES POSITIVE NO NO
Inside YES POSITIVE / /
Encasement YES POSITIVE NO YES
Dome YES POSITIVE YES YES

Room YES POSITIVE YES NO
Structure YES POSITIVE YES YES
Facade YES POSITIVE YES NO
Object YES POSITIVE / /
Womb YES POSITIVE NO YES
Wonderland YES NEGATIVE / /
Wall YES POSITIVE YES NO
Ceiling YES POSITIVE YES NO
Floor YES POSITIVE YES NO
65

66
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),
67
C H A P T E R 5 : D i s c u s s i o n
Fig. 19.
Fig. 18.
Overlaid physical and virtual
Alice in Wonderland and Through imagery to show experience of
The Looking Glass sapce.
68
5.1
The Realities of Virtual Reality
H Y P OT H ES I S : A- P H YS ICAL VIRT UAL S PACE IS EXP ERIEN T IAL LY

EQ U I VA L E NT TO P H YSICAL REAL IT Y.
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
relative uses of these terms by participants highlights the perceived spatial
relationships between the distinct spaces. There was an inside/outside
69
relationship between virtual reality(inside) and physical reality(outside), but
also within virtual reality itself, between the virtual construction(inside) and
the virtual environment(outside). This can be summarised as:
The virtual construction is inside the virtual environment, which is inside

the physical room.
However, there was not a strong perception of being inside both the
physical room and the virtual environment simultaneously. Collisions and
glitches that caused breaks in presence gave participants an awareness of
the world outside, but when present, the participant described being in a
separate reality, not being inside the physical room. Therefore:
TO BE INSIDE THE PHYSICAL ROOM is to be outside the virtual construction,

outside the virtual environment, outside virtual reality.
[outside-outside]
TO BE INSIDE THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT is to be outside the virtual

construction, inside the virtual environment, inside virtual reality.
[outside-inside]
TO BE INSIDE THE VIRTUAL CONSTRUCTION is to be inside the virtual

construction, inside the virtual environment, inside virtual reality
[inside-inside]
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
virtual reality as a whole, it was referred to as a non-reality, an illusion, a
dream, in comparison to the real world of physical reality. This leads to the
conclusion that:
The virtual construction is less real than the physical room, but more real
than the virtual environment.
70
This demonstrates the complex nature of the existence of virtual reality -

there is a first act of separation into the illusion, and then an acceptance
of the reality within that illusion. In their descriptions, two participants
specifically referenced Alice In Wonderland (Fig. 18), and, although
referencing different aspects of Wonderland, it is a telling comparison. It
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
- as a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter...
such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked. 108
Just like the mentions of dreams and illusions, as well as the comparisons
to diving and theatre, alluding to Wonderland shows that Virtual Reality is
experienced as a world like ours but different, detached - an other reality.
That participants accepted both of the dissonant realities demonstrates
that the notion of presence requiring a belief that the participant no longer
inhabits the physical space 109 is indeed an immersion fallacy, reinforcing
the meta-fictional 110 understanding of virtual space.
This relative reality also highlights the crucial role that delineation of space
plays in perception and experience. As one participant stated regarding
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
part of the experience, there is no difference between the technology
displaying the environment and the construction, but a few textured lines in
explorable space transform a blank sky into a cocoon, outside into inside,
and nowhere into somewhere.
108 Sutherland, I. (2017). The Ultimate Display. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://worrydream.com/refs/
Sutherland%20-%20The%20Ultimate%20Display.pdf [Accessed 11 Dec. 2017].
111 DS:IN2:2015
71
Elements described as WALLS
Elements described as STAIRS
A lightbuld and a smoke floor
Fig. 20.
Original virtual elements with

simulated physical descriptions
72
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.
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)
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

environment, and the thing to the virtual construction, but in the second
112 It is important to emphasise that this distinction was not between architectural and non architectural
participants all participants used both types of term.
113 JJ:IN2:2345
73
sentence, it is used to refer to both spaces, as well as the virtual environment
being referred to as this space. Although statements like this can be
decoded when analysed, they can obfuscate meaning and complicate
explanations, and are almost meaningless outside of the context of their
context. A defined set of terms would allow both those who experience the
space to describe it and those who do not to understand it. Giving future
participants terms derived from descriptions - such as virtual environment
and virtual construction - to describe their experience would facilitate more
detailed communication.
The physical language demonstrates more than a lack of vocabulary,

however. Investigating the type of physical term used also sheds light
on the way in which Virtual Reality is perceived and experienced. Several
participants specifically mentioned that physicality is crucial to Virtual
Reality, describing it as that which distinguishes it as an interface with
Virtual Environments from the traditional screen and controller that are the
current standard: in Virtual Reality you dont have to create that separation
you are inside it. Being an essential aspect of the experience, physicality
had a direct bearing on the way the constructions were created and the
how they were described. Whether from man made or natural typologies,
the terms used all describe simple spaces, all at a scale directly related to
that of the body. Participants did not seek towering virtual holograms, but
homely cocoon huts.
This inclination to surround themselves in encasements at the scale of their

body is strikingly similar to Laugiers concept of the origin of architecture
as the primitive hut. (Fig.21) Laugier describes the primitive man, seeking
shelter from the rain:
The man is willing to make himself an abode which covers but not
buries him. Some branches broken down in the forest are the proper
materials for his design. He chooses four of the strongest, which he
raises perpendicularly and which he disposes into a square. Above he
puts four others across, and upon there he raises some that incline from
both sides.
74
This kind of roof is covered with leaves put together, so that neither
the sun nor the rain can penetrate therein; and now the man is lodged.
Indeed cold and heat will make him fencible of their inconveniences
in his house, open on every part; but then he will fill up between the
space of the pillars, and will then find himself secure. Such is the step
of simple nature: It is to the imitation of her proceedings, to which art
owes its birth 114
The participants process was almost identical to this, but rather than
seeking shelter from the rain, they sought
an inside delineated from nowhere, and, needing to make an

encasement but not a simulation, choose the most solid brushes
to create walls at the reach of their arms, and now the participant is
present.
Laugier suggested his theory of the creation of the primitive hut in order to
criticise the architecture of the time. It demonstrated what he believed to be
the essential and forgotten aspects of the creation of space, which should
return to being the focus of architectural design. In the primitiveness of their
construction, the participants cocoons exhibit the essential aspects of their
creation, defined not by the proportions of materials, or the need for shelter,
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
various constraints of the experiment, the spaces defined and the language
used to describe them still clearly demonstrate that the scale of the body
and the physicality in interaction are essential to the reality of the virtual.
This has been the downfall of so many virtual environments, with countless
visions of virtual space that bear no relationship to the scale of the person
experiencing the space itself, imagined cyberspaces that are derived more
from the nature of the program that produces them than the person that
explores them.
114 Laugier, M. (1755). Essay on Architecture. 1st ed. London, Printed for T. Osborne and Shipton.p11
75
Fig. 21.
Fig. 22.
The primitive hut at the birth
of architecture The primitive virtual hut
76
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.
115 Heilig, M. (1992). EL Cine del Futuro: The Cinema of the Future. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments,
1(3), pp.279-294.
77
78
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.
79
C H A P T E R 6 : C o n c l u s i o n
80
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 AN:IN2:3300
81
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.
Physicality is not simply a cognitive shortcut to reality, it is experientially

hardwired within us. Rather than wholly rejecting it, it can be manipulated
and reinterpreted through the design freedom of virtual space. Interesting
possibilities for a-physical architecture exist in the overlapping boundary
between the two realities, a boundary that I have investigated in my own
architectural design projects. These proposals use VR to separate the visual
perception of space from the tactile interactions with constructions, creating
two overlapping spatial realities that depend upon one another. Their
design demonstrates the impact of virtual reality on physical architecture,
creating haptic infrastructures that exist to maintain the virtuals reality, but
in relying on physical architecture to provide this reality, the design of the
virtual is restricted to physical possibilities. VR that could provide the haptic
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.
82
C H A P T E R 6 : C o n c l u s i o n
This paper is the beginning of a conversation, and the ethnographic process

has resulted in the definition of a language that can facilitate it. The creations
of the participants, however, are simply rough sketches of spatial concepts
in need of much development, with a-physical possibilities only beginning
to be explored. Many potential experiments present themselves following
these results. An investigation into the types of virtual space participants
may construct; exposing participants to each others virtual constructions
and examining how it is understood; constructing curated a-physical
spaces to test certain aspects - the possibilities are vast. What is truly
crucial, however, is exploration outside of research studies. As architects
constructing proposals for physical space through virtual interfaces daily, we
must question not only the possibilities of the tools virtual reality provides,
but the endless potential of the inhabitable spatial reality that it offers.
83
84
85
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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
91
Appendices
A. Ethnographic Study 3
A . 1 D a t a C o l l e c t i o n 4
A . 2 D e s c r i p t i v e Q u e s t i o n M a t r i x 5
A . 3 D o m a i n A n a l y s e s 1 0
A . 4 Ta x o n o m i c A n a l y s e s 1 3
A . 5 C o m p e n t i a l A n a l y s e s 1 5
B. Transcripts 19
B . 1 J o h a n n a 2 1
B . 2 D o m i n i c 2 7
B . 3 J e n n y 3 3
B . 4 A g o s t i n o 3 7
A
Ethnographic Study
3
Step1-DataCollection
Interviews
Recordings:
Filmsonattacheddrive
Viewableonlineat:https://www.youtube.com/user/Jaggsper
Transcripts:attheendoftheappendix
Images
Participantsphotos:onattacheddrive
Authorsphotos:onattacheddrive
Models
TiltBrushandFBXfilesonattacheddrive
Viewableonlineat:https://sketchfab.com/elburro/models

4
Step2-DescriptiveObservation
DescriptiveQuestionMatrix
SPACE OBJECT ACT ACTIVITY TIME ACTOR GOAL FEELING
SPACE Canyou Whatareall Whatareall Whatareallthe Whatspatial Whatareall Whatareall Whatspacesare

describein theways theways waysspaceis changes theways thewaysis associatedwith
detailall spaceis spaceis organizedby occur spaceisused relatedto feelings?
places? organizedby organized activities? overtime? byactors? goals?
objects? byacts?
OBJECT Whereare Canyou Whatareall Whatareallthe Howare Whatareall Howare Whatareallthe

objects describein theways waysobjectsare objectsused theways objectsused waysobjectsevoke
located? detailall objectsare usedin atdifferent objectsare inseeking feelings?
objects? usedin activities? times? usedby goals?
acts? actors?
ACT Wheredo Howdoacts Canyou Howareactsa Howdoacts Whatarethe Whatareall Whatareallthe

actsoccur? incorporate describein partofactivities? varyover waysactsare thewaysacts waysactsarelinked
theuseof detailall time? performedby arerelatedto tofeelings?
objects? acts? actors? goal?
ACTIVITY Whatareall Whatareall Whatareall Canyou Howdo Whatareall Whatareall Howdoactivities

theplaces theways theways describein activitiesvary theways theways involvefeelings?
activity activities activities detailall atdifferent activities activities
occur? incorporate incorporate activities? times? involve involvegoals?
objects? acts? actors?
TIME Wheredo Whatareall Howdoacts Howdoactivities Canyou Whenareall Howare Whenarefeelings

time theways fallinto fallintotime describein thetimes goalsrelated evoked?
periods timeaffect periods? periods? detailalltime actorsareon totime
occur? objects? periods? stage? periods?
ACTOR Wheredo Whatareall Whatareall Howareactors Howdoactors Canyou Whichactors Whatarethe

actorsplace theways theways involvedin changeover describein arelinkedto feelings
themselves actorsuse actorsuse activities? timeorat detailall whichgoals? experiencedby
? objects? acts? different actors? actors?
times?
GOAL Whereare Whatareall Whatareall Whatactivities Whichgoals Howdothe Canyou Whatareallthe

goals theways theways aregoalseeking arescheduled variousgoals describein waysgoalsevoke
soughtand goalsinvolve goals oflinkingto forwhich affectsthe detailall feelings?
achieve? useof involve goals? time? various goals?
objects? acts? actors?
FEELING Wheredo What Whatareall Whatareallthe Howare Whatareall Whatareall Canyoudescribein

thevarious feelingslead theways waysfeelings feelings theways theways detailallfeelings?
feelings totheuseof feelings affectactivities? relatedto feelings feelings
states what affectacts? varioustime involve influence
occur? objects? periods? actors? goals?

5
AboutSPACE
Spacevs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings

Space/Space
Physicalcontainingspace-theroominwhichtheparticipantisexperiencingVR
Virtualenvironment-Theemptyvirtualworldofpotential
InsideVirtualspace-thespacecreatedthroughuseofvirtualtool
Outsidevirtualspace
HybridPerceivedspace-spaceimaginedonto/intendedinvirtualspace

Space/Objects
Physical Space - Visual Interface, Control Interface, Synchronised objects,
unsynchronisedphysicalobjects
Virtual world - Virtual UI, Virtual Tools, Synchronised objects, unsynchronised virtual
objects,virtuallyconstructedobjects
Virtualconstructedspace-virtuallyconstructedobjects

Space/Act
All Acts occur simultaneously in both the physical and virtual space, but manifest
themselvesdifferently

Space/Time
PhysicalSpace-BeforeenteringVirtual,afterleavingvirtual
VirtualSpace-wheninvirtual
Perceivedspace-breakinpresence

Space/Actors
Physicalspace-Participantsphysicalself
Virtualspace-Participant'svirtualavatar,virtualcharacters?
PerceivedSpace-Participant'svirtualavatar

Space/Goals
VirtualSpace-toconstructandexperiencevirtualspace
HybridPerceivedspace-tocreateinendlessvirtualwithinphysicalboundary

Space/Feelings
Physical Space - Break in presence, Virtual action impulse when outside of virtual
world(ieassassinscreed,wantingtoclimbwalls),Nausea
VirtualSpace-immersion,awe?

6
AboutOBJECTS
Objectsvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Objects/Objects
PhysicalVisualInterface-theheadsetworntoseeVR
PhysicalControlInterface-thecontrollerusedtoactwithinVR
VirtualUserInterface-menusandtoolbarsusedtoselecttools
VirtualTools-varietyoftools/pens/brushesusedtoconstructwithinvirtual
Tools
Textures
Brushes
Synchronised Virtual/Physical Objects -objectsvirtuallyreconstructedandmapped
withinvirtualspacetomirrorphysicalspaceandprovidehapticfeedback
Unsynchronised Physical Objects -nonvirtuallyreconstructedobjectsexistingwithin
thephysicalspacethatmayaccidentallybecollidedwith
UnsynchronisedVirtualObjects-virtualobjectsthathavenophysicalparallel
Interactiveandnoninteractiveobjects?
Virtuallyconstructedobjects?
Physical/Postphysicalobjects?
Objects/Space
Physical Visual Interface - blocks visual perception of physical space and provides
virtualvisualinput
Physical Control Interface - maps physical movement onto virtual movement
providingphysicalbodyscaletovirtualspace
VirtualUserInterface-providesvirtualvisuallinktophysicalinterface
VirtualTools-allowsuserstoembodyandinteractwithvirtualspace
Synchronised Virtual/Physical Objects - physical embodiment of virtual objects
synchronises both spaces, creating a unified perceived reality (the opposite of a
breakinpresence)
Unsynchronised Physical Objects - causes separation in perception of physical and
virtual space (a break in presence), with user remembering illusion of virtual and
embodiment of physical - virtual spaceceasestobeperceivedasspace,itisreduced
toimage
Unsynchronised Virtual Objects - if immersed in virtual experience, willbeaccepted
asabelievablepartoffabricofvirtualspacethatcanbevirtuallyinteractedwith
Objects/Acts
PhysicalVisualInterface-usedtoperceiveandpartakeinallvirtualacts
PhysicalControlInterface-usedtophysicallyembodyallvirtualacts
VirtualUserInterface-usedtoselectvirtualtools
VirtualTools-usedtoenactallvirtualacts
SynchronisedVirtual/PhysicalObjects-
UnsynchronisedPhysicalObjects-
UnsynchronisedVirtualObjects-canbevirtuallyinteractedwith

7
Objects/Time
PhysicalVisualInterface+PhysicalControlInterface
Before+afterenteringvirtual:apieceoftechnologicalhardware.
When inside virtual: awareness of physical objects lost, but they enable
physical/virtualinteraction
VirtualUserInterface
Before+afterenteringvirtual:notperceived
Wheninsidevirtual:interfaceforselectingvirtualtools
VirtualTools
Beforeenteringvirtual:notperceived
When inside virtual: method of acting within virtual world:interacting,constructing,
recordingandnavigatingthroughthevirtualspace
Afterleavingvirtual:rememberedandpotentiallymissed/attemptedtouse(AC2)
SynchronisedVirtual/PhysicalObjects
Beforeenteringvirtual:physicalobjects
When inside virtual: virtual objects with physical haptic feedback and physical
memories(ifnoticed)
Afterleavingvirtual:physicalobjectswithvirtualmemories
UnsynchronisedPhysicalObjects
Beforeenteringvirtual:physicalobjects
Wheninsidevirtual:notperceived.collisioncausesbreakinpresence
After leavingvirtual:physicalobjects,ifcollidedwith,maybeassociatedwithvirtual
memory(ohitwasthefireplacethatihit!)
UnsynchronisedVirtualObjects
Before+afterenteringvirtual:notperceived
Wheninsidevirtual:objectsthatfillvirtualspace

Objects/Feelings
PhysicalVisual+ControlInterface-delaycancausebreakinpresenceandnausea
Synchronised Virtual/Physical Objects - memory can cause virtual action impulsein
physicalworld
UnsynchronisedPhysicalObjects-collisioncancausebreakinpresence
UnsynchronisedVirtualObjects-interactioncancausefurtherinvestmentinvirtual

AboutACTS
ACTSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Event,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings

Acts/Acts
Movearm
Presscontroller
Choosetool
VirtualDrawingstroke(alltools)
Rescalevirtualconstruction
Rotatevirtualconstruction
Erase
Undo
TakephotoswithinVR

8
Movephysicalposition AboutFEELINGS
Teleport(Movevirtualposition) FEELINGSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Virtualinteractions
Physicalcollision Feelings/Feelings
Glitch
Immersion
Re-catch
Annoyance
Re-sync
Satisfaction
Frustration
AboutACTIVITIES Encasement
ACTIVITIESvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings Fun
Breakinpresence
Activities/Activities Virtualactionimpulsewhenoutsideofvirtualworld
Drawing Nausea
Deleting Awe
Moving Excitement
Modelling Discovery
RecordingImages Empowerment
Freedom
Happy
Ownership
AboutTIME
Skepticism
TIMEvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Violated
Helpless
Time/Time Strangeness
Beforeenteringvirtual Surprise
Wheninsidevirtual Disconcerting
Aftervirtualexperience Boredom
Experiencingabreakinpresencewhenwithinvirtual

AboutACTORS
ACTORSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings

Actors/Actors
ParticipantsPhysicalSelf
Participant'sVirtualAvatar
VirtualCharacters?
AboutGOALS
GOALSvs.Space,Object,Act,Activity,Time,Actor,Goals,Feelings
Goals/Goal
Tocreateavirtualspace
Toexperienceavirtualspace
Encasement

9
Step3-DomainAnalyses
Step3.1Domaincompositionandidentification
1-VOCABULARY 2-INCLUDEDTERMS 3-POSSIBLECOVERTERMS

(FROMRECORDINGS) (CLASSIFYINGDISCOVEREDVOCABULARY) (MOSTGENERICGROUPING)
TherealWorld PhysicalSpace Namesofspaces

ThePhysicalRoom CameraFieldofView

MySpace VirtualEnvironment
Drawing InsideVirtualDrawing
Cocoon OutsideVirtualDrawing

Hut
Tools Solidtools NamesofObjects

Textures Linetools

Controllers
Headset
Smoke
Fire
Lines
Colours
Putonheadset EnteringVR NamesofActs

RemovingHeadset ExitingVR

Movearm Tocreate
Presscontroller Tomove
Choosetool Torecord
VirtualDrawingstroke ToCollide
Fillingin ToPoint
Surroundingyourself ToSketch
Rescalevirtualconstruction ToScribble
Rotatevirtualconstruction Totakenotes
Erase ToSpeak
Undo ToInhabit
TakephotosinVR ToGlitch
RecordFilminVR
Movephysicalposition
Teleport(Movevirtual
position)
Virtualinteractions
Physicalcollision
Glitch
Cleaning
Housekeeping
Inhabitation
Selfie

10
Immersion PositivePresence NamesofFeelings
Annoyance NegativePresence

Encasement BreakinPresence
Fun
Breakinpresence
Virtualactionimpulse
Nausea
Awe
Excitement
Discovery
Empowerment
Freedom
Happy
Ownership
Skepticism
Strangeness
Surreal

11

Step3.2-Semanticanalysis
SINGLESEMANTICRELATIONSHIPS
RELATIONSHIP FORM EXAMPLE
STRICT (X is a kind of Y) - Avirtualconstructionisakindofspace

- Cocoonisakindofvirtualconstruction
INCLUSION
SPATIAL (X is a place or part of Y) - The virtual construction is part of the virtual

environment
- Insideisaplaceinthevirtualconstruction
- Outsideisaplaceinthevirtualenvironment
CAUSE-EFFECT (X is a result of Y) - Ownershipisaresultofrepairing

- Immersionisaresultofsurroundingyourself
- Violationisaresultofaglitch
RATIONALE (X is a reason for doing Y) - Creating enclosure is a reason for using the
solidtools
- Ownership of the space is a reason for
repairingglitches
- interactionisareasonforconstruction
- Presenceisareasontore-sync
LOCATION FOR (X is a place for doing Y) - The virtual environment is a place to create
chaos
ACTION - The virtual environment is a place to create
enclosure
FUNCTION (X is used for Y) - Thesmokeisusedtocreatesolidity

- Theeraserisusedtorepair
MEANS-END (X is a way to do Y) - Movingyourarmisawaytodraw
SEQUENCE (X is a step (stage) in Y) - Considerphysicalspacebeforemoving
ATTRIBUTION (X is an attribution or - Enclosureofthesolidbrushes

characteristic of Y)

12
CT-CoverTerm
IT-IncludedTerm
KINDSOFSPACE
CTPhysicalReality
ITTheRoom
Physicalboundary
Camerasfieldofview
Outsideenvironment
Exteriorspace
Therealroom
Theactualroom
ExteriorSphere
ITThePhysicalWorld
Thenormalworld
Therealworld
Otherspace
PhysicalReality

13
CTVirtualReality KINDSOFACT KINDSOFFEELING
ITVirtualConstruction ITCreating CTPresence
Drawing Drawing ITPositiveFeelings
Cocoon Painting Encasement
Hut Fillingin Ownership
Cave Surrounding Happiness
Myspace Decorating Fun
Inside Constructing Satisfaction
Encasement Building Homely
Dome ITChoosingTool ITNegativeFeelings
Room Pointing Violated
Sphere ITErasing Buried
Facade Erase Pierced
Structures Undo Helpless
Object Housekeeping Disconcerting
Womb Repairing CTBreakinpresence
Wonderland Cleaning Annoyance
Wall Scaling Frustration
Ceiling Moving Dependance
Floor Glitch Uncomfortable
ITVirtualEnvironment Inhabiting Realisingtheillusion
Outside Recording Controlled
Boundless Photographing Skepticism
Blacksky Selfie VirtualActionImpulse
Nowhere

Blankspace
WAYSTOCONSTRUCTINVIRTUALREALITY
Non-reality
SensoryProsthesis Creating
Illusion Solidtools
Representation Fire
Dream Smoke
ImaginedSpace Bubbles
AnotherSkin LineTools
Light

FunctionTools

Linear
Mirror
Erasing
Housekeeping
Repairing
Undoing

14
Step5-ComponentialAnalyses
ofPhysical
Environment SpatialTerm TermofExistence ReferencetoReality:
POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
ofVirtual
Environment
POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
Nonreality NO NO NEGATIVE
Dream NO NO NEGATIVE
ImaginedSpace YES NO NEGATIVE
AnotherSkin / YES POSITIVE

15

Descriptionsof Dimensionsofcontrast
Virtual
SpatialTerm ReferencetoSpatial ManMadeTypology NaturalTypology
Construction
Reality:
POSITIVEor
NEGATIVE
Drawing NO NEGATIVE YES NO
Cocoon YES POSITIVE NO YES
Hut YES POSITIVE YES NO
Cave YES POSITIVE NO YES
MySpace YES POSITIVE NO NO
Inside YES POSITIVE / /
Encasement YES POSITIVE NO YES
Dome YES POSITIVE YES YES
Room YES POSITIVE YES NO
Structure YES POSITIVE YES YES
Facade YES POSITIVE YES NO
Object YES POSITIVE / /
Womb YES POSITIVE NO YES
Wonderland YES NEGATIVE / /
Wall YES POSITIVE YES NO
Ceiling YES POSITIVE YES NO
Floor YES POSITIVE YES NO

16

Kindsof Dimensionsofcontrast
Feelings
SpatialTerm SuggestsPresence POSITIVEorNEGATIVE
PRESENCE
Encasement YES YES POSITIVE
Ownership NO YES POSITIVE
Happiness NO YES POSITIVE
Fun NO YES POSITIVE
Satisfaction NO YES POSITIVE
Violated YES YES NEGATIVE
Buried YES YES NEGATIVE
Pierced YES YES NEGATIVE
Helpless NO YES NEGATIVE
Disconcerted NO YES NEGATIVE
BREAKINPRESENCE
Annoyed NO NO NEGATIVE
Frustrated NO NO NEGATIVE
Dependant NO NO NEGATIVE
Uncomfortable NO NO NEGATIVE
RealisingIllusion NO NO NEGATIVE
Controlled NO NO NEGATIVE
Skeptical NO NO NEGATIVE

17
18
B
Tr a n s c r i p t s
19
20
JOHANNA
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 04:10
Name Johanna
Age 25
Tech proficiency 8
How long do you spend with computers a week Everyday
Artistic proficiency 9
How often do you draw? All the time
Used VR before? - no
About First VR Experiment

How long ago? - 6 months
How long did you spend? - 1 hour
What did you do? - lines in space, playing a game, moving stuff
How did it feel?

0140 more real, really exciting
Any memorable moments?

0220 moving things when i turned around and the zombies were there...the glowing strobe lights
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
Have you thought of it since? Not really
Have you wanted to visit again? Yes, i'm kind of excited

Real or unreal?
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
EXPERIMENT RESPONSE 04:10 - 17:15

0426 putting the thing on, being skeptical
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
0610 it took me really long
0610 I thought i could draw the whole room around me...then it glitched
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
0800 i really like how it works using both hands, you point at stuff, it makes a sound and you think you're
actually doing something
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
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
1000 i wanted to build a dome and draw around me, but the whole thing was too small so it was a bit
strange
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
program
1110 then i filled in the walls...all segments with different pens...it's actually really nice, when it's really dense
it's like a wall
1200 it would be nice to fill them with one click
1230 then it got like a really christmassy decorated room
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
1350 i like the things that move, they are less static...they make the space very different
1445 then i walked through the door and i realised that it's far too small...it was two different sizes. The stair
had one scale and everything else was different
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
1600 oh it's so strange (seeing selfie taking)
1640 (from end of experiment) it's really weird scaling stuff...when you scale it down and you don't scale it up
again, you become like a tiny person
INTERVIEW 02 17:15 - 31:50

About TILT BRUSH Experiment
How long ago? - 15 minutes
How long did you spend? - 10 minutes
What did you do?

1730 i was drawing a space
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
1750 when i used the first pen i drew some static things, but what actually makes it more spatial is when you
try to cover everything around you. It makes it much more spatial for you than just drawing an object

1820 Taking a picture in it, it felt really strange. It was like a party selfie somehow, with all the shining lights
behind me
1840 Painting a wall...but it is like being underwater somehow..especially when you can't really feel the end
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
22
Why can't you go everywhere?
1920 because you know it's physically bound to one space
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'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
1950 I think the most in the virtual i felt was when i had finished and i was in this dome
Explain the space you constructed.

2005 I constructed an entrance...i started constructing a stair, you would walk through a door and be in a
dome. Both spaces had different scales but i noticed this when it was too late
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
Why did you choose to take the image that you did?
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
When you were in the VR, you hit the bin. Can you describe how this felt?
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 also said you liked the scaling. Why did you like the scaling?
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
walk through the door i made - As soon as you define the space you try to use it - and it was too small, but
just because i made it this way. This was really fun
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
screen drawing in one perspective all the time. But then as soon as i started drawing around me it was like
oh this is the thing that makes this really cool, and drawing over yourself, and looking around.
Can you describe how it felt going through your tiny door?
2321 it felt really surreal. I drew the thing, scaled it, and went through it, pretending i am actually in my own
space, using the space as i drew it. It was really strange.
Why did you not move the (virtual) space when you kept walking into the (physical) table?
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
because it's static in this space
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
hands, having objects in your hands, pointing.
You were surprised when watching the experiment how long it took you to draw the stairs
23
2500 yeah i realised how long it took to build the stair which seemed really easy, very basic to imagine. But
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.
You kept saying tried to - was it difficult?

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
anything, i just did it, and it nicer, it felt more like a space.
You said you like how it feels to use both hands?

2635 in the beginning it's strange having both controllers, but as soon as you get into it's really weird. It's like
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.
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
was so small so i became a tiny person.
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
definition of the wall, maybe if i am closer to the ground i feel less insecure about running into things.
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
and be on every side at the same time.
You said having walls is nice, why?

2845 because when you think of space, you want things to define the space, and the lines don't really define
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
How did it feel when you took the selfie and you could see the little square that represented your head?
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
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
2955 in my mind i am like oh i am actually taking this picture of myself in the space. It's really hard to
describe but it makes it really real - the space itself...because you can actually take a picture of it and show it
How would you describe this photo to someone?

3025 it's me in the space i imagined
When you saw yourself in the photo you were laughing

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.
How is it different?
3045 it's not there anymore on the screen, it doesn't exist. But when you're in it, it exists
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
DOMINIC
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 06:25
Name Dominic
Age 46
Profession IT Support
Tech proficiency 7
How long do you spend with computers a week 40
How often do you play video games
How often do you draw? Once a month
Used VR before? no

What did you do? - magic brush, space app, experimented
How did it feel?

0120 weird, immersive...it's not your normal conception of reality. It was like being in another skin, seeing
through someone else's eyes.
Did you feel like you achieved anything?

0146 Id like to spend more time when i'm happy with the controls...if you knew what the toolkit was you could
use it more

0226 with the mirror wall, and the you step through the mirror wall. That was a bit freaky because you expect
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
view it from the other side.
0245 also the spark wand, where the embers go up...because you're drawing with something animated rather
than, normally when you draw something it's static, you don't normally draw with things that then move on
their own
0305 no...it's similar to playing a videogame but much more immersive and interactive

0320 yes we've talked about it and tried to explain it to other people
How did you explain it to other people?

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
point of view it just looks like fiction.
27
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.
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,
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.
Have you wanted to visit again?

0500 Yes, definitely. But i think it'll be dangerous for me to immerse myself too much. You could get lost in
there, you could definitely have too much non-reality.
Real or unreal?
0535 when you're doing it, it's real...and afterwards you forget the immersive experience...like a dream, a
memory that you can't quite grasp
Different to a place that you've visited?

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
its a remembered experience. When you're in it it's definitely real to you because it's taken over your sense, but
when you come out...it's hard to remember it

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
explored other ways to complete the environment...wanted something thicker
0800 i was drawing a sphere around myself at this point so i could be encased in colour
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
ribbons...i wanted a foggy floor
0855 Was just fun, the physicalness of painting...which is very unusual - you don't normally get that with a
computer interaction...what you're creating, it's nice to be physical with it
0920 then i found the fire, and that was great because it was more of a wall...i carried on making my cocoon
out of colour
0945 i knew i was time limited [sound was not on video reflexive - memory of time check linked to virtual
experience]
0950 I wanted to get it done quickly so i could interact with it and see how that environment i created made
me feel
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
1045 instructed to calm down [again, memory of instruction linked to virtual experience recall]
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
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
1205 I wanted to see it from the outside. Id created this thing and i wanted to see what it looked like from the
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
28
1230 When i was outside of it, i wasn't interacting with it. When i was inside it felt more like mine
1245 toying with the idea of creating textured spheres to exist in and then walk from one to the other
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
1420 it's a sensory experience i don't think you could have anywhere else really.
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
INTERVIEW 02 15:45 - 31:50

What did you do?

1555 i created a crazy sphere thing to live in
How did it feel?

1600 great, it felt great, it was really bright and sunny. It made me happy.

1615 when i discovered the fire...the fire was big enough, so i was happy with that. It was a bit disappointing
when i added the pedestal and it was something concrete with my non-concrete space, just ruined it...i'd
created something more about how i felt than real, then i created something real and it was just like, oh, that
doesn't belong here, so i need to get rid of it
So would you consider the thing you built not real?

1705 real as in i could interact with it, but not real as in it resembled anything in the normal world
So where did it come from?
1720 just being happy i think...happiness in the doing of it. It was like a physical act
1735 no...dancing?

1740 it was a sphere of light and craziness that i could interact with
What tools did you use and why?

1750 the fire tool, the sparks and the smoke, i tried to use the mirror but it wasn't very successful
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
stamp of a whole environment. Then i shrunk it down but that wasn't very good either...none of the images i
took resembled it
Do you feel fulfilled with what you've made?
29
1850 yes definitely, i'm very happy with it. Any preconceived ideas i had were to create something i could
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
You talked a lot about encasement and cocooning

1915 yes it felt really comforting to be inside a ball of light. It's like being inside the sun
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.
When id stopped creating it it was just kind of there...i wanted to know how it would feel to be inside something
i wouldn't normally be inside...that's the opportunity really of being in a virtual space, you can interact with
things you can't normally
You said it needed a floor - why?

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
nowhere. I had a floor and i had walls and i had a cocoon.
But you had a physical floor

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
Why didn't you want to recreate the floor that was real?
2100 you could go in there and create a room like the room you're standing in, but there would be no point
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
floor of smoke or fire or something different.
You said you had completely forgotten about the outside environment - did you ever have perception of
both?
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
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.
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
the time
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
cared that i was going to smash the light...but i know that if i was back in there i wouldn't care again
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
You said it had the physicalness of painting which you don't normally get with a keyboard, what's the
difference?
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
separated. That whole i'm sitting here doing that over there doesn't exist - you are inside it.
30
2440 also the fact that its physical really helps because physicality release endorphins in your brain, and that's
like a feedback. So you're being physical and creating stuff and that's making you more happy.
And that's different to playing a video game?

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.
You kept saying you're really happy inside it. Can you explain that?
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.
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
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
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
3000 I wanted to have an out of body experience. I wanted to see that feeling from the outside. But when it
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.
3040 it was museum exhibit a of something that somebody created and it just looked like a ball so it wasn't
particularly good.
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.
When taking the photo you said it's too enormous to record...i don't think it's what i feel - what was lost?
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
3215 it was definitely real. I feel like it's gone now...i want to create another one with a different mood.
32
JENNY
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 04:40
Name Jenny
Age 43
Profession Lawyer
Tech proficiency 4
How long do you spend with computers a week 40
How often do you play video games Once a year
How often do you draw? Once a year
Used VR before? no

What did you do? - used drawing and painting tools, reflection tools, space drawing, inhabiting space
How did it feel?

0105 very real, very quickly. The moon stayed with me in particular because you could make it bigger, walk
around it, see underneath it. 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
Did you feel like you achieved anything?

0135 i feel like my mind expanded. I don't feel like i achieved anything other than having a completely new
experience

0146 reflection was amazing because you could draw something and then step to the other side of the mirror
- like alice in wonderland - and youre on the other side, looking back at where you were a minute ago
0215 there was a game i was playing...there was something on the other side of a grate that i was trying to get
to, and i was actually up against the fireplace in the room i was in. Even though i knew i was against a real
fireplace, i was still trying to get through...it felt more real than the real room i was in
0240 it's so immersive. Even though i could hear people talking around me in the real world, it felt more real
than the real world
0300 i don't think there is anything like it. The closest thing is probably an immersive art experience in a
gallery...because you forget where you are. Even though you know it's not real, it starts to feel more real than
reality.
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
something that you can't translate to somebody else
33
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
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.
Real or unreal?
0444 very real

0450 i started with the mirror because that's my favourite thing
0505 when i found the smoke texture i thought i can make smoke and then walk through it and come out on
the other side. Which was strange. Especially when you're on the other side of the mirror and the smoke is
there where you left it
0600 At this point i just wanted to make as much mess as i could and then inhabit it
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
0645 I'd decided i'd make some bars so it could be like prison, and then i could go through and break out
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
pass through and there would be nothing there and it kind of surprised me
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
very very strange, i just wanted to be back in the space i had just made and i was just nowhere
0850 i was trying to get back to my mirrored space but i still wasn't quite sure where it was
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
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
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
space with that moon in front of me and now it's just flat
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
1310 then i remembered when i looked down there would be nothing under my feet just space
1400 I was very happy when i worked it out
1420 I really like this sensation of having a huge moon over me
1445 When i was moving it around i don't really remember seeing the controllers, although i know they were
there because that's how i was controlling it, but i don't remember that.
1500 i just wanted to move it around, walk around it, walk underneath it. I was just enjoying being in that
space, i didn't particularly want to do anything else, just hang out there
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
this huge structure in front of me, completely out of scale to what i would expect...i wanted it the right size
1715 i was trying to draw around it and then i realised i could walk around it and that would work much better.
I almost forgot it was 3d
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
INTERVIEW 02 18:30 - 31:50

34
What did you do?

1830 put the mirror program on, played with different textures in the mirror, use smoke, make bars, walk in
and out of it. I also went into the space program and moved the moon around...Also used the dress form
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.
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

1940 the snow was very memorable, because it did feel like the floor had gone. Even when you look down
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
sensation, it was all a mental sensation

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
mirror, rather than being a big 3d physical space. But i forgot that if you do one thing on one side of the mirror
it will be there on the other side, so that surprised me and i had to readjust to that.
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
of the actual room which took me out of the program, so i very quickly got back into the middle.
Did you have that awareness of the actual room last time you used it?
2105 yes, but again, only when i was banging into things. Even though you can see the edges of the room, it
didn't feel like that was the edge, i felt like i could go further than that, but then you find yourself hitting into
things...It's annoying, it's like that real world is impinging on my experience, i find it very frustrating
Why did you construct the space that you did?

2130 I really like the concept of the mirror because in the real world mirrors are, there are reflections but you
can't go to the other side of it, so i like the fact that you can inhabit both sides of that.
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
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
do in that space
You said you were surprised by bars on the other side of the mirror...
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
the other side of the mirror and i'd be free. But it's a mirror so they were still there.
35
So walking through was part of the reason why you made the bars?
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
When you teleported, you said it was disconcerting...

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.
So you felt that you were in a different space?

2350 a completely different space...nowhere, id teleported to a blank space.
You said going back to your space...

2410 i made that, it was my space...i could do anything i wanted
And you couldn't do that in the space you had teleported to?
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
really want to be...even though i could have just recreated it
How did it feel to realise you couldn't walk up the stairs?

2445 The reason i felt that i couldn't walk up them is because they were completely 2d, not that they're not
real...as i finished drawing them and looked at them from the side i realised they were just a single line so how
could i possibly walk up those...it wasn't that they're not really stairs, i hadn't even got to that stage yet
When you watched the recording you said it has nothing to do with what i was doing...it looks fake...i was in
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
a resemblance to what i did but is no way the same thing because where i was was completely 3D, I could
move around it, look at it, but this was just a flat thing happening on the screen that i couldn't interact with.
2600 it's a bit like the difference between a cinema...and going to see a play...where there's interaction and
you're part of what is happening
You said the dress form was like a huge structure and that it was unexpected. What was your
perception of that object?
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
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
That's a little strange considering how you said how immersive and three dimensional you found the
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
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
could walk around it
2920 it's completely real
36
AGOSTINO
INTERVIEW 01 00:00 - 07:30
Name Agostino
Age 26
Tech proficiency 8
How long do you spend with computers a week >70
How often do you draw? - 2 days a week
Draw with computers? - Yes
Used VR before? - no

How long did you spend? - 40 mins/ 1 hour
What did you do? - sample scenes, gridded ground development preview, zombie shooting games, threw
stuff on the floor
How did it feel?

0220 Claustrophobic at first...but looking around is a really liberating feeling. It really starts to click once you
start walking within the space.
Did you feel like you achieved anything? If so what?

0230 yeah a new way to interact with space especially when drawing which is something impossible in the
real world the world we see as being our physical reality. Gravity as difference.

0345 symmetry was really satisfying. Huge 3m bird.
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
0550 you are in a different environment being conscious that you are not
Have you thought of it since? Yeah

Have you wanted to visit again? Yes. it depends on what you do in VR
Real or unreal?
0650 it's real because it becomes a prosthesis for your senses
0710 your eyes can only give you an image of reality that is not comparable to someone else's reality, so VR is
like putting it on those eyes
37
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
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
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
1040 left side...right side memory of starting position
1100 Something that you can never do...you can never build a space from within a space.
1120 Experienced a lot of terrible glitches, had to get rid of them...actually quite satisfying
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
awareness of
1215 start to hit points in which you can't succeed
1305 Bottom bit especially frustrating, which is normally easiest part to build
1325 Did some more housekeeping, repaired some bits
1330 Could already feel the space you could produce using your own body which was really interesting
1415 This was actually quite frustrating
1430 This was the point where i hit the pavement, so i couldn't go any further
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
ceiling
1555 thought about what other pen i could introduce, or what other tool
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
was quite interesting.
1700 at this point i could really feel the confinements of the space outside of virtual reality which was really
defined, so i started to hit all sorts of shelves and things
1755 sometimes I had to step back into it to erase things
1815 I felt really weird because you don't have any transition between inside and outside...you can just move
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
INTERVIEW 02 19:35 - 34:00

What did you do?

2000 drew this space that is defined by my own capability of reaching it
38
How did it feel?
2015 great
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

2040 Added a lightbulb quite intuitive and strangeobviously i think spaces need them
Also stepping inside and outside
2120 Clean up after the glitches that would intrude...really annoying because they had nothing to do with my
body
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
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
sticks through your guts
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
Can you explain the feeling in the moment of physical collision?

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
When you stepped back into the Cocoon, you lifted your leg up...
2513 i found that really strange because i didn't consider any opening...stepping in and stepping out you
always experience a sort of threshold and its really strange not to have that in VR
2540 it was weird to realise there is nothing stopping me from stepping back into it
You said it was like diving?

2610 you have a completely different relation to gravity, relation of how to move and of what you can
achieve
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
bounds of what you can do...it would be much more interesting to know that you can really move freely in
space not just in the view of these two cameras
2850 i find the idea of some exterior sensors controlling you quite strange
Were you aware of those all the time?

2900 no, you just get aware of them as soon as you start to experience glitches
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
2930 fix the glitch and re-catch my controller [waves hand] so that it went back into space
Any ways to describe this feeling other that annoying?

3000 you feel really helpless because you don't know what happened...it's frustrating...it's a bit like something
is violating your space because it's something you have no agency over and its piercing you and it's
uncomfortable
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
How was the feeling of tracing the geometry of the facade?

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
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
more
3300 before i said it is realand in some aspects it is, but something i found very strange is the fact that your
body is not impacting with it. I find that this is something makes it belong to the virtual world and not to the
real world
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
boundary. I guess this proved it to be much more virtual
Which is your lasting memory of the space?

3400 it was quite homely...
40

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For decades, the design of virtual space has been focused

A small sample of participants used Google Tilt Brush, a

VIRTUAL = being in essence or effect though not

REALITY = a real event, entity, or state of affairs.

VIRTUAL REALITY = an event or entity that is

Michael Heim, The Metaphysics

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

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

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

Ken Hillis, Digital Sensations

The cover of Pygmallions Spectacles

The Creation of Virtual Reality

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

Twenty years later, cinematographer and VR technology pioneer Morton

The Sword of Damocles. The headset

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

11 Heilig Morton (2017). [online] Available at: http://www.mortonheilig.com/SensoramaPatent.pdf [Accessed

The virtual architecture of the

The virtual environment of Ms.

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

These crucial works imagined spectacular virtual worlds, entirely different

An Intel advert for home VR

Multiplayer arcade VR system by

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

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

The Reality of Virtual Reality

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

After this VR bust, the development of Virtual Environments retreated

Michael Heim states in The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality:

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

21 MOORADIAN, N. (2006). VIRTUAL REALITY, ONTOLOGY, AND VALUE. Metaphilosophy, pp.673-690.

There is a key distinction in Immersive Virtual Reality between Presence and

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

AC2 Virtual Venice landmarks, Physical Venice landmarks,

The Investigation of Virtual Reality

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

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

Alongside these technological investigations, the emerging field of Virtual

Boellstorff immersed himself in this virtual world, exploring its systems

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds seeks to provide ethnographers with a

Between experimentation with the technology of VR, and ethnographic

47 Hine, C. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. 1st ed. Sage Publishing.

The more the plot line

Slater, M. and Wilbur, S. (1997). A

The design of Virtual Environments currently relies on the simulation of

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

The ethnographic process involves understanding a culture through the

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

as is feasible within its limited scale, seeking to understand how a-physical

Participants in this study will spend a fixed amount of time experiencing an

Traditionally in ethnographies, the informant is required to be a thoroughly

This process began with an unrecorded, informal exposure to VR, with

The steps of the observations were:

TILT BRUSH EXPERIMENT

Age How long did you spend?

Technological proficiency 1-10 What did you do?

experience you can compare it to?

How would you explain it to someone who has not

Have you thought of it since?

Fig. 10. Have you wanted to visit again?

Interview 01 questions Is it real or unreal?