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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00731
- Thesis Title
- Transcending Perception: An Exploration into Virtual, Mixed, and Expanded Reality
- Author
- John Desnoyers-Stewart
- E-mail
- desnoyer AT sfu.ca
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Master of Fine Arts
- Year
- 2018
- Number of Pages
- 64
- University
- University of Regina
- Thesis Supervisor
- Megan L. Smith
- Supervisor e-mail
- Other Supervisor(s)
- David Gerhard
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance
- Copyright Ownership
- Languages Familiar to Author
- URL where full thesis can be found
- ourspace.uregina.ca/handle/10294/8318
- Keywords
- virtual reality, mixed reality, virtuality, public virtual reality, interactive installation
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- As interest in Virtual Reality (VR) grows, there is a need to critically engage with it, to explore the possibilities created by it, and to understand the technology and content required for its success. VR is considered in terms of its purpose and function rather than being fixed to any particular technology. To keep pace with the rapid progression of this field, VR is explored with a vision towards its future.
VR is a communication medium that connects more directly to the senses than any prior media, mediating perception almost directly. VR requires that the user’s unavoidable connection to reality be acknowledged while simultaneously expanding upon that reality. Through a stronger connection with the virtual, VR can expand the domain of natural experience as the virtual becomes more directly integrated in reality.
The proliferation of virtual technology has produced a shift towards the body as framer of information. VR attempts to remove the frame entirely, connecting directly with the viewer’s senses. VR is intrinsically participative and public installations are inherently social. Their combination into public VR translates a technology that might otherwise be private and disconnected into a site of participative social production.
Following a practice-based research and design method informed by the arts and engineering, the limitations and requirements of VR production are confronted. New interfaces are developed and concepts for the application of VR established through an open, continuously iterative process. This exploration culminates in the exhibition of the technology, concepts, and theory encountered through a public VR installation that encourages social interaction and play and provides an opportunity to experience and understand the potential of VR.