Aesthetics of Immersion in Interactive Immersive Installation : Phenomenological Case Study Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo Texas A&M University College Station, USA [email protected] Abstract In a movement parallel to Computer Science research, This paper examines the aesthetics of immersive experience in many Interactive Artists have also explored immersion Light Strings, an interactive immersive environment. One of within VR environments in collaboration with computer prominent aspects of Interactive Art is the notion of immersion. scientists in many times. Their general approach to The concept of immersion is generally defined as a viewer immersion is somewhat different from those of scientists. “forgetting” the real world outside of the virtual environment and Artists have explored full-body, sensory immersion by a sense of being in a make-believe world generated by through their artistic creations. [4-6] Their approaches computational hardware and software. As an interactive artist and countered the disembodying tendency of virtual reality researcher, I conceive of immersion as any experience where discourses and their artistic pursuit was centred on creating integrated bodily, conscious, and pre-conscious states thoroughly immersive experiences using new technology (new intertwine with the world. Moreover immersion is where mind, hardware or complex systems). Rather than quantifying the body and environment interweave and communicate with each participants’ immersive experience, their focus was on other inside of technically-mediated, spatially enclosed, and creating new immersive experiences. sensuously-interactive computational environments. Light Strings As an artist, I create interactive immersive installations was created based on my previous art practice and research into exploring the idea of embodiment and materiality. My art- immersion as a way to study participants’ experiences with the ist skills and interests have led me to experimenting with artwork. In the participant study of Light Strings, participants soft materials and light to create immersive environments. were encouraged to describe the felt experiences of the From over 15 years of experience with digital technology installation through phenomenologically oriented research in Interactive Art, I believe that technology can help us to methods. As a result, an experiential model of the participants’ experience nostalgia and relive our memories, reawaken experiences was developed by exploring bodily, spatial, and habituated senses and provide opportunities to perceive contextual consciousness with temporal considerations. new things in a creative way. In this study, I created an interactive immersive installation, Light Strings and con- Keywords ducted participant study to examine how participants expe- rience immersion, how immersion is constructed in my Immersive installation, aesthetics of immersion, immersive Con- installation and what the main qualities are of the environ- sciousness, audio-visual, case study ment. This paper analyzes aesthetics of immersive experi- ence collected from a case study. Participants were encour- aged to describe their felt experiences through phenomeno- Introduction logically-oriented research methods. This allowed me to One prominent aspect of Interactive Art is a notion of gather various data on participant experience. immersion. Immersion has been historically explored mostly by literary and film theorists and more recently, by Virtual Reality (VR) scientists and artists. It is generally Background defined as a viewer “forgetting” the real world outside of the virtual environment and by a sense of being in a Understanding Immersion simulated world generated by computational hardware and The sense of immersion has been explored for a long time software. Most research into immersive experience has but there is no set or universally agreed upon definition for been conducted from a scientific perspective. The scientific this term because all approaches converge on the word research tradition typically standardizes or objectifies immersion from different knowledge areas. The term is results and doesn’t focus on the meanings and qualities of widely used for describing immersive virtual reali- experience. Similar to other scientific studies, immersion ty, installation art and video games, but no one meaning researchers have largely used quantitative/empirical dominates. Its meaning remains vague, but common to methods, such as measuring physiological data and each meaning is the connotation of being absorbed, en- conducting surveys after the participants’ experience. [1-3] gaged and embraced. Different disciplines use these differ- ent definitions. This means that immersion has multiple, immersion is being explored in art projects that encourage flexible qualities that can be applied in different situations. the active involvement of the participant and evoke senses and/or fully engage with attention. Interactive artists often Contemporary Views try to use limited, inexpensive technology but in creative ways to examine the sense of immersion because it is hard for them to use very expensive equipment and because the Immersion in New Media sense of immersion does not require photo-realistic or Since the 1990s, more in-depth research on immersion has technologically complex multi-sensory environments. been conducted in the Arts and Humanities. The result is Immersion can be created from perceptual cues. [12] two streams of scholars and artists. One stream explores various immersive experiences in different realms: Immersion in Physical Environment videogames, narrative, and human experience. The other stream focuses on building immersive experience within Immersive spaces create subliminal awe [13], helping immersive VR spaces. the viewer/participant become aware of inherent or internal Salen & Zimmerman call immersion “double body senses. Physically immersive environments expand consciousness,” that the game player is fully aware of the the boundary of our vision and create imagination evoking character as an artificial construct. They argue that this immersive feelings from materials that affect with makes character-based game play a rich and multi-layered perceptions of dimension. Physical installations do not experience. [7] For Bolter and Gromala, a participant’s include normal architectural rooms or spaces where we live awareness oscillates between feeling immersed and being in the everyday life. Even though we are physically aware of an immersive environment. However participants surrounded by a room or nature and may be engaged to most of the time are still aware of the real environment and something in the space, it is hard to call the phenomenon get immersed from the interplay between real media and immersion. When we are habituated to the space, we are virtual contents. [8] rarely aware of our connections to the environment and the Many other researchers have focused on the desire to reciprocal relationships within the space. In my study of use technology as the defining factors in immersion; they immersion, it is critical to recognize that immersive describe the term “immersion” as immersion into presence, consciousness is constructed through embodied experience a state of being engaged; in this way presence is a psycho- in the relationships among body, mind and the world. logically emergent property of an immersive system. Im- mersion describes a condition; presence describes an asso- ciated state of consciousness. [9] Carol Manetta and Rich- Methodology ard Blade defined immersion as an observer’s emotional reaction to being part of a virtual world. [10] They consid- Methodological Background er immersion as mental process created during the use of Art has been acknowledged as research among practition- immersive VR systems that include HMDs and other ers, theorists, and educators. [14] In contrast to academic equipment. Immersion can be stimulating process, but in and scientific research emphasizing the generalizability most cases immersion “absorbs and provokes a process, a and repeatability of knowledge, art research expresses a change, and a passage from one mental state to another”. form of experience-based knowledge [15] and explores [11] subjective qualities of experience. Artists identify re- searchable problems discovered in practice, and respond or Immersion in Interactive Art solve them through professional practice. Therefore, artists Immersion is in part a spatial experience, in the sense of know their works and the questions around the works bet- enveloping the participant in a discrete and panoramic ter than any other researchers. An artist is a researcher who space. Moreover, it is also a temporal experience when has multifaceted roles: material experimenter, space de- combined with computational components. It creates an signer, fabricator, critic, documenter and audience. [16] In intimate connection as “a constitutive element of other words, it is ideal that artists take a lead role in the reflection, self-discovery, and the experience of art and research of their works, rather than being separated from nature”. [11] Immersion is considered paradoxically as the research process. In that respect, artists’ research activi- distance, as absorption, and as space and time blur in the ties seem to be appropriate for Baumgarten’s classical def- immersive environment. The pioneering immersive artist inition of the aesthetic domain. Davies explored the concept of immersion using the metaphor of scuba diving