College of Arts & Humanities Research

IELab events 

Thursday, May 27, 2021 15:00 BST  

IELab XR research ethics seminar  

This seminar will introduce research ethics challenges specific to work with XR technologies (VR/AR/immersives). We will discuss these in the context of approaches to research ethics review at the University of Glasgow and in relation to the wider XR community’s discourse around the ethical use of these technologies in society. To make these reflections concrete, we will undertake a design critique exercise, assessing the research ethics implications and wider ethical implications of the design of specific XR projects.   

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/immersive-experiences-artslab-ielab-xr-ethics-seminar-tickets-150690097137  

The IELab will be taking a break over the summer. Our seminar series will recommence in October 2021.  

Tech update (from Neil)  

The VR headset market has been dominated by the Quest line from Oculus/facebook since the first one was released in 2019. The Quest 2 arrived in 2020 and brought significant improvements to the hardware, at a lower cost – just £300 with no need for a PC. A startling combination. Many speculated that Facebook were taking a loss on the units to capture the market, lock-in users to Facebook, and to control the app ecosystem. This is an old Sony strategy with Playstation consoles, and Facebook certainly have the funds to take the short term hit. For more than a year there has been no true competitor to the Quest 2 and it has run rampant. The lock to Facebook accounts is greedy, impractical for enterprise use, and even if you spend 2.5x as much to get the ‘for Business’ version, it is gelded of some quite critical functionality. It is extremely frustrating.  

This is the point where I was hoping to say “until now!” following announcements from Vive and Pico this past month. But I can’t quite.  

Pico announced a new headset (Pico Neo 3) in a range of different versions and complicated pricing by region. Under the bonnet the hardware is broadly equivalent to the Quest 2, though its maximum refresh rate is 90hz (very good) rather than 120hz (spectacular) on the Quest 2. The version likely to be of use to researchers is the Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye which is designed for enterprise use, and includes an eye-tracking sensor. Priced at $899, that is a lot of good and no Facebook connection! I have two hesitations here. One is that the construction of the Pico range has typically been less slick/comfortable than its Oculus and Vive rivals, and the other is that we have a vague Q3 promise for availability. Such dates often slip, or supply starts off very short, so I can’t afford to hold my breath for it. Two geeky positives: like the Quest it doesn’t need a PC, but it can use the graphics card of a PC through a better route than Oculus or Vive standalone headsets can, meaning better PC VR is available; it is also enabled to use 5G transmission to get PC graphics delivered wirelessly from a cloud server (great in 12-24 months time, near-useless now).  

Vive also announced new headsets. One was a simple upgrade of the resolution and graphics on their professional PC-based headset. The Vive Pro 2 is incrementally better, but not a step change, and costs the same as its predecessor (£1399 for full kit, £799 just to upgrade headset). The Vive Focus 3, however, is the long-overdue challenger to the Quest 2: a standalone headset, using the same processor but with significantly higher resolution (though a lower top refresh rate of 90hz), more RAM and extensible memory vis SD cards. You can even charge a spare battery and swap rather than charge the whole headset. Throw in the fact that it is not shackled by Facebook, and is built for very robust use, and we have a winner, right? Well we would, I think, if it cost £800 like the enterprise Quest 2, but unfortunately all of this comes in at a whopping £1,300. For a consumer, that is £1000 more than they need to spend for a Quest 2. For business users, that is a £500 premium. The overwhelming reaction from the industry is one of major disappointment. Facebook remain way out in front.  

Community events of interest  

Tue, 18 May 2021, 12pm-2pm and Fri, 21st May 2021, 3:30pm - 5:30pm   

Drop-in sessions for the Immersive Arcade: The Showcase , which is part of the UKRI Audience of the Future Programme. These drop-in sessions are designed for students and offer an opportunity to talk to the UKRI immersive team during the session about the immersive UK ecosystem and the experiences as a whole and to network with other students.  

Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM BST  

The Human Dimension of Virtual Reality  

How do we account for the tension between technology’s infinite, unrestricted promise and the impermanence of being human? Rachel Rossin interrogates this slippage. Floating between painting, VR worlds, holograms, and more, the Brooklyn-based artist carries with her the essence of what it means to be alive. Rossin’s work meditates on and pushes the boundaries of human perception, the tenderness, and the vulnerability of empirical experience.  

Rachel will speak with Killscreen founder, Jamin Warren, on her childhood underwater and the illusory nature of immersive technology. We’ll also talk about Rachel’s approach to her process, looking at her recent traveling shows with Rhizome and at Magenta Plains in New York.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-human-dimension-of-virtual-reality-tickets-152122676019?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1   

May 22, 2021, 10 AM - 5 PM (starts 6pm BST)  

STANFORD XR PRESENTS - Redefining Reality: The Future of XR  

In a world where we are more remote and isolated than ever before, XR offers us the opportunity to reconnect with our communities in a whole new way.  

Join Stanford XR at Redefining Reality: The Future of XR for a one day event featuring speaker sessions from XR leaders, industry pitches, networking opportunities, and social events to explore cutting edge innovations in XR.

Mon, May 24, 2021, 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM BST  

XR Steps Up: The Future of Storytelling and Entertainment  

Opening keynote from Jason Waskey, Principal Creative Director, Microsoft. Multiple Sessions featuring fireside chats and case studies with speakers. Panel with speakers on the future arc of XR within the Storytelling and Entertainment space.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/xr-steps-up-the-future-of-storytelling-and-entertainment-tickets-154745442785?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1   

Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM BST  

RISD Alumni in Immersive Experience [VR/AR]: Luis Blackaller of Wevr  

Luis Blackaller is a Mexican media artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. After graduating from MIT, he joined the Virtual Reality studio Wevr as Creative Director, where he has been developing and producing cutting edge immersive narrative work. Blackaller will share his experiences as a media artist, filmmaker and creative director for projects in virtual reality. There will also be the opportunity to ask questions.  

The event is hosted by co-leaders of the RISD affinity group, Zach Deocadiz, Josh Inch, and Jesse Lehrhoff, who will also discuss the goals for the launch of this group.  

Registrants will receive Zoom information within the Eventbrite confirmation email.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/risd-alumni-in-immersive-experience-vrar-luis-blackaller-of-wevr-tickets-145369721751  

Wed, May 27, 2021, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM BST  

Design++ and Immersive Design Lab Opening (Virtual) Event  

Join us for the official opening of Design++ and the Immersive Design Lab  

The Center for Augmented Computational Design in Architecture, Engineering and Construction, (commonly referred to as 'Design++') at ETH Zurich will host an opening event to showcase core research and teaching activities of the center and share the opening of the Immersive Design Lab (IDL).  

During the event, you will hear about research perspectives from the diverse and interconnected domains of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Computer Science. The event will also feature the activities and features of the IDL, which was initiated and implemented by Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-and-immersive-design-lab-opening-virtual-event-tickets-150911234565  

Wed, May 27, 2021  

Bedroom Frequencies - Cindy Islam (part of Take Me Somewhere Festival)  

Bedroom Frequencies is a biographic virtual reality experience about a young girl growing up in a strict and violent household.  

Part of Take Me Somewhere Festival - 21st May - 5th June  
Festival pass £30/£20/£10 (price at the buyer's discretion)  

https://takemesomewhere.co.uk/  

JUNE 4-12, 2021   

VRHAM! VIRTUAL REALITY & ARTS FESTIVAL  

https://www.vrham.de/festival/  

JULY 7-9, 2021  

Laval Virtual Europe  

Laval Virtual is Europe's first VR/AR exhibition with its 300 exhibitors, 9,000 m² of exhibition space, 150 speakers and 4 conference tracks. This unique and unprecedented 23rd edition will be the first major augmented event: both physical and digital.  

https://www.laval-virtual.com/  

JULY 12-14, 2021  

MUSEUM XR SUMMIT  

For the past decade virtual, augmented and mixed reality have threatened to break through and go mainstream. But it’s perhaps the Covid pandemic that will finally accelerate adoption of these technologies beyond early adopters and gamers with record sales of VR headsets and AR integrations featured in popular apps.  

Is now the time for museums to step beyond one off experiments and get serious about XR? In this virtual conference we’ll bring together XR storytellers, pioneers’ and those curious about the opportunities that these technologies offer.  

Tickets £120-240  

https://www.museumnext.com/events/museum-xr-summit/  

Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 7:00 PM BST  

Virtual Reality Storytelling Workshop with Liz Rosenthal  

There are few artforms in the world right now that are going through as exciting a process of discovery and rapid innovation as virtual reality.  

Whether it’s virtual reality, augmented reality or whole world building, even the types of VR seem currently unfixed and open to experimentation.  

But when none of the rules are written, and the processes of filming, directing and editing are departing from traditional filmmaking in so many different ways, how should you approach non-fiction storytelling?  

The options seem limitless, so join us in discussing some of the greatest explorative techniques being used right now with Liz Rosenthal, one of the lead curators of Venice Biennale’s International Film Festival's Official Selection and Competition programme Venice VR – one of the world’s foremost incubators of this fascinating new form.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-reality-storytelling-workshop-with-liz-rosenthal-tickets-154553380321?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1   

SEPTEMBER 7-10, 2021  

8th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics  

The conference intends to bring together the community of researchers, scientists, and innovators in order to discuss key issues, approaches, ideas, open problems, innovative applications, and trends in virtual and augmented reality, 3D visualization, and computer graphics in the areas of medicine, cultural heritage, arts, education, entertainment, military, and industrial applications.  

http://www.salentoavr.it/   

Wed, Oct 20, 2021, 2:00 PM – Fri, Oct 22, 2021, 10:00 PM BST  

Global XR Conference 2021  

Sessions, workshops and community events around virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and web XR.  

Register on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-xr-conference-2021-tickets-135035876943?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1   

NOVEMBER 2021  

EuroXR Conference  

https://www.euroxr-association.org/   

Publications and Projects of Interest  

Chapman, C & Lavoie, E (2021) What’s limbs got to do with it? Real-world movement correlates with feelings of ownership over virtual arms during object interactions in virtual reality. In Neuroscience of Consciousness, niaa027, https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niaa027  

Ceutrick, M & Ingraham, C. (2021) Immersive storytelling and affective ethnography in virtual reality. In. Review of Communication. Volume 21, 2021 - Issue 1: Visual Voices and Aural (Auto)Ethnographies: The Personal, Political, and Polysemic Value of Storytelling and/in Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2021.1881610  

Cheng, J (2021) Evaluation of physical education teaching based on web embedded system and virtual reality. In Microprocessors and Microsystems. Volume 83, June 2021, 103980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpro.2021.103980  

IEEE Virtual Reality 2021 Special Issue (Volume: 27, Issue: 5, May 2021)  

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics  
DOI: 10.1109/TVCG.2021.3067811  

Katara, P. (SENSEcity) & Foley, T. (2021) (SENSEcity and U of Glasgow) Designing An Augmented Reality Experience For Urquhart Castle. https://www.sensecity.co/blog/2022/4/25/designing-an-augmented-reality-experience-for-urquhart-castle

Pérez-Pachón, L., Sharma, P., Brech, H. et al. Effect of marker position and size on the registration accuracy of HoloLens in a non-clinical setting with implications for high-precision surgical tasks. Int J CARS (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-021-02354-9  

Setiawan, P. A. (2021) Delivering cultural heritage and historical events to people through virtual reality. IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 729 012111. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012111  

Virtual Reality : the journal of the Virtual Reality Society, 03/2021. Volume 25, Issue 1. https://link.springer.com/journal/10055/volumes-and-issues/25-1  

Virtual Reality & Intelligent Hardware (VRIH). Volume 3, Issue 2. April 2021  
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/virtual-reality-and-intelligent-hardware  

Zeevi, L. S. (2021) Making Art Therapy Virtual: Integrating Virtual Reality Into Art Therapy With Adolescents. In Frontiers in Psychology. Vol. 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.584943  

Call for Papers 

FUTURE 4 PAST  

Deadline for Submission-Abstract: 1 July 2021  

Deadline for Submission-Chapter: 1 February 2022  

Historians and archaeologists, heritage scholars and professionals routinely focus  on  the digital transduction and rendering of text and artefacts when discussing the digitization of the heritage sector. Repositories, databases, 3D artifacts, immersive environments, interactive maps, and computer games are but some of the ways in which the past is currently reproduced and conveyed. But the implications of this digital turn for those outside the academy have yet to be fully appreciated and analyzed.  This volume aims to further this conversation.   

We seek contributions for a volume of essays focused on bridging theory, method  and digital practice within the broader heritage sector. The volume aims at charting and analysing the role of digital technology in the research, education and public dissemination and citizen science of the archaeo-cultural repository of Europe and the wider Mediterranean region from the beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BCE) up to the present.   

We gladly accept contributions from both scholars and practitioners working from across and between geographic and historical boundaries. Those working outside of North America and Western Europe are especially encouraged to send abstracts.  

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words, including bibliographic notes, to futureforthepast@gmail.com  by 1 July 2021. Selected contributors will be notified by 1 August 2021. Final contributions must be submitted by 1 February 2022.   

Inquiries may also be directed to futureforthepast@gmail.com.   

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS 18th EuroXR International Conference  

24-26 November 2021 CNR-STIIMA, Milano, Italy  

https://www.euroxr-association.org/conference2021/   

EuroXR Association (https://www.euroxr-association.org/) would like to cordially invite you to contribute to the 18th EuroXR International Conference - EuroXR 2021 - that the CNRSTIIMA institute will organize the 24-26 November 2021 in Milano, Italy. This conference follows a series of successful international conferences initiated in 2004 by the INTUITION Network of Excellence in Virtual and Augmented Reality, supported by the European Commission until 2008. Embedded within the Joint Virtual Reality Conferences (JVRC) from 2009 to 2013, it was known as the EuroVR international conferences from 2014 and until last year. Apart from annually gathering the EuroXR members for the association life, the focus of EuroXR conference is on novel VR/AR/MR technologies, including software systems, display technology, interaction devices, and applications. Besides papers on the latest scientific results and highlights from many application fields, the EuroXR conference series aim at creating a unique human-dimension framework, interconnecting European and international XR communities, for knowledge cross-fertilisations between researchers, technology providers, and end-users. TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS All contributions are organized in three main tracks, for some divided in two categories as follows. 1) Scientific track submissions can be: a) Full papers – either Long (14-20 pages) or Medium (8-12 pages) sizing - to be presented respectively as long or short talks during the scientific talk sessions: such submissions target original, unpublished works documenting new research, practices and experience, novel applications in VR or AV/AR/MR, or sound States of the Arts on challenging research questions in that field. b) Short papers (4-6 pages) to be presented during the scientific poster sessions: such submissions target works in progress or other scientific contributions including ideas for unimplemented and/or unusual VR or AV/AR/MR systems. All scientific paper submissions must be in one-column Springer format, and indicated paper lengths do not include references. 

IELab co-sponsored events  

16th March, 1-2 PM BST  

The Lament (talk and Q&A)   

Eleni Ikon, Senior Tutor (Research), Visual Communication, Royal College of Art.   

Live online via zoom (meeting link to follow) - contact iain.findlay-walsh@glasgow.ac.uk 

The voice can assume almost any shape, Sculpted both by human body and technology but reducible to neither. This talk will follow the voice in its capacity to channel the alien and open up a door to the otherworldly. 

This event is part of the RMA Colloquium in Music Research series at the University of Glasgow, in association with the Immersive Experiences Lab.  

Tue, Apr 20, 2021 10:00 AM BST  

Immersives in cultural heritage research and practice - Cultural & Museum Studies SGSAH Discipline+ Catalyst one-day online training event -   

This free event is offered by the SGSAH Cultural and Museum studies Discipline+ Catalyst. It is aimed at PhD students in arts and humanities disciplines registered at Scottish universities and who are in the early stages of their research (normally first or early second year).  

The use of immersive technologies (such as Virtual Reality–VR, Augmented Reality–AR, Extended or Cross Reality–XR) in the cultural sector has expanded in the last few years, impacting the way various users are engaging with collections, exhibitions and related themes, stories, and ideas. Immersives are affecting how visitors are experiencing cultural heritage in public venues as well as in other settings like home and work. New research is examining not only the technological issues and challenges that these technologies raise, but also those related to the arts, humanities, and social sciences, such as creativity, accessibility, materiality, learning, and social interaction.  

This one-day event will offer the opportunity to hear about and discuss the potentials offered by a range of immersive technologies in cultural heritage. The event will include an introduction to the range of immersives that can be used in cultural heritage and their areas of application, with a discussion of the potential and challenges of these new technological affordances for the cultural heritage sector. Invited experts and practitioners will deliver presentations on their experiences of immersives and will take part in a round-table discussion. PhD students will deliver short presentations on their own research as part of a PhD showcase.  

The event is organised for the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Cultural and Museum Studies Discipline+ Catalyst by Prof. Maria Economou (University of Glasgow) with Prof. Ian Ruthven (University of Strathclyde) and Dr Thea Stevens (Glasgow School of Art). It is supported by the Immersive Experiences Arts Lab of the University of Glasgow.  

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immersive-technologies-in-cultural-heritage-research-and-practice-registration-141453103039?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1 
 
   

IELab Calls for Participation  

5th March 2021 - deadline  

Call for Participation in the Immersives in cultural heritage research and practice - Cultural & Museum Studies SGSAH Discipline+ Catalyst one-day online training event  

PhD students working on immersives in cultural heritage based in Scotland who are interested in presenting in the showcase should send an email to maria.economou@glasgow.ac.uk by the 5th March 2021. This email should include:  

a) a short 50-word biography and  

b) an outline (up to 200 words) of the use of immersive technologies in their research, where they can include relevant web links, images and other supportive material.  

19th March 2021 - deadline  

IELab call for proposals for lighting talks on research methods in VR/AR  

IELab is inviting proposals for a series of lighting talks on research methods in VR/AR/XR research in the Arts and Humanities.  

Are you using VR/AR/XR technologies in a current or recent research project in the Arts and Humanities? If so, we'd like to hear from you...  

Are your research methods primarily quantitative or qualitative? Are you interested the capture and analysis of metrics, or in tracing and interpreting the 'soul' of an immersive experience? Is your approach primarily scientific, arts-based, hybridised? Do you draw upon based on standardised models, or improvised solutions in light of specific project conditions and aims? How do you balance versatility and adaptability with rigour in your testing processes? We are keen to hear about your methods in working with immersive technologies in Arts and Humanities research.  

We invite short proposal abstracts (up to 250 words) for a 5-minute lighting talk, outlining the proposed topic of discussion, project, and affiliation. This invitation is open to researchers at any career stage.  

Proposals should be sent by email to: iain.findlay-walsh@glasgow.ac.uk  

Publications from the IELab Community:  

Pérez-Pachón, L., Poyade, M., Lowe, T., & Gröning, F. (2020). Image overlay surgery based on augmented reality: a systematic review. Biomedical Visualisation, 175-195. 

Poyade, M., Eaglesham, C., Trench, J., & Reid, M. (2021). A Transferable Psychological Evaluation of Virtual Reality Applied to Safety Training in Chemical Manufacturing. ACS Chemical Health & Safety, 28(1), 55-65.  

Webster, A., Poyade, M., Rooney, S., & Paul, L. (2020). Upper limb rehabilitation interventions using virtual reality for people with multiple sclerosis: a systematic review. Multiple sclerosis and related disorders, 102610. 

The Tech Update (from Neil)  

Hardware Arms Race  

There have been no big breakthroughs on the VR/AR headset front for around two years now. The Oculus Quest was released in May 2019 and was a genuine breakthrough which removed the need for a high-end PC, and made VR available for £400 all in. The Magic Leap One and HoloLens 2 were launched in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and whilst their transparent lens technology (you still see the real world directly rather than via a screen) is technically impressive, the devices have had very little impact – the user experience is just not good enough to merit  the £2,500 - £3,500 investment.  

On the VR front, we are seeing incremental improvements in PC-tethered headsets (HP Reverb G2 is a case in point, doubling the resolution available in most top VR headsets), but there is scarcely anything out there to challenge Facebook’s stranglehold on the standalone headset market. One can only imagine that R&D teams are locked away trying to match or outdo the Quest 2 for untethered performance, and therefore somewhat ignoring the PC-tethered devices. We can all wish them luck as Facebook’s outrageous privacy overreach won’t be forced back without a suitably capable competitor.  

On the AR front, there appears to be a different sort of movement. Magic Leap, the severely overhyped Floridian start-up, have been laying-off staff, and changing management. They are now focussing on “enterprise” use, which I read as a move towards specialised applications where the shortcomings of their hardware are less relevant. I think this is an admission that their underlying transparent lens technology is not likely to be good enough for consumers any time soon. The fundamental problems with this technology are (i) it cannot block light and so struggled in well lit rooms or outdoors, and (ii) it is extremely difficult to get a decent field of view. One must wonder if Microsoft are thinking the same about the HoloLens line.  

In that context, the recently teased Lynx R-1 Mixed Reality Headset is particularly interesting. My first thought from the video was that they had made a miraculous leap forward with transparent lens technology – the field of view and fidelity of objects was so much better than the Magic Leap or HoloLens. The truth is that they haven’t. Instead of trying to improve on the billions spent by the tech giants on transparent AR, they have instead retreated to the VR-like pass-through approach. This takes a camera feed of the real world and relays it, with AR adornments, to the user. Whilst useful on the recent Oculus headsets, or Vive Pro, for seeing the room around you whilst in VR, pass-through technology has largely been limited to a warped, black and white representation of your environment. What Lynx have done is use a four-part optical prism to create a ‘natural’ feel to the live camera feed. The demo makes this look really effective, but that is a demo’s job. I look forward to seeing it in practice.  

The short-term benefits of this approach are visually evident, but the long-term prospects of pass-through AR are not great. It has so many drawbacks in terms of processing, power, and weight that it will inevitably be overtaken by transparent-lens AR eventually. What makes the Lynx progress so interesting is that it shows that they think that this dead-end road has a way to run yet. By implication, they think that competitive transparent-lens AR remains some way off.  

Community events of interest  

Wed, Mar 3, 2021 1:00 PM GMT  

Virtual Reality (VR) Mini-talks with Jung In Jung & Paul Blackham, Brian Allen, Thomas Kildren, and Andy Antoniou  

Free  

Game designers and creative technologists working in the field of Virtual Reality will demo and talk about their work in a series of 5-15 minute mini-talks, exploring the range and creative possibility of VR as an interactive artform. Featuring colleagues from Dundee and Abertay.   

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-reality-vr-mini-talks-tickets-138404342113?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=escb&utm-source=cp&utm-term=listing  

Part of the: Tinderbox PlayAway Games Festival – a two-week festival featuring over 30 game designers, artists, composers, educators and others involved in games. Join us for panel discussions, workshops, demos, music performances, digital play sessions, game jams and more!  

More info at https://tinderboxcollective.org/playaway/  

Wed, Mar 10, 2021 3:00 PM GMT  

Technology + Storytelling: Engaging the Immersive Future  

Free  

Storytelling has always been a magical elixir of tools and voices. From cave paintings and campfires to radio, film, and television, each new tool has given way to new kinds of stories. And now, we're excited to explore the emerging worlds of immersive AR and VR during our upcoming virtual event, Technology + Storytelling: Engaging the Immersive Future.  

On March 10th from 10am to 3pm ET, the NYC Media Lab team will bring together creators, technologists, and filmmakers to share their cutting-edge work and explore the ever-changing methods of storytelling in an immersive world.  

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/technology-storytelling-engaging-the-immersive-future-tickets-141853966031?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch  

Wed, Mar 10, 2021 5:30 PM GMT  

Public Lecture: History and Future of Immersive Experiences  

Free  

We often think of immersive or location-based experiences as relatively new forms of public entertainment driven by technological innovation such as Augmented (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR). In fact, there is a rich history of purpose-designed, audio-visually immersive architectural settings, such as the Panorama, Mareorama and Cineorama, that were concurrently developed alongside the cinema and which were shown to the public in London and Paris in the 18th and 19th centuries. These entertainment venues tell us an extraordinary yet little-explored story about risk, failure and reward that comes with such ground-breaking innovation. Coming to this topic from a practice-based, architectural as well as media archaeological angle, Professor Richard Koeck, Full Professor and Chair in Architecture and the Visual Arts, will also provide a glimpse into what kind of ground-breaking location-based experiences we might expect to see in the near future.  

The lecture will be followed by a live Q&A session with special guest panellists Gavin Strange, Creative Director, Aardman; Ngaio Harding-Hill, Head of Attractions & Live Experiences, Aardman; and Roz Coleman, Producer, Punchdrunk.  

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-lecture-history-and-future-of-immersive-experiences-tickets-138590962299?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1  

Fri, Mar 19, 2021 3:30 PM GMT  

Prof Michael Neff  speaking on “Bodily Expressions: Computational Approaches for Understanding Nonverbal Communication of Personality and Embodied Communication in VR”  

Free  

In the first portion of the talk, I will examine how nonverbal communication, and in particular gesture, conveys personality to observers. Our work is framed using the Five Factor or OCEAN model of personality from social psychology. Drawing both from the psychology literature and primary perceptual research with animated agents, I'll show how movement changes impact perceived character personality. I'll look at particular movement factors that influence personality traits and also show that in many cases, people may be making two distinct personality judgments, rather than five in correspondence to the five factor personality model. The second part of the talk will focus on how people use embodied avatars to aid communication in virtual reality. I'll discuss a study comparing interaction in VR with embodied avatars, without avatars, and with face-to-face interaction.  

This talk is part of a regular Friday Seminar series by the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology / School of Psychology at the University of Glasgow.  

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/friday-seminar-series-prof-michael-neff-tickets-142714897099?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1  

Wed, Mar 24, 2021 12:30 PM GMT  

Immersive Audiences: developing tech for & with cultural audiences  

Free  

As the adoption of immersive technologies within the creative and cultural industries continues to grow, audience care, enjoyment and experience become central considerations in the technology’s development.  

Shaped by research from the CREATE Lab at the University of Bath - and further across the Bristol + Bath Creative R+D programme - this panel discussion places a spotlight on work that shapes our understanding of audience engagement with VR. Exploring not only what audiences experience psychologically when using immersive technologies, but also how we can employ immersive technologies to measure audience engagement and enjoyment when consuming cultural content.  

Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immersive-audiences-developing-tech-for-with-cultural-audiences-tickets-142669689883?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1  

Upcoming Conferences:  

IEEE VR 2021. Make Virtual Reality Diverse and Accessible.  

27th March - 3rd April  

http://ieeevr.org/2021/  

ICIAVR 2021: 15. International Conference on Installation Art and Virtual Reality  

May 24-25, 2021 in Barcelona and London. 

2021 IEEE 7th International Conference on Virtual Reality. Discovering Virtual Reality, Embracing Future Today  

Foshan, China // May 20-22, 2021  

http://www.icvr.org/cfp.html  

Further Publications of Interest:  

Nagele Anna N., Bauer Valentin, Healey Patrick G. T., Reiss Joshua D., Cooke Henry, Cowlishaw Tim, Baume Chris, Pike Chris. (2021). Interactive Audio Augmented Reality in Participatory Performance. In Frontiers in Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.610320  

Peck Tabitha C., Gonzalez-Franco Mar. (2021). Avatar Embodiment. A Standardized Questionnaire. In Frontiers in Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.575943  

Pallavicini Federica, Orena Eleonora, di Santo Simona, Greci Luca, Caragnano Chiara, Ranieri Paolo, Vuolato Costanza, Pepe Alessandro, Veronese Guido, Dakanalis Antonios, Rossini Angelo, Caltagirone Carlo, Clerici Massimo, Mantovani Fabrizia. (2021). Design and Evaluation Protocol of a Virtual Reality Psychoeducational Experience on Stress and Anxiety for the Psychological Support of Healthcare Workers Involved in the COVID-19 Pandemic . In Frontiers in Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.620225  

Liat, S. V. (2021) Making Art Therapy Virtual: Integrating Virtual Reality Into Art Therapy With Adolescents. In Frontiers in Psychology. Volume 25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.584943  

Hanhanikar, T. M., and Hopper, L. M. (2021) Teaching About Homelessmess Through Multicultural Picture Books and Virtual Reality in Preservice Education. In Journal of Educational Technology. (49/3) https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239520958696

Virtual Reality. (2021) Volume 25, Issue 1.  

Pastel, S., Chen, C., Marint, L., Naujoks, M., Patri, K., Witte, K. (2020) Comparison of gaze accuracy and precision in realworld and virtual reality. In Virtual Reality 25/1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00449-3  

Scavarelli, A., Arya, A., Teather, R. J. (2020) Virtual reality and augmented reality in social learning spaces: a literature review. In Virtual Reality 25/1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00444-8  

Join the Immersive Experiences ArtsLab Teams Space  

We've created a Microsoft Teams space to provide a forum for general open discussion on all things immersive experiences. We encourage you to use this space to share information such as project updates, interesting readings, and ideas on which you'd like community feedback. We also hope you'll use this space to connect with one another and that it will help you to find collaborators for your research, teaching, or creative projects.   

Members of the University of Glasgow can join by going to the Team at:  

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3aa20c2d95cfd24a1796f339e194352bcb%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=a4eb4764-4876-454d-aeb2-bfb1a5038464&tenantId=6e725c29-763a-4f50-81f2-2e254f0133c8     

OR     

Click Teams  on the left side of the Teams app, then click Join or create a team at the bottom of your teams list. Go to Join a team with a code (the second tile), paste the code (join code: cf4fcr8) in the Enter code box, and click Join.  

If you are not a member of the University of Glasgow and would like to join, please make your request to join by email.   

We are looking to grow the IELab community, and we are particularly keen to welcome new staff and research students arriving at Glasgow in 2020. Please forward the newsletter to colleagues and students who may be interested.Anyone can become a member of the Immersive Experiences Lab at Glasgow by sending an email to Rachel Opitz stating, "I would like to join the Immersive Experiences ArtsLab at Glasgow. To receive regular, approximately monthly, email updates on news and events relevant to the community." 

Happy New Year to everyone in the Immersive Experiences ArtsLAB community!  

IELab Seminar Series: 

We're in the process of planning the Spring 2021 IELab seminars. Details on dates and speakers will be circulated soon. 

Publications from the IELab Community: 

Findlay-Walsh, I (2021). Virtual auditory reality: Inhabiting digital pop music as simulated space. In SoundEffects 10/1. Special issue: Sound and Listening Spaces. Available at https://www.soundeffects.dk/article/view/124199/171130  

This article examines popular music listening in light of recent research in auditory perception and spatial experience, record production, and virtual reality, while considering parallel developments in digital pop music production practice. The discussion begins by considering theories of listening and embodiment by Brandon LaBelle, Eric Clarke, Salomè Voegelin and Linda Salter, examining relations between listening subjects and aural environments, conceptualising listening as a process of environmental ‘inhabiting’, and considering auditory experience as the real-time construction of ‘reality’. These ideas are discussed in relation to recent research on popular music production and perception, with a focus on matters of spatial sound design, the virtual ‘staging’ of music performances and performing bodies, digital editing methods and effects, and on shifting relations between musical spatiality, singer-persona, audio technologies, and listener. Writings on music and virtual space by Martin Knakkergaard, Allan Moore, Ragnhild Brøvig-Hanssen & Anne Danielsen, Denis Smalley, Dale Chapman, Kodwo Eshun and Holger Schulze are discussed, before being related to conceptions of VR sound and user experience by Jaron Lanier, Rolf Nordahl & Niels Nilsson, Mel Slater, Tom Garner and Frances Dyson. This critical framework informs three short aural analyses of digital pop tracks released during the last 10 years - Titanium (Guetta & Sia 2010), Ultralight Beam (West 2016) and 2099 (Charli XCX 2019) - presented in the form of autoethnographic ‘listening notes’. Through this discussion on personal popular music listening and virtual spatiality, a theory of pop listening as embodied inhabiting of simulated narrative space, or virtual story-world, with reference to ‘aural-dominant realities’ (Salter), ‘sonic possible worlds’ (Voegelin), and ‘sonic fictions’ (Eshun), is developed. By examining personal music listening in relation to VR user experience, this study proposes listening to pop music in the 21st century as a mode of immersive, embodied ‘storyliving’, or ‘storydoing’ (Allen & Tucker). 

Please send us information about your publications for inclusion in future newsletters! 

Relevant Community Events:  

The Past, Present, and Future of VR: a talk by a Grandfather of VR, Dr. Thomas Furness 

Mon, January 11, 2021 
1:30 AM – 2:30 AM GMT 

(Recording at https://youtu.be/yTQSy4q2ggA) 

A Drink with the Idler | Jaron Lanier and Tom Hodgkinson 

Thu, 21 January 2021 
18:00 – 19:00 GMT 

A discussion on the future of online culture. 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-drink-with-the-idler-jaron-lanier-and-tom-hodgkinson-tickets-129995539157?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=escb&utm-source=cp&utm-term=listing 

GamesBeat & Oculus - Event Series 

 January 27: The Metaverse - The future of VR and virtual beings 

Wed, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST 

Free, online 

 February 17: Science Fiction, tech, and games 

Wed, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST 

Free, online 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gamesbeat-oculus-event-series-tickets-127068229495?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1 

Algorithmic Sound 5: Matthew D. Gantt 

by Creative GC: Art and Science Connect 

Masterclass with Matthew D. Gantt on spatial sound in virtual reality. 

Sat, Feb 6, 2021, 7:00 PM GMT 

free, online 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/algorithmic-sound-5-matthew-d-gantt-tickets-132532459153?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1 

Curious Alice: the VR experience 

Produced as part of Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser 

Curious Alice invites audiences to tumble down the rabbit hole and embark on a mind-bending trip into Wonderland through the playful dimension of virtual reality (VR). This new VR experience is the result of an innovative partnership between the V&A and HTC Vive Arts, produced by immersive games studio PRELOADED and featuring original artworks by Icelandic illustrator Kristjana S Williams. The experience presents a fully immersive, interactive re-imagining of Wonderland, celebrating one of the most iconic and inspiring stories of all time – the subject of the V&A's major 2021 exhibition Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser. 

Opening on Saturday, 27 March 2021 

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/curious-alice-the-vr-experience 

Recto VRso 

 - "Real body - Virtual body" 

International Art and Virtual Reality Festival (Laval, France) 

14-18 April 2021 

Recto VRso is an international exhibition of art and virtual and mixed reality which is held within the framework of the Laval Virtual event, from April 14 to 18, 2021. Founded by artist-researcher Judith Guez, Recto VRso aims to invite artworks of artists, researchers, students and explorers who question the virtual reality medium, directly or indirectly, so as to bring out new artistic forms. Recto VRso is made up of two parts : the Art & VR Gallery and the Art Itinerary. 

https://rectovrso.laval-virtual.com/en/home/ 

 
Upcoming Conferences (and open calls for papers): 

 
International Conference on Digital Art and Virtual Reality 

Calls for papers open for 2022. Conference info for 2021 available. 

Digital Art and Virtual Reality Conference aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Digital Art and Virtual Reality Conference. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Digital Art and Virtual Reality Conference. 
https://waset.org/digital-art-and-virtual-reality-conference 

International Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Virtual Reality 

November 15-17, 2021Taichung, Taiwan 

Advance notice, call for papers coming soon 

https://www.ieee-aivr.org/ 

IEEEVR Conference 2021 - IEEE Computer Society 

Make Virtual Reality Diverse and Accessible 

27 March-3 April 2021, Lisbon (online) 

http://ieeevr.org/2021/ 

Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) Conference 2021 

Conference theme: “TRANSCEND: Accelerating Learner Engagement in XR across Time, Place, and Imagination” 

17th May - 10th June 2021 

https://immersivelrn.org/ilrn2021/ 

CFP: 2021 Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN) Conference 

Conference theme: “TRANSCEND: Accelerating Learner Engagement in XR across Time, Place, and Imagination” 

Late round submission deadline – Work-in-progress papers, practitioner presentations, and nontraditional sessions only: 2021-04-08 

Conference dates: 17th May - 10th June 2021 

https://immersivelrn.org/ilrn2021/ 

Further Reading:  

Barreda-Ángeles, M., Aleix-Guillaume, S., & Pereda-Baños, A. (2020). Virtual reality storytelling as a double-edged sword: Immersive presentation of nonfiction 360-video is associated with impaired cognitive information processing. Communication Monographs, 1-20. 

Bujić, M., Salminen, M., Macey, J., & Hamari, J. (2020). “Empathy machine”: how virtual reality affects human rights attitudes. Internet Research.  

Champion, E., & Foka, A. (2020). Art History, Heritage Games, and Virtual Reality. In The Routledge Companion to Digital Humanities and Art History. Routledge. 

Connell-Whitney, L. (2020). Telling Stories in the Dark: A Feminist Thinks With Virtual Reality (Doctoral dissertation, OCAD University). 

Jungnickel, K. (Ed.). (2020). Transmissions: Critical Tactics for Making and Communicating Research. MIT Press. 

Lesaffre, M., & Leman, M. (2020). Integrative research in art and science: a framework for proactive humanities. Critical Arts, 1-16. 

Münster, S., & Terras, M. (2020). The visual side of digital humanities: a survey on topics, researchers, and epistemic cultures. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 35(2), 366-389. 

Zheng, S., Chen, Y., & Wang, C. (2020). Application of Eye-Tracking Technology in Humanities, Social Sciences and Geospatial Cognition. In Spatial Synthesis (pp. 431-448). Springer, Cham. 

17th EuroVR International Conference, EuroVR 2020, Valencia, Spain, November 25–27, 2020, Proceedings. 

Editors: Bourdot, P., Interrante, V., Kopper, R., Olivier, A.-H., Saito, H., Zachmann, G. (Eds.) 

https://www.euroxr-association.org/news/eurovr-2020-conference-proceedings/ 

Frontiers in Virtual Reality 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality#articles 

New articles in this journal include:  

Mouatt, B., Smith, A. E., Mellow, M. L., Parfitt, G., Smith, R. T., & Stanton, T. R. (2020). The Use of Virtual Reality to Influence Motivation, Affect, Enjoyment, and Engagement During Exercise: A Scoping Review. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 1, 39. 

Richard, G., Pietrzak, T., Sanz, F. A., Lécuyer, A., & Casiez, G. (2020). Studying the Role of Haptic Feedback on Virtual Embodiment in a Drawing Task. Frontiers in Virtual Reality. 

Tromp, J., Klotzsche, F., Krohn, S., Akbal, M., Pohl, L., Quinque, E. M., ... & Gaebler, M. (2020). OpenVirtualObjects: An Open Set of Standardized and Validated 3D Household Objects for Virtual Reality-Based Research, Assessment, and Therapy. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 1, 37. 

Join the Immersive Experiences ArtsLab Teams Space     

We've created a Microsoft Teams space to provide a forum for general open discussion on all things immersive experiences. We encourage you to use this space to share information such as project updates, interesting readings, and ideas on which you'd like community feedback. We also hope you'll use this space to connect with one another and that it will help you to find collaborators for your research, teaching, or creative projects.   

Members of the University of Glasgow can join by going to the Team at:  

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3aa20c2d95cfd24a1796f339e194352bcb%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=a4eb4764-4876-454d-aeb2-bfb1a5038464&tenantId=6e725c29-763a-4f50-81f2-2e254f0133c8  

OR  

Click Teams  on the left side of the Teams app, then click Join or create a team at the bottom of your teams list. Go to Join a team with a code (the second tile), paste the code (join code: cf4fcr8) in the Enter code box, and click Join.  

If you are not a member of the University of Glasgow and would like to join, please make your request to join by email.   

We are looking to grow the IELab community, and we are particularly keen to welcome new staff and research students arriving at Glasgow in 2020. Please forward the newsletter to colleagues and students who may be interested.Anyone can become a member of the Immersive Experiences Lab at Glasgow by sending an email to Rachel Opitz stating, "I would like to join the Immersive Experiences ArtsLab at Glasgow. To receive regular, approximately monthly, email updates on news and events relevant to the community." 

The Tech Update (from Neil) 

In the hardware space, the supply chain issues concerning supply of Oculus headsets (Rift S and Quest) appears to be easing, and good commercial performance has been reported by Oculus for the Quest (flagship PC-less headset). This bodes well for the sector. 

VR-by-proxy 

The supply chain might be improving, but the lack of headsets in the general population hinders the progress in the making and distribution of apps. Whilst social distancing remains in place, wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to have students and teachers “meet” in VR for lessons, and get a safe proxy of the main experience? Unfortunately, there simply aren’t enough students with headsets (or headsets available at all) to for this to be achievable today. 

The rise of Zoom, and Teams, as a (newly) normal mode of teaching and interaction has inspired a hybrid route to VR, however. Several apps (our own Mobius ones included, but check out Spatial) allow one user (a teacher or demonstrator, perhaps) with access to VR equipment to ‘broadcast’ from within a VR environment across video-conferencing contexts. The other members of the call (students, say) see a camera feed from the teacher as normal, except that instead of seeing a face via webcam, they can see a 3D model of a protein, the inside of a stomach, or the Gutenburg press from the point of view of the VR user. This VR-by-proxy isn’t the same as being in VR yourself, of course, but it is remarkably powerful nevertheless. (We will soon be making a Mobius announcement concerning this – watch this space!) 

Call for Contributions: IELab Events - Fall 2020 

The IELab Events series is taking a break over the summer. You are invited to submit your ideas for events in Fall 2020. If you are interested in presenting your own work in one of our seminars, leading a panel discussion with a group of peers, holding a demo, running a participatory event, or contributing to a virtual event or exhibit, please get in touch with rachel.opitz@glasgow.ac.uk. Our Fall 2020 Events series will start in September 2020.  

Community Events of Interest  

Frontiers in Virtual Reality – Online Seminar Series 

The Editorial board of Frontiers in Virtual Reality is pleased to present a series of virtual seminars on virtual and augmented reality 

18th May-17th June 

FREE to register 

https://blog.frontiersin.org/2020/05/05/frontiers-in-virtual-reality-online-seminar-series/ 

 Immerse UK and Barclays Eagle Labs : Immersive Arts and Mental Wellbeing 

27 May, 18:00-19:00 

FREE to register 

https://www.immerseuk.org/resources/upcoming-webinar-barclays-eagle-labs-and-immerse-uk-present-immersive-arts-mental-wellbeing/?utm_campaign=1744845_May%20events%202020%20eshot_Immerse%20UK&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dotdigital&dm_i=2VFU,11EBX,5UA5UY,3YK3Z,1 

Webinar - 5G for Creative Industries 

FREE to register 

Wed, 3 Jun, 10:30-11:30, Online  

The high-bandwidth low-latency technologies promised by 5G are likely to radically disrupt the Creative Industries. Across TV, film, music, advertising, theatre, the arts and digital creative industries, the effects will affect the production, distribution and consumption models as well as the content that is made. The UK5G Creative Industries Working Group will discuss the trends and activities enabled by 5G in this exciting fast growing and powerful sector. 

https://uk5g.org/attend/webinar-5g-creative-industries/?utm_campaign=1741502_Digital%20%26%20Creative%20Newsletter%20May&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dotdigital&dm_i=2VFU,11BR2,5UA5UY,3Y9KR,1  

Immersive World-Building - Online Workshop 

by InterAccess 

Jawa El Khash will teach the history, basic hardware, and process of world-building in virtual reality. 

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/immersive-world-building-online-workshop-tickets-104542212572?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch 

Tue, 2 Jun 2020, 5:00 PM – 

Wed, 3 Jun 2020, 8:00 PM EDT 

pay by donation 

VRTO 2020 Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality World Conference (online event) 

by VRTO in association with Constant Change Media Group, Inc. 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vrto-2020-virtual-reality-augmented-reality-world-conference-tickets-75983836701?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch 

Sat, Jun 6, 2020, 10:00 AM – 

Mon, Jun 8, 2020, 7:00 PM EDT 

CA$99 – CA$725 

Merged Futures 2020 (online event) 

by Digital Northampton 

Second annual free digital innovation showcase will feature virtual talks and tech demonstrations from experts across a range of sectors 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/merged-futures-2020-tickets-96611797487?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch 

Fri, 12 June 2020 

09:30 – 16:00 BST 

FREE to register 

Immersive Learning Research Network 2020 Conference (Online Event) 

by Immersive Learning Research Network 

Scholarly event focusing on advances in the use of VR as well as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and other extended reality (XR) technologies to support learners across the full span of learning—from K-12 through higher education to work-based, informal, and lifelong learning contexts. 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immersive-learning-research-network-2020-conference-online-tickets-101001893382?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch 

Sun, Jun 21, 2020, 8:00 AM – 

Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 11:30 AM MDT 

$0 – $450 

17th annual Games for Change Festival (Online event) 

Developers, educators, policymakers, and non-profits from all over the world are invited to share and learn how they can leverage the power of games and immersive media for positive social impact. 

Register at: https://hopin.to/events/g4c2020 

July 14-16, 2020 

FREE to register 

SIGGRAPH 2020 (Online event) 

SIGGRAPH brings together a wide variety of professionals who approach computer graphics and interactive techniques from different perspectives. Themes of interest for the IELab include: 

Art and Design Programme: https://s2020.siggraph.org/conference/interest-areas/#art-design 

Games and Interactive Media Programme: https://s2020.siggraph.org/conference/interest-areas/#gaming-interactive 

July 19-23, 2020 

Details of the programme will be made available soon at: https://s2020.siggraph.org/ 
 
 
Immerse UK Social VR Platforms Webinar Series (Online Events) 

Each webinar will focus on two platforms and will involve a panel of unbiased XR experts who have used the two platforms extensively. There will be an introduction to each platform, honest feedback on their capabilities and limitations, and an opportunity for Q&A at the end. 
Past recorded webinars and information on future events at: https://www.immerseuk.org/resources/social-vr-platforms-webinars/ 

Call for papers/proposals of Interest: 

INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology, No. 5 

Abstract deadline 15th June 

INSAM Journal of Contemporary Music, Art and Technology is happy to invite you to collaborate on the fifth issue of our journal (II/2020). The main theme of INSAM Journal No. 5 is Music, Art, and Technology in the Time of Global Crisis. With the evident challenges and unpredictable shift the global society is going through at the moment, we decided to dedicate our next issue to exploring the place and role of arts and technology in amidst of the current situation. Furthermore, we aim to question the relocated institutional realities for the musicians, artists, and other cultural workers, as well as the precarious nature of this type of work. Now more than ever, technology plays an immensely important role in the ongoing processes of change. 

Bearing that in mind, we encourage you to discuss topics that include (and are not limited to) following areas: 

• Online content production of musicians and artists in the time of crisis; 
• Virtual museum tours and live concert streaming; 
• Art institutions and the open access principle in the time of crisis; 
• Art “outside” the institutions; 
• Role of technology in artistic output in the time of crisis. 

INSAM Journal is structured in four sections: The Main Theme, Beyond the Main Theme, Reviews, and Interviews. The main topic predefines only The Main Theme section; in other sections, we welcome your contributions related to contemporary art and media theory, artistic music, performing and visual arts, technology. 

The deadline for the theme and abstract submission is June 15, 2020, and for the full-text submission September 15, 2020. You will be notified by July 15, 2020, if your topic has been accepted. For detailed information on the manuscript preparation, see Authors Guidelines on INSAM website. Send your text to insam.journal@gmail.com. 

Digital Heroisms Conference (University of Glasgow - online) 

Abstract deadline 8th July 

DIGITAL HEROISMS (August 5th – 12:00-17:00PM GMT) 

Digital Heroisms is an online conference exploring Fantasy, the digital and the concept of heroism in collaboration with the Games and Gaming Lab based at UofG College of Arts, University of Glasgow School of Critical Studies and Game Studies at Glasgow. 

"The power of the fantasy increases if it offers us something genuinely new and compelling. The limitations of our own corporeality can be abolished or the ground rules changed to give us new experiences.” 

KATHRYN HUME 

The symposium will be seeking submissions for 20 min papers on themes such as, but not limited to, the following topics: 

• Defining/constructing digital heroism 
• The converging interests of fantasy and digital heroism 
• Digital and fantastic video game environments and their effect on heroism 
• Fantasy video games and avatar creation 

• Fantastic VR experiences, the self, and digital heroism 
• The social/theoretical implications of digital iterations of fantasy 
• Considerations of digital spaces as fantastic ones 
• Heroic fantasy video game character(istics) 
• Considerations of what heroism means in the digital age 

• Problems with digital heroism 
• Digital heroism examined through: 
• Convergence culture 
• Participatory culture 
• Feminism 

• Postcolonialism 
• Queer Studies 
• Disability Studies 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 

Digital Heroisms will run with the view to contributing a special issue to the student video game journal Press Start. We encourage speakers to submit their drafted proposal to the organising committee after the conference (date TBD). Please see the Press Start website for the submission guidelines and style guide. 

https://press-start.gla.ac.uk 

Please submit your paper as a 250 word abstract and 100 word bio to digitalheroisms@gmail.com by July 8th. 

We look forward to receiving your contributions to Digital Heroisms! 

Organising Committee: 

Monica Vazquez(University of Glasgow) 

Gabe Arcana (University of Glasgow) 

Francis Butterworth-Parr (University of Glasgow) 

FB: Digital Heroisms 

Twitter: @DigitalHeroisms 

Instagram: Digital Heroisms 

SIGGRAPH -  Call for 2020 Faculty Submitted Student Work 

Sponsored by the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee, this exhibit is intended as a way for educators to share their project ideas across schools and disciplines. This annual exhibition of work during the SIGGRAPH conference also offers a venue for participants to see the student work.   Any content related to computer graphics and interactive techniques is welcome, and submissions are open to all faculty working at Secondary/High School through University levels.  

Submission information can be found at here.  

Deadline: June 5, 2020.  

More details at: 

https://blog.siggraph.org/2020/05/call-for-2020-faculty-submitted-student-work.html/ 

13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTERACTIVE DIGITAL STORYTELLING - ICIDS 2020 

The International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) is the premier conference for researchers and practitioners in game narrative and interactive storytelling, including the theoretical, technological, and applied design practices. The annual conference is an interdisciplinary gathering that combines computational narratology, narrative systems, storytelling technology, and humanities-inspired theoretical inquiry, empirical research and artistic expression. 

Conference dates: November 3-6 , 2020 

Bournemouth, UK 

June 12, 2020: Main Submission Deadline for Research Papers, Exhibition Submissions, Posters, Demos  

https://icids2020.bournemouth.ac.uk/ 

Being Human Festival 2020 

Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the British Academy, Being Human is the UK’s only national festival of the humanities. In 2020, the festival theme is ‘New Worlds’. The festival will run 12-22 November. The core festival objectives are: 

• to demonstrate the value of humanities research to society in the UK and globally; 
• to encourage, support and create opportunities for humanities researchers to engage with non-specialist audiences; 
• to embed and join together public engagement activities in the humanities across the higher education (HE) sector; 

• to demonstrate the relevance of the humanities to everyday life. 
   

https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/

• ‘Open Call’

The easiest way to get involved in Being Human festival is to organise an activity or event via the Open Call pathway. This is for events during the festival dates that do not require funding from Being Human, but will be supported and promoted as part of our national festival programme.

• ‘Small Award’

Want to be more ambitious? Want to try something reaching a very specific audience or which might make a small change happen locally? Via the Small Award pathway you can apply for up to £2,000 to help make it happen.

• ‘Hub Award’

Applying as an institution? Each year we make a limited number of larger institutional grant of £2,000 – £5,000 to coordinate a full programme of activities as a festival hub (only a small number of these awards are made every year).

The Tech Update (from Neil)  

VR 

The main corona-based news is that headset production and delivery (especially Oculus Quest) are very badly affected. We ordered Quests in November and they remain “in constraint globally”. I expect this to be a serious bump in the road for many VR projects, but with all things COVID-19 related, it is too soon to be sure. 

In happier news…. 

Half-Life: Alyx 

When the game Half-Life was launched in 1998 is was Valve’s first title, and went on to become an undoubted classic. It received 50 Game of The Year awards and changed the genre (first-person shooter) forever. The use of narrative, pseudo-intelligent computer characters, immersion and pace was simply a cut above anything that had come before. It took six years for a full sequel to emerge, such was Valve’s determination to push the envelope with Half-Life 2. The anticipation and hype was feverish, and yet the game delivered – receiving 39 Game of the Year awards – by launching a whole new games engine with HL2. The physics and graphics were once again ahead of the curve, and besides the outstanding story and immersion we had come to expect, there was a technological leap in there too. There have been related titles released since – the Portal series, Counter-strike, expansion packs – but no Half-life 3. It seems like Valve won’t make the mythical “HL3” until they can make another great leap forward… 

Valve launched their Steam platform with Half-Life 2 in 2006 and it has grown to become the dominant platform for the digital distribution of PC games. Meanwhile, Valve have also been at the heart of the VR revolution with their Steam VR software, and their partnership with HTC which produced the Vive range of VR headsets. Valve built its reputation on Half-Life, expanded its empire through Half-Life 2, and pushed the technological envelope in games engines and VR. 

Now, Vive have launched Half-Life: Alyx and the gaming and VR worlds are once again bursting with excitement. It is their first dedicated VR game (not an adapted version of a regular title), and it is not just a hugely exciting entertainment offering, but also a potentially pivotal moment for the VR world. Here are some reasons to think so: 

• HL:A is a full-length game, so will take upwards of 12 hours of gameplay to complete. This is highly unusual for such a high quality (read: expensive to produce) title, but importantly it will test the stamina of users in VR in a way nothing has before. 

• It uses spatial puzzles. As with Half-Life, and especially Portal before it, HL:A makes users solve environmental puzzles to advance. How those puzzles work in VR may become a model by which we understand users appreciation of their space. 

• It will be an extended narrative in VR. It may be the longest and most complex narrative we have yet seen in VR, but even if it isn’t it will be experienced by so many VR users that it is likely to become a benchmark for what follows. 

• It involves innovative user interaction with virtual hands and objects. Once again, due to the influential nature of the publisher and title, and the large number of users it will have, HL:A has the power to spawn new UI norms. 

• It *might* be VR’s ‘killer app’: Some apps or games are so good they drive people to buy the whole system that requires them. In my day it was GoldenEye on the N64, but no such title has come along for VR. If anything can launch VR to a larger audience, and hasten the day that it is mainstream, it is this. 

Half-Life: Alyx was launched on 23rd March and is already a hit. Critics and gamers are delighted across the board, and the game has broken records for concurrent users. This is a major cultural event in the VR world. I will report back when I have actually played it! 

AR 

With the sudden move to remote teaching, I had a think about how immersive tech might (or might not) be in a position to help. I concluded fairly quickly that VR wouldn’t be of much help given how few students or teachers would have access to it. AR is different, however. We certainly do not all have HoloLens or MagicLeap devices to use, but most people do have access to AR-ready devices (phone or tablet). I set up a page to guide people through one practical application that may be of considerable use already: Sketchfab. I mention a few others at the end too and would welcome suggestions for any more.

https://www.neilmcdonnell.org/

Upcoming IELab Events 

Interdisciplinary PhD Research Showcase - Spring 2020 

Thursday, 30 April 2020, 15:00-17:00 

On Zoom! at https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/j/320679400 

Event Format: 

We'll be posting video presentations on the IELab website from our speakers about a week before the Research Showcase. We'll then convene on zoom for a roundtable discussion of everyone's research. We'll talk about the challenges and opportunities of using immersive technologies and experiences as part of PhD research.  

Graduate Students: send an email to rachel.opitz@glasgow.ac.uk if you are interested in posting a video presentation on your current or planned research related to VR/AR/XR or other immersive experiences topics.  

Speakers: Francis Butterworth-Parr, Monica Vazquez and more 

Tuned to a Dead Channel: Critical Immersion in Contemporary Literary Culture - Francis Butterworth-Parr  

Criticality and immersion have often been figured as mutually exclusive modes of reading and playing. When figured as such, the act of critically playing video games (understanding the interconnectedness of the game and gameplay with its cultural, historical and aesthetics contexts) and the act of being immersed in a video game are forked. This opposition serves two extant arguments that are anathema to video game criticism: that video games are essentially apolitical despite being representational, and that the video game form is incapable of drawing sophisticated interpretations from players. The former argument served to validate the misogyny of Gamergate, the latter argument erroneously linked violence in games to real violence such and contributes to video game addiction’s controversial induction into the WHO’s list of mental disorders. To correct this, my presentation will experiment with dissolving the negative relationship between criticality and immersion in video games through their representation in contemporary literary culture, using examples where novelists have explored these concepts to question have we may reckon with the immersive video game playing experience through criticality. 

The Neverending Immersion: inhabiting the impossible in Fantasy Literature and VR. - Monica Vasquez 

 Virtual Reality is the narrative architecture of the impossible. It stirs our imagination and challenges humanity to redefine the limits of immersion and our interactions with the spaces we inhabit. If, as Ortega y Gasset puts it, ‘I am me and my circumstances’, who am I when I am given the chance of facing the impossible? This research project will aim to answer this question, dwelling in the matters of how immersion inherently shapes identity and how the different degrees of interaction can affect our understanding of the concept of consequence, calling for a new definition for Fantasy, Reality and Immersion. In order to do so, it will analyze the inner workings of fantasy literature and its techniques on world-building and narrative immersion. For the most immersive thing one can do without VR goggles would be to read a book, isn’t that so, Don Quixote? 

Community Events of Interest  

Cultural Site and Museum Initiatives: 

During the current lockdown, cultural sites and museums are trialing VR and AR experiences. Recent UK press reports that ‘the rise of Covid-19 has forced cultural institutions to explore alternative digital spaces with online exhibitions and a rise in virtual reality.’ (The Guardian, 08/04/20). Some notable examples: 

The Tower of David Museum has collaborated to produce a VR experience to explore locations across Jerusalem:  http://holycityvr.com/ . Free Access 8-24 April 2020. 

New VR resources and Fin Art Games are available at Gigoia Studios: https://gigoiastudios.itch.io/ 

And larger organisations are aggregating digital AR and VR compatible resources: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.expeditions&hl=en_US 

Some institutions are investing in 360 video as a more accessible, low production cost, medium as they transition to producing for immersive environments: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/met-360-project 

Artist collectives are producing for AR and VR: 

https://acuteart.com/how-to-view/ 

Hauser and Wirth ArtLab are trialing a new Virtual Reality exhibition modelling tool, HWVR: 

https://www.hauserwirth.com/stories/28281-artlab-new-technology-research-division 

And Mars, of course, is available online... 

https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/# 

Arts events moving online: 

The current situation has seen artists and arts organisations quickly moving events online, using social media and AV streaming tools as digital alternatives to live performance and other forms of broadcast. While not VAR in the strict sense, the proliferation of online events and communities in the new audience context of lockdown suggests an emerging set of spatial relations, aesthetics and affective modes born out of experimentation with digital media.  

Some notable examples:  

Music - 

Amplify 2020: Quarantine (festival) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/545321229469172/ 

Cafe Oto livestream - https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/oto-12-party/ 

Music for the Isolated Generation multi-stream - https://www.facebook.com/Music4theIsolatedGen/ 

Counterflows festival radio (on Clyde Built Radio) - https://soundcloud.com/clydebuiltradio/sets/cbr-day-22-12420 

Theatre and Performance - 

National Theatre Live: National Theatre in the Home - https://bit.ly/2V55pK3 

National Theatre of Scotland - Scenes for Survival Project (call for proposals) - https://bit.ly/2VmMycm 

Futuro Fantasico - https://www.facebook.com/SANTARCANGELOFESTIVAL/ 

GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) - https://www.giftfestival.co.uk/

Fusebox Festival - https://www.fuseboxfestival.com/

Tramway TV - https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowTramway/ 

Take Me Somewhere Festival: https://takemesomewhere.co.uk/ 

Art and Design - 

Re-Connect Festival - https://www.instagram.com/reconnectfestival/ 

Selfies under quarantine (project) - https://networkcultures.org/blog/2020/04/09/selfies-under-quarantine/ 

Coronavirus Art on Instagram - https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadjasayej/2020/02/18/heres-how-artists-are-responding-to-the-coronavirus/ 

Panel: Tate Exchange - Co/Producing Feminist Knowledge - https://bit.ly/2XCAIxz 

Some Timely Reading: 

Virtual Reality, vol 24, issue 1: March 2020 

https://link.springer.com/journal/10055/24/1 

Frontiers in Virtual Reality: March 2020 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality 

PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality. Volume 27, No. 2 

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/pvar/27/2 

Reconsidering the Substance of Digital Video from a Sadrian Perspective (2020). Azadeh Emadi in Leonardo, Vol. 53, no. 1: 

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/53/1?mobileUi=0 

Beyond the Breakdown: Three Meditations on a Possible Aftermath (2020) - Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi https://transversal.at/transversal/0420/berardi/en 

Staying with the Trouble (2016) - Donna Haraway - https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble 

The Production of Space (1974) - Henri Levebvre 

https://monoskop.org/images/7/75/Lefebvre_Henri_The_Production_of_Space.pdf 

The Mediated Construction of Reality (2016) - Nick Couldry and Andreas Hepp 

https://bit.ly/3ccH7mV 

MediaSpace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age (2004) - Nick Couldry and Anna McCarthy (eds). https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203010228 

Upcoming IELab Events 

Virtual Auditory Reality (Research Colloquium) 

Thursday, 19th March 2020,  

15:00-17:00 

Room 2, 14 University Gardens,  

University of Glasgow 

Iain Findlay-Walsh (University of Glasgow) will be giving a talk on "Virtual Auditory Reality: Inhabiting pop as virtual environment". This event is organised jointly with the Royal Music Association Research Colloquia series. 

Interdisciplinary PhD Research Showcase - Spring 2020 

Thursday, 23 April 2020,  

15:00-17:00 

Sir Alexandre Stone building, Room 204 

University of Glasgow 

Graduate Students: send an email to rachel.opitz@glasgow.ac.uk if you are interested in presenting a lightning talk on your current or planned research related to VR/AR/XR or other immersive experiences topics. 

Community Events of Interest 

Collab and Create-Glasgow AR/VR 

Wednesday, 26 February 2020 

18:00 – 20:00 

Alhambra House 

45 Waterloo Street 

Glasgow 

G2 6HS 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collab-and-create-glasgow-arvr-tickets-92271224717?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

A general Glasgow meetup for anyone interested in AR/VR. 

Mixed Reality Scotland Meetup #7  

Thursday, 27 February 2020 

17:30 – 20:00 

FreeAgent HQ 

133 Fountainbridge 

Edinburgh 

EH3 9QG 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mixed-reality-scotland-meetup-7-tickets-90280923673?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

Agenda 

• Informal networking/refreshments from 5:30pm onwards 
• Introductions and talks will start shortly after 6pm 
• After the talks, there will be lots of time for more networking, refreshments and interactive demos from the speakers. 

This time our speakers will be : 

• Ruchir Shah - "Prototyping VR Instruments" - Ruchir will talk about his own experiences in developing a unique interactive virtual reality musical instrument. 
• Javid Khan (MD, Holoxica) - "Holographic Displays) - Javid will be telling us about the amazing technology and applications of holographic displays, which allow 3D objects to be seen without the use of headsets. Holoxica will also be bringing along some of their displays for us to see and try out. 

Each talk will be approximately 20 mins long, with 5 mins after for Q&A (and both speakers will be around after the talks to chat to in more depth). 

Virtual Reality and Mindfulness: Co-Design Workshop 

Tuesday 18 February 2020 

10:30 - 15:30  

Room LG.11 David Hume Tower 

University of Edinburgh 

contact: Siobhan.OConnor@ed.ac.uk 

Would you like to contribute to research about virtual reality and mindfulness? 

This co-design workshop is aimed at people who practice mindfulness. It will involve discussing and gathering people’s perspectives on virtual environments, 3D objects, music, sounds, and digital avatars that could enhance mindfulness practice through a virtual reality (VR) application. 

You will have the opportunity to use a range of virtual reality apps and VR headsets as well as work creatively to imagine your ideal mindfulness experience in a virtual space.   

Refreshments will be provided and some travel reimbursed. 

Cryptic Nights: Contact - Matthew Grouse & Andy Sowerby 

Thursday  26 March 2020 

20:00 

Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow 

https://www.cryptic.org.uk/portfolio/contact-2/ 

Tickets: £10/£7 

Award-winning composer, Matthew Grouse, in collaboration with filmmaker and visual artist Andy Sowerby, combines sight, sound and even touch in a multi-layered exploration of the body’s largest sensory organ – our skin. 

Sleep Mode (Glasgow International Festival 2020) 

24 Apr — 10 May 2020 

South Block,  

60-64 Osborne Street, Glasgow. 

https://glasgowinternational.org/events/douglas-coupland-garnet-hertz-hyphen-labs-michael-mandiberg-nastja-sade-ronkko-addie-wagenknecht-alan-warburton/ 

Group exhibition featuring new work by Douglas Coupland, Garnet Hertz, Hyphen-Labs, Michael Mandiberg, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, Addie Wagenknecht, Alan Warburton. Curated by Sarah Cook. 

In other news:  

Recordings and reflections from im/material network events 1-4 are on the website at https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/immaterial/reflectionsonpastevents/ 

Reminder - This Week's IELab Event: 

Title: Virtual Reality Experiences as Intimate Performance 
 
When and where: 15:00-17:00, 21 November 2019,  SIR CHARLES WILSON BUILDING, room 101AB 

 Abstract: 

Despite the hype surrounding immersive media as the ‘future of storytelling’, there is an increasing number of theatre and performance practitioners making, staging and exhibiting VR experiences that place much more focus on the experiential, intimate encounter over and above narrative storytelling. Some recent examples include Laurie Anderson's To the Moon 2019; Robert Lepage’s The Library at Night 2016; Marina Abramovic’s mixed reality performance projects Rising (2018) and The Life (2019); companies like Marshmallow Laser Feast and Kaleider who are creating experiential installations and performative public art incorporating VR. These examples invite further reflection on the expanded theatrical and performative practices that are being drawn on in VR experiences - specifically modes of interaction borrowed from live art, intimate or one-to-one performance. This has been the starting point for my recent practice-as-research project exploring the intersections between VR and intimate performance as part of my role as Digital Thinker in Residence with the National Theatre of Scotland. 

In September 2019, working with computing scientist Julie Williamson from the University of Glasgow and visual artist and theatre designer Rachel O' Neill, we developed a VR performance response to John Berger's book and our faces, my heart, brief as photos (1984). In this talk I will reflect on this emerging field of VR performance as well as what we found out about VR and about performance by bringing these two forms together. 

Bio: 

1. Harry Robert Wilson is a researcher and performance maker based in Glasgow and until recently was Digital Thinker in Residence with the National Theatre of Scotland. Harry has a practice-as-research PhD in performance, photography and affect from the University of Glasgow. He has shared research at a range of conferences from Stockholm to Chicago and as a practitioner has shown work at venues and festivals across the UK including The Arches; the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; Forest Fringe, Edinburgh; DCA, Dundee; BAC, London; and internationally at Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago and Kilowatt Festival,Sansepolcro. Harry is currently teaching in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. 
2. edu: glasgow.academia.edu/HarryWilson

Twitter: @theharry_wilson 

Upcoming Community Events of Interest: 

Beyond: annual R&D conference for the creative industries. 

20-21 November  

Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, UK 

In 2019 the conference will explore the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and creativity. 

https://beyondconference.org/ 

[AR]T Lab: AR Experiences Co-created with Sarah Rothberg 

17-28 November 

147 Buchanan Street 

Glasgow, G1 2JX 

What happens when a lemon and a traffic cone collide? Using artist Sarah Rothberg’s creative approach and art, you’ll learn to code an augmented reality experience. Whether it’s happy, wacky or weird, you’ll combine AR elements in Swift Playgrounds on iPad. Our Apple Creatives will take you through creative and coding exercises. Recommended for beginners aged 12 and up. Devices will be provided. 

https://www.apple.com/uk/today/event/coding-lab-swift-playgrounds/6595584162810689417/ 

Arika Episode 10 - A Means Without End 

20-24 November 

Tramway 

Glasgow G41 2PE 

Complex ways of understanding our complex times. Maths & Poetics. Gesture & Physics. Collectivist Struggle & Desire. 

5 days of performances, discussions, screenings and study sessions about how the art and thought of collectivist desires, the complex flow of contemporary maths and the counterintuitive realities of particle physics help us grow the capacity to be one another’s means without end. 

With: Jay Bernard | boychild | Mijke van der Drift | Denise Ferreira da Silva | James Goodwin | Stefano Harney | Laura Harris | Nathaniel Mackey | Alexander Moll | Fred Moten | Arjuna Neuman | Nat Raha | Nisha Ramayya | Wu Tsang | Ueinzz | Jackie Wang | Fernando Zalamea 

http://arika.org.uk/programming/episode-10-means-without-end 

Glasgow ARVR Meetup 

Everyone must sign up to attend by December 10th, unfortunately, anyone not signed up will not be admitted. 

Schedule: 

18:00-18:30 Networking 

18:30-19:00 Suzanne Lee, Immersive Scotland 2019 and Beyond 

19:00-19:30 Sarune Savickaite, Using Virtual Reality to understand individual perceptual differences 

19:30-20:00 Trying our XR experiences 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/glasgow-arvr-tickets-81382598543?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

IELAB Tech Update 

The main immersive tech news at the moment centres on the updates to the Oculus Quest. Oculus (part of Facebook) announced three major updates to the Quest offering: 

First, the Quest will soon be usable without any controllers at all. Already a wireless, sensor-less, system the Quest will now be able to track natural hand movements and gestures through the on-board cameras. The demo’s look exceptional! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VkO-Kc3vks 

Second, the Quest will shortly be able to harness a gaming PC’s graphical power. Whilst the largest benefit of the Quest is that it doesn’t *need* a PC, this announcement means that the graphical downside of this freedom can be overcome when needed. 

Third, Quest for Enterprise is now available. This is crucial for many projects as it allows us to put our own software onto Quest headsets (the standard consumer version is locked, like a PlayStation or similar). Not only can we load our own content, we can control all the content on our headsets from a single controller machine. This means that class or group deployment will be natively supported, and a vast array of new applications are now possible on the Quest. 

The consumer edition of the Quest costs £400 per unit. The Enterprise edition is $999 (with some on-costs). 

IELab Kit Pool 

The IELab has acquired a set of equipment which will be made available to the IELab community for use in research, teaching, or public events.  

Current Equipment: 

Ipad Air x 2  

Oculus Quest x2 

Leap motion system x2 

We can also facilitate access to 2x HTC Vives. 

Contact us (rachel.opitz@glasgow.ac.uk) to find out more.  

Immersive Experiences ArtsLAB at Glasgow (IELAB) - Newsletter #10 

The Tech Update (from Neil) 

No news is still news: The major tech event in this sector is CES (Consumer Electronics Show), which took place in January. The big news was that there was no really big news – no envelope-pushing new headset, no killer new functionality. This is in part due to the fact that Oculus announced their big news at their own  conference (a la Apple) in September, but it mostly due to the fact that we have reached something of a hardware plateau. 

The headsets we have at the moment are either standalone 3DoF (i.e. can’t move around) headsets, subtle variants on the PC-tethered 6DoF (can move around the room) version, or the Oculus Quest – the only genuine blend of 6DoF functionality and untethered (no PC). The Quest is clearly the benchmark for functionality, and the PC-tethered versions are clearly the visual quality option. It will take a great leap forward in technology to close that gap, so instead we get small incremental changes in the tethered hardware: slightly wider field of view, slightly higher resolution screens, gimmicky heat/cold simulators, slightly cleverer rendering by the graphics cards. 

I read this as telling us that the VR hardware ecosystem has somewhat stabilised. There will be competitors to the Quest soon, for sure, but the rest of the new advances will be incremental. In short: if the hardware is good enough for your purpose today, don’t wait because you are anticipating the next great iteration. If it is not good enough for your purposes today, it likely won't be for another year. 

Reminder: Fall 2019 IELab Events   

IELab Event: Sarune Savickaite - Using VR technology to understand inner world of autism 

When: 3 October 2019 - 15:00-17:00   
Where: 253, Main Building, University of Glasgow 

Sarune's research addresses the intersection of VR and research on autism.  

Global and local processing is part of human perceptual organisation, where global processing enables us to extract the ‘gist’ of the visual information and local processing helps us to perceive the details. Individual differences in these two types of visual processing have been found in autism (ASD) and ADHD. Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) test was selected for this study. Virtual Reality (VR) has become a more available method of research in the last few decades. No previous research has investigated perceptual differences using this technology. In this study, we investigated individual differences in local and global processing as a function of autistic and ADHD traits. ROCF was presented in the virtual environment and a standard protocol for using the figure was followed. A novel method of quantitative data extraction was used. Differences have been found in the standard scores of ROCF, however, no differences were observed between the conditions and participants scoring higher on ASD and ADHD questionnaires. Limitations of the study and implications of the novel methodology are discussed.  

You can read about Sarune's work on her website: https://www.sarune.info/.  

IELab Event: PhD Researcher Showcase with Francis Butterworth-Parr and Dana Little 

When: 7 November 2019  - 15:00-17:00  

Where: A504, Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow 

Tuned to a Dead Channel: Critical Immersion in Contemporary Literary Culture - Francis Butterworth-Parr 
Criticality and immersion have often been figured as mutually exclusive modes of reading and playing. When figured as such, the act of critically playing video games (understanding the interconnectedness of the game and gameplay with its cultural, historical and aesthetics contexts) and the act of being immersed in a video game are forked. This opposition serves two extant arguments that are anathema to video game criticism: that video games are essentially apolitical despite being representational, and that the video game form is incapable of drawing sophisticated interpretations from players. The former argument served to validate the misogyny of Gamergate, the latter argument erroneously linked violence in games to real violence such and contributes to video game addiction’s controversial induction into the WHO’s list of mental disorders. To correct this, my presentation will experiment with dissolving the negative relationship between criticality and immersion in video games through their representation in contemporary literary culture, using examples where novelists have explored these concepts to question have we may reckon with the immersive video game playing experience through criticality. 

Factions—hypertext fiction that builds worlds for story tourists - Dana Little 
Criticality and immersion have often been figured as mutually exclusive modes of reading and playing. When figured as such, the act of critically playing video games (understanding the interconnectedness of the game and gameplay with its cultural, historical and aesthetics contexts) and the act of being immersed in a video game are forked. This opposition serves two extant arguments that are anathema to video game criticism: that video games are essentially apolitical despite being representational, and that the video game form is incapable of drawing sophisticated interpretations from players. The former argument served to validate the misogyny of Gamergate, the latter argument erroneously linked violence in games to real violence such and contributes to video game addiction’s controversial induction into the WHO’s list of mental disorders. To correct this, my presentation will experiment with dissolving the negative relationship between criticality and immersion in video games through their representation in contemporary literary culture, using examples where novelists have explored these concepts to question have we may reckon with the immersive video game playing experience through criticality. 

See https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/artslab/labsandthemes/ourlabs/immersiveexperiences/ for details on these talks.  

Upcoming Community Events of Interest 

 
V&A Dundee Digital Design Weekend 2019 

When: Saturday 21st – Sunday 22nd September 2019, 10.30 – 17.00 

Where: V&A Dundee  

Details are available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/q0nvJ80O/digital-design-weekend-sep-2019 

ArtsLab Labs Showcase and Launch 

When: Thursday 26 September, 16.30–18.00 

Where: McIntyre Building, Room 201 

 A Lab is made up of a group of researchers with a common theme, methodology or topic of enquiry. The overall purpose of a Lab is to bring researchers together in productive groups to support high quality research, collaborative projects, grant applications, and knowledge exchange or impact activities. Each Lab, however, is different, with an emphasis on organic development and participation. There are now 10 Labs supported by ArtsLab, each offering different opportunities for working together with colleagues on topics of shared interest. Please come to the showcase, where you will hear from each Lab and celebrate the spirit of collaboration with some wine/soft drinks and nibbles! Registration for UofG staff:  https://hrportal.mis.gla.ac.uk/  

im/material event #3: VR, Immersion, and Narrative 

When: 4 October 2019, 14:00-17:00 

Where: Room 422/423 Sir Alwyn Williams Building, University of Glasgow 

Video games have long been used to tell stories, and the medium offers unique affordances for doing so. From the emergent narratives of titles such as Journey (thatgamecompany, 2012) and No Man’s Sky (Hello Games, 2016) to the meticulously crafted stories of Firewatch (Campo Santo, 2016) and What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017), games are often said to offer immersive and interactive storytelling opportunities. However, games also present unique challenges for storytellers, challenges that relate to these very same properties. 

Players, fully immersed in a game world with which they may interact at will, are empowered to wrest authorial control from the game’s designers and writers. The author of a novel may assume that the reader will encounter the story in the order intended, but this is not the case in a game where the player may explore the world at will. The director of a film may frame a camera shot to ensure that key narrative beats are granted the necessary on-screen prominence, but this is not a given where the player enjoys control over the in-game camera.  

For VR games, many of these issues are exacerbated, and further challenges and concerns begin to emerge. How immersive an experience can a VR game offer if the player character’s movement is limited to teleporting from one spot to another? Does current-generation hardware offer sufficient fidelity when it comes to interacting with the game world? Should we be concerned about the accessibility of VR, particularly as the technology begins to be used more widely in education? 

Details are available at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/immaterial/ 

Save the date: H2020 EMOTIVE public DEMO event 

When: 30th October 2019 

Where: Hunterian Museum, Main Campus building of the University of Glasgow 

EMOTIVE is a European Union-funded Horizon 2020 project which seeks to develop emotionally-resonant digital experiences for visitors at cultural heritage sites, with a particular focus on the unique - but curatorially very challenging - UNESCO World Heritage sites of the Roman Frontier display on the Antonine Wall at the Hunterian Museum in Scotland and the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. These experiences aim to allow on-site, off-site and hybrid (local and remote) forms of digital engagement, drawing on the power of storytelling, and seeking also to foster group/social interaction. 

The public demo event will be an opportunity for cultural and creative industry professionals and researchers to try out a range of the EMOTIVE experiences and prototypes created for these two cultural sites.  

Details at: https://emotiveproject.eu/index.php/2019/08/15/save-the-date-h2020-emotive-public-demo-event/ 

Sonica 2019  

When: Thu 31st Oct - Sun 10th Nov 

Where: Glasgow-wide.  

Sonica, produced by Cryptic, is an 11-day biennial festival 'dedicated to world-class visual sonic arts, presenting exceptional international artists alongside emerging UK talent in diverse venues, city-wide'. Sonica 2019 includes large-scale immersive audiovisual works from leading international and UK-based artists including Myriam Boucher, Kathy Hinde, Sabina Covarrubias, Alba Corral & Alex Augier. Full programme available at https://sonic-a.co.uk/ 

The Tech Update (from Neil) 

Vive Cosmos  

The latest VR headset to be announced is not a large step change in terms of the industry, but it is a curious hybrid option. The Vive Cosmos comes at a medium-high price of £699, sitting between the basic Vive and the Vive Pro, but outstrips both of them in terms of screen resolution. It has a handy flip-up hinge so getting temporarily in and out of VR is easier, and it is light and comfortable according to those who have had a sneak peak. The big change, however, comes in its ability to use inside-out tracking (like the Oculus Quest, or older Microsoft “Mixed Reality” headsets). This makes the device a fairly direct competitor to the Oculus Rift S – they both need a PC, but do not need sensors or beacons. Somewhat confusingly, the Cosmos can also use beacons in a standard Vive set-up, and the promise is that there will be modular enhancements rolled out in the future that vary its functionality further. This is unlikely to make significant waves in the market, or in what software becomes available. It simply fills a niche. 

Project Mobius 

The University is running an innovative and exciting VR teaching project called Mobius. Ten teaching apps are being developed alongside two physical teaching labs as part of the near-£1m project. In recent weeks an important tech breakthrough on the project was achieved: 15 people used HTC Vive Pro headsets simultaneously in the same room! It is crucial for the success of the project that we can use the lab for standard seminar or lab class sizes, and this 15-person set-up was the litmus test. Getting it to work is clearly exciting for the project, but it may also be a world first! When the lab has a permanent location, IELab members will be invited to come and familiarise themselves with this extraordinary assett within the College of Arts. 

Publications of Interest   

Books  

Zotter, F & Matthais, F. (2019). Ambisonics: A Practical 3D Audio Theory for Recording, Studio Production, Sound Reinforcement, and Virtual Reality. Springer. 

Fisher, P & Unwin, D. (2019) Virtual Reality in Geography (1st Edition). CRC Press (in press). 

Giannini, T. & Bowen, J. (eds.) (2019) Museums and Digital Culture: New Perspectives and Research. Springer. 

Geroimenko, V. (ed) (2019). Augmented Reality Games II: The Gamification of Education, Medicine and Art. Springer. 

Garner, T. (2018) Echoes of Other Worlds: Sound in Virtual Reality: Past, Present and Future. Palgrave. 

Bosworth, M. & Lakshmi, S. (2018) Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality (1st Edition). Routledge. 

Geroimenko, V. (ed) (2018) Augmented Reality Art: From an Emerging Technology to a Novel Creative Medium (2nd edition). Springer. 

Bucher, J. (2018) Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives (1st Edition). Routledge. 

Journal Articles  

Aydın, E. (2019). Enhancing Architectural Representations in 3D Virtual Reality: Building Denotative and Connotative Meanings. MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture E-Journal.  

Johnson, D; Damian, D; Tzanetakis, G. (2019) Evaluating the effectiveness of mixed reality music instrument learning with the theremin. Virtual Reality Journal.  

Layng, K; Perlin, K; Herscher, S. (2019) CAVE: Making Collective Virtual Narrative: Best Paper Award. Leonardo, Volume 52, Issue 4. 

Simó, Á (2019). Virtual Reality and Art: Concepts, Techniques, Past and Present. Arte y Políticas de Identidad, Volume 20. 

Tavinor, G. (2019) On Virtual Transparency. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume 77, Issue 2. 

Agnello, F; Avella, F; Agnello, S. (2019) Virtual Reality for Historical Architecture. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 01/2019, Volume XLII-2-W9 

IELab Kit Pool 

The IELab has acquired a set of equipment which will be made available to the IELab community for use in research, teaching, or public events.  

Current Equipment: 

Ipad Air x 2  

Oculus Quest x2 

Leap motion system x2 

We can also facilitate access to 2x HTC Vives. 

Contact us to find out more.  

Save the dates for Fall 2019 IELab Events! 

* 3 October 2019 - 15:00-17:00 - Sarune Savickaite  

Sarune's research addresses the intersection of VR and research on autism. You can read about Sarune's work on her website: https://www.sarune.info/. More details coming soon 

* 7 November 2019  - 15:00-17:00 - PhD Researcher Showcase with Francis Butterworth-Parr and Dana Little 

Tuned to a Dead Channel: Critical Immersion in Contemporary Literary Culture - Francis Butterworth-Parr  
 
Criticality and immersion have often been figured as mutually exclusive modes of reading and playing. When figured as such, the act of critically playing video games (understanding the interconnectedness of the game and gameplay with its cultural, historical and aesthetics contexts) and the act of being immersed in a video game are forked. This opposition serves two extant arguments that are anathema to video game criticism: that video games are essentially apolitical despite being representational, and that the video game form is incapable of drawing sophisticated interpretations from players. The former argument served to validate the misogyny of Gamergate, the latter argument erroneously linked violence in games to real violence such and contributes to video game addiction’s controversial induction into the WHO’s list of mental disorders. To correct this, my presentation will experiment with dissolving the negative relationship between criticality and immersion in video games through their representation in contemporary literary culture, using examples where novelists have explored these concepts to question have we may reckon with the immersive video game playing experience through criticality. 

Factions—hypertext fiction that builds worlds for story tourists - Dana Little 

FACTIONS—WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? 

Factions is an experimental, speculative thesis website (senate regulations pending). As an example of design fiction (a practice that proposes speculative future scenarios via a diegetic prototype and often narrated by an imagined artifact), the website is a satirical look at the transformative tech and human-computer interactions that represent the double helix mashup of facts and fictions permeating the Internet. 

My persona, an AI mystic called Wu, curates Factions and uses it to build a network of narratives through hypertext fiction—channeling various people, places, and things from literal to metaphorical ideas and ideals an advanced AI might come across while learning through social media. 

What hypertext fiction means as used in Factions: 

Factions works around the idea that hypertext fiction and specific forms of storytelling designed around digital modes of presentation, digital tools (tablets, laptops, mobile phones), call for different terminology and approaches. That is, when attending a play or watching a movie one is a viewer, when reading a book or a print news article one is a reader, when engaging with online content—hypertext loaded news features for instance—one is a user. I consider my use of hypertext fiction as a story and worldbuilding tool that transforms the ‘user’ into a tourist. Factions develops this theory. 

What hypertext fiction does not mean as used in Factions: 

Factions is not a game. By my definition of game, both play and competition are implicit or implied in the meaning. My usage of hypertext fiction in Factions is not to produce a particular outcome for the user—one is not a player or competitor. Just using the term user as opposed to player or gamer implies less competitive or even ‘fun’ play, more random interaction and personal escapade—further reasoning behind my redefining the user as a tourist while in Factions. 

In this hypertext fiction, I do not intend to lead the tourist to a specific or particular end—their voyage is an end in and of itself as the objective of the website, of the research, as the social media experience being participatory acts of worldbuilding. The term ‘acts’ as I intend it is tantamount to a performance and collaboration with the author—a conceptual conversation, not necessarily a debate to be won. 

FACTIONS CASE STUDY—BREXIT BINGO! 

HOWEVER—I do have a GAN sampler to explore machine learning as gaming. 

Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) are two neural networks competing in a zero-sum game as a machine learning training method. One of my side projects that both compliments and contradicts my thesis involves a satirical exercise using GAN, where two machines attempt to teach each other the meaning (and predict the ultimate outcome) of Brexit. After a brief tour of my website to illustrate uses of hypertext fiction storytelling, I will share a sample game from the GAN project—Brexit Bingo!—then introduce a new GAN game—Deconstruction!—in which two machines use this abstract to deconstruct my stated theory 

Upcoming Community Events of Interest 

 Ludic Literatre - The Converging Interests of Writing, Games and Play : 16-17th July 2019 

https://bdigra.org.uk/ludic-literature-the-converging-interests-of-writing-games-and-play

Ludic Literature’s purpose is to collide perspectives from contemporary literary writers and theorists; game studies theorists and video game developers to explore the essentially ludic element of constructing texts, be they games, literary productions or other works of art. 
 

Autonomy and Immersive Technology Workshop: 13 September 2019 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/autonomy-and-immersive-technology-workshop-tickets-64360435796 

This workshop will address questions around the issue of Autonomy and Immersive Technology. Sample questions in this domain might include whether any autonomy gained within VR genuinely valuable, whether the nudging that is possible through AR a step-change from existing varieties, and what the impact will be for non-users of AR/VR enhancements in a society where they are commonplace. 

Im/material Network Events 

The im/material network will be hosting events in Edinburgh, Glasgow and beyond in Fall 2019. Details coming soon at https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/immaterial/. 

The Tech Update (from Neil) 

Oculus Quest 

In previous newsletters I foreshadowed the launch of the Oculus Quest with some scepticism. I was sceptical that a standalone device, powered by a mobile-phone chip, could possibly replicate the experience you get when using a super-powered PC with a dedicated graphics card. (For comparison, the GeForce 1080Ti graphics card costs in excess of £1,000 on its own, has its own cooling system, requires an increased power supply, and is about the size and weight of a hefty dictionary. The processor in the Quest is smaller than your fingernail and is powered by a mobile battery.) 

Technically, I was not wrong: the apps have been heavily 'optimised' for Quest, rendering them less detailed and less realistic in textures, reflections, and the like. From an experience point of view, however, I was wrong. The Quest somehow offers a superb user experience despite its technical limitations. For the moment, anyone can get the console-style experience for £400 without the need of any PC or other device. That is extraordinary. Anyone wishing to load on their own apps, or engage in enterprise-level applications, will need to wait until the enterprise edition, costing £1,000, is released in late 2019. The phrase "Game Changer" can scarcely be overused in any domain as much as it is in relation to VR, but the Quest is deserving of the title. (Cost: £400 - £500 for Oculus Quest, consumer edition launched Spring 2019. Enterprise edition required for bespoke software, £1,000 due Autumn 2019) 

 
IELab Kit Pool 

The IELab is acquiring a set of equipment which will be made available to the IELab community for use in research, teaching, or public events.  

Current Equipment: 

Ipad Air x 2  

Oculus Quest x2 

Leap motion system x2 

We can also facilitate access to 2x HTC Vives and a multiple Oculus Go headsets.  

Contact us to find out more.  

Call for events and activities 

Have an idea related to VR/AR/XR technologies and research or teaching in the Arts and Humanities? Want to workshop your project plans, experiment with a group, or start a discussion on a new research area? Contact us (Rachel.Opitz@glasgow.ac.uk and Neil.McDonnell@glasgow.ac.uk) to discuss your idea and to organize an event for Fall 2019 as part of the Immersive Experiences ArtsLAB. Open to University of Glasgow staff and students, and to members of the community! 

Upcoming Community Events of Interest 

IM/MATERIAL EVENT #2 

PLAYING IN IM/MATERIAL WORLDS 

When: 13 May 2019  

Join us for a full afternoon of activities: 

14:00-15:00 - Guided tour of Abertay Digital Graduate Showcase 

Abertay Student Centre 

1. 00-16.00 Games and Immersive Showcase
2. 00-18.00 Panel Discussion

Hannah Maclure Centre Gallery 

Hannah Maclure Centre Cinema 

Where: Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay Student Centre, Abertay University 

(venue map:  https://goo.gl/maps/psgPm7EzpK42) 

Reserve your place at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/playing-in-immaterial-worlds-tickets-60117523130 or simply join us on the day. 

Games transcend material and immaterial worlds. We play with things, but also with imaginary things; we play in places, and also in imagined places. As immersive experiences become a part of how we play, how do our games and our practices of game design change? Experimental, playful and provocative approaches to game design can help us to rethink the intersection between material and immaterial worlds. 

The Playing in im/material Worlds event will be based around a series of questions including: How can best practices and theories from game design be used to frame and develop our understanding of immersive experiences? How are digital, immersive games designed for public spaces, and how can site-specific digital games make complementary use of material and immaterial objects? How do we approach storytelling using emerging immersive technologies? What opportunities for storytelling are afforded by the blurring between immaterial (virtual) and material (physical) worlds? 

Speakers: Robin Sloan, Simon Meek, Sandy Louchart, Mona Bozdog, Lynn Love 

Details at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/immaterial/#/events 

MAKING SENSE: EXPLORING ALTERED PERCEPTION THROUGH ‘NOTES ON BLINDNESS’ 

School of Culture & Creative Arts: Inclusive/Exclusive 

Date: Thursday 23 May 2019 

Time: 16:30 - 21:00 

Venue: Gilmorehill Halls, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ 

What can sensory loss tell us about how we perceive ourselves and the world around us? How can the interaction between art and technology help us see differently? Over an evening of interconnected events, this award-winning film and virtual reality experience provide a starting point to explore how we sense, and make sense of, the world, and to ask what lies at the borderline of physical and technological experience. 

Details and booking at: making-sense-notes-on-blindness.eventbrite.co.uk 

The Tech Update (from Neil) 

Oculus Rift S and Quest 

The much-anticipated pair of new headsets have now been launched, and will be shipping by the end of the month. Hands-on reviews are in and, for the Quest in particular, the news is good. They made a dubious sounding claim when they announced the Quest back in late 2018 – that it would be a “Rift-level” experience. This was saying, in effect, that they had managed to get a PC-level VR performance into a mobile unit. However far from PC quality they are in reality, the reviews that I have seen are overwhelmingly positive. It seems safe to say that we can now have high-grade (though highly curated/controlled) VR experiences anywhere(since no sensors or PC required), and for just £400. 

Valve Index 

In an increasingly crowded market of similar-ish VR headsets, the newly launched Index from Valve is notable for two reasons. First, it stands as a direct, and serious, competitor to the Vive Pro Systems, which HTC produce, but on which Valve are partners. That is curious. Second, it uses a fairly revolutionary way of delivering sound (detailed here) from off-ear headphones. This is a significant step for those interested in immersive sound, as it allows much more of the ear’s natural shape to contribute to the spatial quality of the sound. It also lets in more outside sound, which may be a demerit for some uses, but is likely a bonus when giving demos, or running classes, as instructions can still be heard. It is also reasonably priced at £919 for the kit (still needs a PC!) compared with the £1,299 for the Vive Pro. 

Upcoming IELab Event: 

Group VR and Immersive Theatre 

Speaker: Dr Julie Williamson 

Thursday 18 April, 2019, 15:00-17:00 

Wolfson Medical School - Gannochy Seminar Room (248) 

Upcoming Community Events of Interest: 

im/material event: Place and Performance - Virtual Encounters with Material Worlds 

15 April 2019, 16:00-18:00 

Kelvin Hall Lecture Theatre 

What impact will immersive experiences have on public space? Public places are where we interact with one another; where we gather to perform our daily social rituals, observe our neighbours, and interact. Our use of space is shaped by a range of organizational, aesthetic, and functional factors. The materiality of space overtly and subtly shapes our interactions with and within these environments. The impact which immersive experience will have upon our experience of places remains poorly understood. 

Understandings of the interplay between place and human behaviour is underpins a wide range of fields, from marketing to architecture to anthropology. This event brings together speakers from research and industry to focus on the key research areas and drivers related to place and performance. 

The im/material Place and Performance event will be based around a series of questions including: What happens when we introduce immersive technologies that add a new set of immaterial cues to public spaces? How do individual digital experiences, AR or XR experiences in public spaces affect interactions that have developed assuming a shared place-based context? Can immersive technologies and experiences be used to affect positive changes in public interactions? How might immersive experiences help us to understand social and performative uses of built spaces? 

Speakers: Stuart Jeffrey (Glasgow School of Art); Malath Abbas (Biome Collective); Catherine Clarke (School of Advanced Study, University of London) 

Moderator: Gareth Beale (University of Glasgow) 

Notes on Blindness 

SAVE THE DATE | Thursday 23 May & Friday 24 May 

The School of Culture & Creative Arts is partnering with the IE Lab and Computing Science to present a series of events on the idea of Perception in art and technology.  

Using as its starting point the feature film and VR experience Notes on Blindness (Middleton & Spinney, 2016) these events will explore the borderline between technological and physical experience, questioning how technology can best be used and developed to enhance our senses. 

Events will include: 

• A free, public screening of Notes on Blindness at 6pm on Thursday 23 May at the University of Glasgow’s Andrew Stewart Cinema, followed by a panel discussion. 
• An opportunity to try out the Notes on Blindness VR experience. 

• A practical, cross-disciplinary workshop exploring the technological enhancement of the senses on Friday 24 May. 

Full programme & booking information to follow. To register your interest please contact Casi Dylan, Cultural Activities Co-ordinator: casi.dylan@glasgow.ac.uk 

Ludic Literature: The Converging Interests of Writing, Games and Play  

This event is an interdisciplinary Scottish Graduate School funded symposium held at the University of Glasgow, taking place to redress the academic focus on the literary in video games. We invite you to explore how the process of writing and game design can be figured in their playful contexts – how the construction of these mediums can be seen as ludic, or playful, processes. Day two provides an opportunity for academic, literary, and game design communities to collaborate and produce a video game without sound, dialogue, or art, from material synthesised from academic, literary, and game design sources. This “literature jam” intends to produce multiple products distilled from the symposium’s interactions that will be made available to the public for free through Itch.io. Our goal is to start a conversation between academics and industry, and out of this conversation create tangible products that explore the convergences of video game and literary writing.

Technology News and Notes (from Neil McDonnell) 

Three major hardware announcements this time: 

A newcomer to the market – Varjo – has launched an extraordinary new VR headset, the VR-1. It promises 20x greater resolution than the best on the market today, and top-end eye-tracking. It will cost an equally extraordinary $5,999 for the headset, and $995 for the (essential) licence to use it in a commercial context. In last month’s update, I pointed out that the eye-tracking on the new Vive-Eye headset could allow for a leap forward for VR quality, buy enabling foveated rendering (rendering detail only where you are looking). That rendering technology still seemed futuristic, if only by a year or two, but the VR-1 has launched it in a product (albeit an exceptionally ‘premium’ one) just a month after Vive’s announcement. The usual ‘game-changer’ language has been used, but only by industry insiders. It uses the Vive system of trackers, and so comes will all the advantages/baggage of that system too. 

5G is a technology, like A.I., where the connections to VR/AR are assumed, but poorly understood. For web users on their phone or laptop, 5G will allow enormous bandwidth, even in crowded and built-up spaces. But for those working on autonomous vehicles, or VR/AR applications, it is the promised low-latency that is crucial. Latency is the delay in the signal getting from source, to your device (and back), which can be an issue for online gamers, but simply doesn’t matter for watching Netflix or reading the news in a browser. With low-enough latency, we can start to move to so-called ‘edge-computing’ where the processing that our phones or laptops can currently do, can be moved to server machines, instead of being done on the device itself. Outsourcing this processing power would allow phones to shrink dramatically to fit in AR-style glasses, even, but it may also allow us to use high-end computers to process the graphics we need in high quality VR. The crucial question for 5G is: is the latency going to be low enough? Telecoms giant AT&T believe the answer is ‘yes’ and have announced a series of demos to make the point. Watch this space. 

Drumroll please……  

The HoloLens 2 (HL2) has been announced and is available for pre-order now. Costing $3,500, it remains out of reach for consumers (HL3 is supposed to meet that need, and is expected around 2021). For the uninitiated, this is the original “mixed-reality” device from Microsoft. It promises a world of ‘holograms’ – virtual objects that are placed realistically in your world – via a wearable computer and headset. The first iteration (HL1) was a bit uncomfortable and clunky, and had an extremely limited field of view. Microsoft appeared to be overtaken when the much-hyped MagicLeap One which was launched to a restricted market in the US in 2018. ML1 offered better comfort and a wider field of view as well as a useful controller that the HL lacked. This announcement means that there is a genuine choice to make: HL2 has a better field of view than the ML1 (very important), and seems to be compatible with the bespectacled among us (important), but costs $1,250 more (quite important), and continues to rely on gesture processing instead of a controller (debatable). 

Upcoming IELab Event: Gareth Beale - Narratives in VR/AR 

Gareth Beale - Narratives in VR/AR 

Thursday, 6 December 2018, 14:00-16:00 

Gannochy Seminar Room 3 in the Wolfson Medical Building 

Narrative is central to any meaningful experience of art and media, but telling stories in immersive environments can be hard. This session will explore the convergence between immersive media and other media forms such as theatre, film and video games to think about how we might begin to design compelling narratives specifically for immersive environments. The session will draw upon Gareth’s ongoing research into the development of design principles for museum based immersive experiences. 

Tech News: 

Project Mobius Launched 

Project Mobius is an Innovate UK-funded collaboration between Sublime Digital, and the University of Glasgow. With a project cost of £977k, and funding of £717k, the project will use Virtual Reality technology to catalyse a transformation in education over three years, starting 1st October 2018. At the core of the project are ten distinct VR teaching apps (the result of an internal UofG ideas competition), covering topics from all four colleges of the University. Sublime will develop these apps, and the platform that they sit on, which will also enable an unprecedented level of (anonymised) data to be captured, and analysed, so we can better understand how students learn.   

The project will provide UofG hardware for 2 x VR teaching labs, each with a target capacity of 15 students. These labs will establish a teaching lab blueprint, and will enable the Alpha test phase for the software to take place in UG during academic year 2019/2020. The plan is then to roll the programme out to Beta test partner institutions in 2020/2021, before full global release for 2021/2022.

Oculus Quest Announced  

Oculus has announced a new standalone VR headset, the Quest, aiming to provide quality experiences, anywhere. 

This is not just an incremental update, it has the potential to be a step-change. To date,  ‘standalone’ headsets to date have been limited in the movement you can make (typically 3 Degrees of Freedom), but the Quest promises full “6DoF” movement, like the Rift or HTC Vive. To achieve this without the need for a PC would suggest a major sacrifice in terms of graphical fidelity, but again Oculus are claiming “Rift-quality” experiences. [Count me a sceptic of this particular claim.] Moreover, without external sensors, the best hand controllers we have had are small and basic wand-like sticks. The Quest will use the highly sophisticated “Touch” controllers from the Rift, which are about as nuanced and sophisticated as any on the market. 

Launching in Spring 2019, these VR systems will cost just $399! That is comparable to the cost of the Rift, for performance matching the Rift, without the need for sensors, and without the need for a £1,500+ computer. 

If accurate, this could significantly change the uses to which VR can practically be applied.

Community Events and Opportunities of Interest: 

Art of Possible: Home Smart Home  

December 11th 

https://tinyurl.com/y873bp32 

Commission: Out of Place 

Deadline: 17th December 

https://opportunities.creativescotland.com/opportunity/index/e2894b91-5794-4376-8b89-1b444a2681db 

Interdisciplinary Learning: Creative Thinking for a Complex World 

January 30th 

https://www.rse.org.uk/event/interdisciplinary-learning-creative-thinking-for-a-complex-world/

Upcoming IELab event: 

Narratives in VR/AR 

Gareth Beale, Thursday 6 December, 3-5pm 

WOLFSON MEDICAL SCHOOL 248 - Gannochy Seminar Room  

Upcoming events: 

Citizens of Nowhere 

https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/production/citizen-of-nowhere/ 

Art – Technology Collider Sharings  

Vision Building, Dundee 

Wed 7 and Thu 8 Nov at 4:30 

VR THEATRE 

Friday 9th November, 12 noon – 8.00pm 
Saturday 10th November, 12 noon – 8.00pm 

https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/past-performances/vr-theatre

(Part of the NEoN (North East of North) Festival 

https://northeastofnorth.com/programme/2018/) 

Funding Opportunity of Interest:  

The Practice Research Advisory Group (PRAG UK) invites expressions of interest for postdoctoral opportunities made available through funding from Research England 

** applications and enquiries should be sent to Tracy Banton, Secretary of PRAG-UK, t.banton@gold.ac.uk.  

Digital Systems and the Role of Technology in Practice Research - 175 hours@ £35 per hour, £6,125 

The first post-doctoral researcher will undertake a review into the way in which technology is used to capture the process of research for practice-based researchers. The review should consider the diversity of disciplines and working methods across art, music, design, composition, creative writing, performance, dance and movement and the intricacies of interdisciplinary . The post-doctoral research consultant will be expected to produce a scoping report and review of the functionality and usability of sector-wide digital systems currently being used within the community for supporting Practice Research, to provide a road map of the opportunities and challenges afforded by current digital systems, and to set out the characteristics and affordances for the design of a future system that could support the depth and breadth of Practice Research in the UK and further offer models for the sharing and dissemination of work nationally and internationally. 

Upcoming IELAB Event - this week:  

Join us this week for our first seminar of the IELAB series! 

Neil McDonnell will be speaking on The Value of Virtual Objects"  

Thursday 18 October, 3-5pm  

BOYD ORR 407 (Lecture Theatre A)  

Get Started Right:  

Read Neil's primer on immersive technologies hardware at: https://sites.google.com/site/neilmcdonnell/immersive-tech/immersive-tech-hardware 

Coming Soon: 

Be sure to check the new website of the IELAB at: https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/artslab/informationforstaff/immersiveexperiences/ 

for information on upcoming events and community resources.  

Community Events of Interest: 

Depiction, Pictorial Experience, and Vision Science Conference 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/depiction-pictorial-experience-and-vision-science-conference-tickets-50908796581?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

VR Networking 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vr-networking-tickets-50747658613?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

Games Insight: Gary Napper 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/games-insight-gary-napper-tickets-51107486869?aff=ebdssbdestsearch 

Have an idea for an event or activity?  

Contact us at Rachel.Opitz@glasgow.ac.uk or Neil.McDonnell@glasgow.ac.uk