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The Immersive Experience of OSMOSE: An Audience Study |
| Description and Overview |
| <Artwork Details and Structure | <Study Details | <Example Results |
KEYWORDS
: IMMERSION, OSMOSE and AUDIENCE This study was made possible through a research grant from the Hexagram Institute in summer 2002. The Immersive Experience of OSMOSE is a project in the Hexagram Research Axe: Immersive Environments, Virtual Reality and Audience. I would like to thank Char Davies for graciously giving me access to study her artworks and the staff and administration of the John Curtin Gallery at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth Australia, for their help and support during my research stay there. |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION : It is still unknown what impact virtual reality (VR) experiences may have on the imagination and on the development of human consciousness. To date, VR technologies have seen relatively widespread applications in education, research and medicine, therapy and rehabilitation, business and design and—especially—entertainment. On the other hand, very little investment has been made in VR applications that are designed to promote imaginative skills such as aesthetic sensitivity, absorption, recall of dreams, artistic creativity, or emotional insight. This lack parallels an equally important lack of research into fundamental questions about the effects of VR experiences and their impact on the audience of them. The VR works of Char Davies are uniquely different from all other VR applications in that they are designed specifically to facilitate processes of the imagination. Davies, founder and president of Immersence Inc,“ has produced two different virtual art worlds of this type (Osmose and Ephémère), and shown them in museums to over 20,000 individuals worldwide. The large majority of participants undergoing a visit to the work describe the experience as enriching, thrilling, inspiring, even rapturous. OSMOSE, the first of Davies’ works, will be examined in this pilot study for its effects on the user/audience/participant and their imaginative processes. This is a unique and timely project, since Davies’ works have not been studied in this way until now. The works were on exhibition in Perth, Australia (in September 2002). A preliminary audience impact assessment was conducted in Perth (2 weeks). From the resulting response questionnaire data, a longer scientific study, using a dedicated immerfsive display system will be designed and carried out in Montreal over a period of 12 months using individual subjects and audience evaluation techniques (this extended study is not yet funded or included in this project). |
RELEVANCE TO AXIS AND TO HEXAGRAM: IMMERSION, OSMOSE and AUDIENCE is a major audience evaluation component of the Immersive Axe. It is the first formalized research on these two VR works. It is an important collaboration with an internationally renowned Montreal VR artist (Davies) and the foundation for further collaboration in immersive VR research. It combines the artist with the researcher, the basis of Hexagram, in a first of its kind synergetic project. Future audience evaluation projects for the Axe will develop from the outcome of this project. The results of this project will also contribute to the now small body of knowledge on the effects of artistic immersive virtual environments on the user, audience/participant. |
ARTWORK (OSMOSE) OVERVIEW Osmose is an immersive virtuality artwork designed in 1994-1995 by Montreal artist Char Davies. It premiered in Monteral in 1995 at the ISEA’95 Conference where it was exhibited at the Musee d’art contemporain. It has also been on exhibit at the National Gallery in Ottawa, in London England, at the MOMA in San Francisco, in New York City and in Mexico. To date, over 20,000 individuals have been immersed in Osmose and many more have viewed it as an audience group. Many immersants have returned to experience it again at another exhibit. It has won international acclaim, awards and recognition as a ground-breaking Virtual Reality artwork unlike any other in the world. |
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