The Challenges of Visual-Kinaesthetic Experience
Paul Tennent, Joe Marshall, Brendan Walker, Patrick Brundell, Steve Benford · 2017
Virtual reality experiences typically isolate the user from the real world. Notions of immersion are conventionally associated with the idea of convincing users that they are in another place, disassociated from physical reality. Given the user is however situated in that physical reality, kinesthetic bodily sensations often conflict with the virtual reality. In this paper we seek to elucidate the challenges associated with developing Visual-Kinaesthetic Experiences - experiences which provide related visual and kinaesthetic spectacle. Rather than use complex motion platforms, we submit here that physical reality is replete with interesting kinaesthetic experiences, which may be repurposed by the application of new visuals to create engaging hybrid experiences. We approach this by describing the development and deployment of Oscillate - a virtual reality experience that takes place on a swing, using it as an example to draw out what makes such experiences intrinsically interesting, and to construct three design challenges for this space.