Abstract

Sensory misalignments such as when one can see something but cannot touch or smell it, or can see a movement that is not felt kinesthetically, are typically seen as problematic for immersive experiences, breaking the illusion of presence and even leading to sickness. I will draw on two touring virtual reality installations – Matt Collishaw’s Thresholds and Brendan Walker’s VR Playground to explore both the challenges and opportunities of sensory misalignment.

In the case of the former, I will explore how the careful design and staging of an installation can help align the senses. In the case of the latter I will reveal how deliberate misalignment of the senses can deliver powerful sensations of thrill. I will draw on these examples to challenge established notions of ‘thereness’ and ‘hereness’ that dominate current thinking about immersive experiences to instead consider them in terms of using technologies to mediate (mis)alignments between the different senses.

Biography

Steve is Professor of Collaborative Computing in the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham where he directs the Horizon ‘My Life in Data’ Centre or Doctoral Training. He previously held an EPSRC Dream Fellowship, has been a Visiting Professor at the BBC and was elected to the CHI Academy in 2012.