Revealing the Umwelt Through Transformative Sites
-umwelt : (n) “the world as it is experienced by a particular organism”-
MIT Architecture - 4.s52 Affective Computing class
Development: December, 2022
Concept: Merve Akdogan, Crystal Griggs
Time: February 2023 - current
Role: EEG, GSR data visualization, research, case-study, spatial sound design
Instructor: Prof. Takehiko Nagakura, Guzden Varinlioglu
The way environments are represented and experienced are highly humancentric, ignoring primary users of sites that are non-human. We look towards new forms of representation and immersion that takes on the concept of the umwelt. Point cloud models as a representational tool has the potential to engender new forms of awareness in both quantitative and qualitative terms about landscapes in peril. With immersive technologies like VR, we can gain the ability to experience other perspectives and design a multispecies world.
Research questions:
How does non-human player movement and navigation translate to EEG?
Does a background in immersive technologies and/or gaming have an influence on how comfortable a player is able to move around?
How do players make decisions on their path through drawing and moving with their bodies?
How big of a role does locomotion play in virtual exploration?
Does the idea of the umwelt come across through point cloud representation and non-human navigation?
Subjects:
This study is planned to include a sufficient number of both gamer and non-gamer participants to provide comparisons in designed VR environment using EEG measurements. The only comparison between people are made based on this information.
