Singularity: A live study into human interaction environmental responsiveness of haptic-digital spaces

Abstract

With an exponential increase of interest and developments in the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality sector, new forms of immersive environments emerge from the concept of Hyper-Reality – the combined reality of the physical and virtual world. Humans have a heightened sense of how we can interact and explore the world, causing a demand for immersive technologies to facilitate interactions and collaborations in relation to the real-world. This new generation of interfaces focus on the idea of Tangible Data – embodying digital information with physical properties. With this emergence of augmented Hyper-Reality, new possibilities of how humans could interact with the built environment arise. Through the construction of a haptic-digital environment, SINGULARITY is both the outcome and investigation into the concept of tangible data and how users interact and navigate within this new form of augmented Hyper-Reality. SINGULARITY is a multisensory and immersive environment that allows large three-dimensional holographic constructions to be seen without the use of any additional viewing devices. Combining a motion tracking system, a live game rendering system and multiple projectors illuminating fog particles, a haptic-digital space is created allowing seamless transitions between pixel and volumes, reacting to the user’s movement and surrounding environment in real-time. SINGULARITY is a team project with Ying Miao embedded in the arc/sec Digital Spatial Operations lab, exploring time-based architectural design, where digital information is given physical form and spatial appearance. My investigations are programming for user interaction and the responsive environment, and Ying into digital materiality and construction. This thesis is a live study into human interaction within a responsive environment. Comprised of two public performances, HyperSpace 2.0 and SINGULARITY, this is also an interdisciplinary project with collaborations across faculty with the Dance and Music Department. Exploring technology, digital spatial information, and human-computer interaction, this thesis is an open-ended exploration into how to design for user interaction within a haptic-digital environment.