Pop-Up Reality Shop: Emotional Connection Within a Haptic-Digital Space

Abstract

Pop-Up Reality Shop is a collaborative research design project that was sponsored by Datacom Ltd, in the pursuit of discovering new hybridised methods of shopping. The team of four; Anita Chin, Linus Goh, Bevin Liang, and Ricky Tung journeyed into one year of investigating how to develop responsive forms of hybridised architecture. The focus was merging physical properties with virtual properties to create haptic-digital space of interactive shopping. This of which was done through the utilisation of Augmented Reality (AR) headset tools, to be able to merge these two realities together. With the aid of these AR headset tools a physical structure of 1:1 built nature was utilised to serve as the conductor of this hybridised space. The physical structure was a highly manoeuvrable and flexible framework which housed and controlled the virtual, like an alternative input device to control hybrid interactions in space. This inspires the reinvention of architecture and spatial experiences, towards a new interactive quality between the human and place. Embedded within the Research Lab for Spatial Digital Operations; arc/sec, the project ultimately aims to experiment, engage and explore spatialised hybrid forms of architecture. Therefore, Pop-up Reality Shop envisions new amalgamated methods of the shopping experience, which is best described as an in-between of an online shop and a physical store. The Pop-Up Reality Shop servted as a proof of concept research project, embarking on an experimental mode of practice by investigating within this new mixed medium. The project was sponsored to work within Auckland’s leading innovation hub for cutting-edge technologies; The AR/VR Garage. This of which helped serve as an incubator of understanding how Augmented Reality technologies can help formulate new architectural relationships. This thesis encourages unique, stimulating and enjoyable experiences through the journey of haptic-digital shopping. In the pursuit of developing a common hybridised interactive language and a syntax of space and how that can portray a sense of trust and emotional relationship between user and experiential space.