Cain, Christine
(2024)
Exploring the potential of personalized VR bodily learning systems.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Remote learning, also known as web-based learning or eLearning, provides opportunities for skill development and knowledge transfer without the need for teachers and learners to be co-located. This mode of education became essential during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. It is a model which largely relies on video conferencing software. But because of the desktop metaphor that has been foundational in the design of mainstream technology since the 1970s, these solutions are optimized for sharing information that is best recorded and interpreted on paper, i.e. flat, 2D interfaces. Meanwhile, individuals who wish to remotely access resources for bodily disciplines such as dance or martial arts currently must rely on these offerings as well. While it is not impossible to learn and teach bodily practices through these modalities, bodily knowledge ultimately lives in and is shared through the body, of which language and 2D visuals only provide an approximate translation. This thesis argues that there is ample opportunity in human computer interaction design to create new models of remote learning specifically for bodily practices, and makes use of virtual reality (VR) as one of the potential technological bases to ideate new fit-for-purpose models. As a maturing technology which still has not been widely adopted, VR allows some breathing room from the legacy language and symbolism that current remote learning models are built upon. And most importantly, it affords more physical interactions, making it a suitable candidate for body-first design explorations.
Taking a practitioner-as-researcher approach, this thesis 1) seeks to understand the current practices of how bodily disciplinary knowledge is acquired and shared in situ}. The first study consists of one-on-one interviews with dance teachers and students. After thematic analysis of the collective responses, potential designs are explored which ultimately results in three interventions to be tested: Dance Tools, Energy Beast and Star-Stuff: a way for the universe to know itself, the last of which was used in collaboration with its creator. The second and third studies engage somatic connoisseurs to observe the way these tools are integrated into the process of communicating bodily knowledge. The first study was done with a group of soma design researchers, who were taught a staff-spinning technique, and the second study was done in a series of teacher-student pairs from a variety of bodily disciplines. The findings from these studies ultimately produce insights towards answering the main question of this thesis, 2) how can practice of bodily disciplines be supported with VR interventions?
Following a series of thematic analyses and first-person practitioner reflections, the thesis then argues how the standardized VR design aim of realism is not the most appropriate for bodily teaching and learning contexts, and how in some cases, less realism is more learning. It proposes three alternative design values: Authenticity, where the spirit of the practice is amplified instead of the realism of it; Subjectivity, the independent configuration of things and users within the environment to account for differences in individual perspectives rather than a singular objective environment; and Modularity, which calls for simplicity and versatility of features and hardware to empower users to personalize the intervention to suit their own purposes instead of an assumed configuration. Lastly, this thesis introduces a new methodology for self-reflective design, splitting yourself, which involves the development of two somaesthetic repertoires so practitioner-researchers may separate these identities and engage them in discourse, potentially producing more nuanced insights compared to previous forms of self-reflection through a singular subjectivity.
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