Asymmetric Reframed Reality Hackathon

& Co-Creation Workshop

4–6 November | Caroline Graveson Building, Goldsmiths

(Recruitment is now open — click “Join the Hackathon” below to take part! )

Goldsmiths SEE VR Lab will host a 48-hour interdisciplinary hackathon at the School of Computing’s new hub in the Caroline Graveson Building, as part of the Asymmetric Reframed Reality (ARR) research project led by King’s College London.

Background

We invite you to be part of the first exploration of a new concept in immersive experience – Asymmetric Reframed Reality (ARR).

ARR draws on the powerful psychological concept of Reframing, which is used in cognitive behavioural therapy. It changes how an experience is interpreted to achieve a different emotional response to the same physical event. An extreme stretch of a body part, for example, might feel like discomfort in one context and an achievement in another. Immersive technologies can change the perceptual scene (most usually using visual displays and haptics), and so can provide a potent means to achieve reframing in real time. However, the dominant immersive technologies of today focus on distancing the user from their actual surroundings, either by completely substituting something else (most VR) or by adding extra content (most AR).

Our aim is to enable people to cooperate together in a shared activity, yet at least one of them to perceive it totally differently. Specifically, we invite you to explore how to achieve a change in an aversive situation which requires cooperation and participation, for example, undergoing a painful medical procedure, so that it is perceived positively by everyone involved. Importantly, we seek not to simply distract the person with a sufficiently powerful stimulus or scenario, as this takes them away from present reality. Instead, we want to explore ways to remain present, engaged, and able to cooperate in a shared interaction, whilst at the same time completely changing the perceived experience so the emotional response is the opposite of expectations.

The challenge of ARR is to achieve replacement and congruency at the same time – the immersive world should be different from the real exchange going on, in order to achieve reframing, yet crucially needs to remain precisely aligned with it, so that the subject can continue to participate without loss of presence.

Your Hackathon Challenge

In this hackathon you will be part of pioneering the new medium of ARR. The challenge you will address is to design and prototype an immersive or spatial experience that gives a real physical interaction a new meaning. The reframing could be from negative to positive perception for one person or a contrast in perceptions of the same interaction for two or more people. You are invited to explore your own approaches to reframing, with example design directions and inspiration provided as starting points for exploring different possibilities.

We will provide VR headsets and a selection of haptic devices for use during the event.

Registration for Students and Participants

You can register individually or with people you already know, in teams of 1–4 people. If you sign up on your own, we’ll help match you with other participants to form a team. Please bring your own laptop and preferred development tools. Lunch and refreshments will be provided during the hackathon.

Final deliverables will include a 1-minute video and a 5-minute presentation. A working demo or prototype is optional but highly encouraged and will be taken into strong consideration during judging. Teams will be supported throughout the hackathon by mentors from Goldsmiths, King’s College London, and invited artists and creative practitioners.

The Hackathon brings together people from creative, technical, research, and clinical backgrounds to explore how immersive and spatial technologies can reframe unpleasant physical experiences in more positive ways. Students, researchers, clinicians, artists, designers, developers, and early-career professionals are all welcome.