Dr David Evans Bailey

While online dating has been a method of meeting prospective partners for several years; immersive technologies are relatively new to this type of interaction. The first forays into immersive VR online dating have only just being made in the past year. The degree this type of technology will change the way that we date is potentially quite different from the current way that online dates are conducted. The way the technology works could make virtual dates seem as real as a physical date. Understanding how immersive technology functions gives some new perspectives into the future of online dating and also the impact on the digital economy.

While online dating has been a method of meeting prospective partners for several years; immersive technologies are relatively new to this type of interaction. The first forays into immersive VR online dating have only just being made in the past year. The degree this type of technology will change the way that we date is potentially quite different from the current way that online dates are conducted. The way the technology works could make virtual dates seem as real as a physical date. Understanding how immersive technology functions gives some new perspectives into the future of online dating and also the impact on the digital economy.

This paper introduces the concept of Synchronous Reality whereby a combined sensory physical and virtual installation is created. The research is presented examining how the practice work evolved to establish the concepts which make up a Synchronous Reality installation. The research ultimately focused on creating a sensory landscape to complement the virtual layer of the installation, thus making a coherent whole which encompasses Synchronous Reality. The findings and conclusions indicate that this type of installation can increase the immersive quality and presence for the participant. The important considerations when making such an installation are also presented. The paper also touches upon a brief examination of the wider issues of how immersive virtual reality affects the digital economy and telecommunications.

This practice-led research reanimates my own place-based memories; placing participants in an immersive installation to conjure sensorial recollections, both physical and virtual. Visual, aural, kinesthetic, tactile and olfactory perceptual encounters draw the audience into memories of particular interior spaces past. The research asks how personal experiences, in particular intimacy and solitude, can be evoked and intensified in a virtual space, over a duration of time. The term Synchronous Reality was developed to describe the simultaneity of multiple spaces and temporalities in a coherent virtual and physical installation that generates poetic-sensory interactions. Through a series of installation events using the HTC Vive technology in gallery, lab and theatrical sites, I have explored the feeling of ‘being there’, through embodied experience. The primary methodology is autoethnographic, including creative stages of self-reflection, diaristic entries, photography and animation. I consider the kinds of intensive art experiences that can be generated through emergent VR technologies, at the interface between physical objects and virtual rooms, or psychological landscapes. The confined interior of a caravan has become a key figure where virtual objects conjoin with their physical counterparts in an installation form. The research has expanded to consider whether a sense of intimacy could also be fostered in audiences to bring about a connection with their own past. Through focus groups and interviews this study investigates whether a recreated, personal memory in an immersive artwork could also resonate with participants and, in turn, allow them to recall their own place-based narratives. Philosophers explored by the practice suggest that we can relive our daydreams; synchronous reality in art practice indeed revives my own memories, yet the research also indicates that embodied, durational encounters with virtual spaces can evoke place-based memories in others

What if one could build a virtual world with effective open borders, in a consensual and cooperative way? The Virternity project proposes a benign and positive outlook to the future of humanity’s adventure into the virtual realm and the increasing mergence with the digital world. There is perhaps a sense of inevitability about the move towards a future where humans span both the physical and digital world. Seen as a whole, the Virternity project is an encompassing idea, its aims and goals are by no means small in intention or in scope. What is or is not achievable may not be answered in this book but certainly, this is an attempt to address the challenges that lie ahead with reference to current developments and similar endeavours that are already in existence. What the reader may elicit from this book is the potential of the ideas that the Virternity project has expressed and that much of what is proposed is certainly possible or may be in the future.