In May 2019, I presented a body of research titled “An Empirical Inquiry into the Affective Qualities of Virtual Spatial Enclosures in Head Mounted Display driven VR Systems: The Logic at Work Behind the Magic of Space” at the 7th eCAADe Regional International Symposium held at Aalborg University, Denmark. The paper is based on a body of research conducted at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. You can read the abstract below:
“This research is an inquiry into the correlations between specific formal parameters of virtual spatial enclosures in HMD driven VR systems, and corresponding emotional responses in subjects. The experiments comprised of three sets of formal parameters – size of openings, enclosure volume, and length:width ratio. The emotional attributes tested were Valence and Arousal. Immersive virtual environments depicting enclosures with changing values of these parameters were presented to 50 subjects through a head mounted VR gear. Responses were recorded in the form of affective appraisals using a scaling system based on the Self Assessment Manikin, and were plotted on the Circumplex Model of Affect. The results revealed that the parameter of Arousal strongly correlated with the illumination levels (wall:window ratio) within an enclosure, and did not correlate independently with any other parameter. Peak Valence values corresponded to a wall/window ratio of .03 an enclosure volume of 70 cu.m and a length:width range between 1:1 and 1:1.5. The golden ratio was not rated favorably. Differences in volume between very large enclosures were not perceptible. The appraisal of spaces was also found to be consistently affected by preceding spaces.”
Read the full paper here.
You can find the link to the full publication here.