Making Sense of Space

The Design and Experience of Virtual Spaces as a Tool for Communication
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84334-740-8
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Technology

Buch, Englisch, 206 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 308 g

Reihe: Chandos Information Professional Series

The use of Virtual Worlds (VWs) has increased in the last decade. VWs are used for communication, education, community building, creative arts, and more. A good deal of research has been conducted into learning and VWs, but other areas remain ripe for investigation. Factors from technological platforms to the nature and conventions of the communities that use VWs must be considered, in order to achieve the best possible interaction between virtual spaces and their users. Making Sense of Space focuses on the background to these issues, describing a range of case studies conducted by the authors. The book investigates the innovative and creative ways designers employ VWs for research, performance-making, and audience engagement. Secondly, it looks into how educators use these spaces to support their teaching practice. Lastly, the book examines the potential of VWs as new methods of communication, and the ways they are changing our perception of reality. This book is structured into four chapters. An introduction provides a history and outline of important themes for VWs, and subsequent chapters consider the design of virtual spaces, experience of virtual spaces, and communication in virtual spaces.


- Written by two experienced academics and practitioners in the field, offering different perspectives
- Uses a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on: education; scenography; performance studies; disaster management; and computer science
- Provides multiple viewpoints on the topic, gained through interviews and contributions from a range of experts, as well as several co-authored chapters

Zielgruppe

Lecturers teaching in any discipline who plan to use virtual worlds as a space for learning activities; e-learning practitioners; developers of virtual worlds needing to gain a user perspective on their work; and students.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Childs, Mark

Kuksa, Iryna

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Digitale Medien, Internet, Telekommunikation
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Virtuelle Realität, Erweiterte Realität
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Interface Design, Interaktionsdesign, Application Design

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of figures
- Acknowledgements
- About the authors
- Introduction
- Part 1: Spaces, presence, realities. - Chapter 1: Remediating technology, translating experience, immersing in spaces - Abstract:

- A history of virtual spaces and definitions of basic terms
- Spaces in virtual and augmented reality: an explanation of the concept of telepresence and mixed reality
- Cultural use of cyberspace - paradigms of digital reality
- Remediation and translation: the different theoretical approaches adopted in this book
- Conclusion


- Part 2: Creating virtual spaces - Chapter 2: Virtual spaces - 'work-in-progress': software, devices and design principles - Abstract:

- Chapter 3: Art, history and culture in digital spaces - Abstract:

- Chapter 4: Theatre in the virtual day and age - Abstract:

- Conclusion
- Note


- Part 3: Experiencing virtual spaces - Chapter 5: Two models to conceptualize space - Abstract:

- Living in virtual spaces
- The experience of spatiality
- Emotional agency in virtual spaces
- The engagement of belief
- To Activity Theory and beyond

- Chapter 6: Other spaces, and other ways of making sense of them - Abstract:

- Entering into a world of make-believe
- Neither here nor there - the state of metaxis
- Passing between: crossing the threshold between realities
- More spin on the concept: the dichotomy between apparent and actual intent

- Chapter 7: First, second, third and fourth places - making extra sense of space - Abstract:

- Chapter 8: Virtual worlds in education - Abstract:

- The status of virtual worlds c. 2010
- Conclusion


- Part 4: Making sense of space - the practitioner perspective - Chapter 9: Moving towards the alien 'other'. - Abstract:

- Conclusion


- Part 5: Conclusion - Chapter 10: The future of spaces - physical or virtual? - Abstract:

- Digital to virtual: is cyberspace a space?
- Moving from physical to virtual: losses and gains
- Psychological and perceptual immersion in physical, virtual and augmented realities
- Learning in virtual worlds
- Communicating history in virtual worlds
- Communicating performance in virtual worlds
- Is the future 'phyrtual'?


- Glossary
- References
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Childs, Mark
Mark Childs is a Senior Research Fellow at Coventry University, UK, where he develops and researches online synchronous learning experiences and virtual collaborations, with 15 years experience in this field and work on over 30 educational technology projects. He holds a PhD on learners' experience of presence in virtual worlds, and his research interests include virtual collaboration; digital identity; embodiment; and telepresence. Mark also works as an independent educational consultant, conducting evaluation and writing on behalf of funding agencies, universities, private sector technology companies, and museums.

Kuksa, Iryna
Iryna Kuksa holds a permanent Research Fellowship in the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, UK. In her research, Iryna examines a suite of rapidly-developing communication and computer-visualization techniques, which enable reciprocal exchange between viewers, artefacts and spaces, and transform the way we experience, learn and co-create our culture. She researches immersive virtual environments, which are already an important aspect of current teaching and research, and promise enormous future potential for scholars in terms of understanding virtual ecologies and sustainability of virtual performance spaces.

Iryna Kuksa holds a permanent Research Fellowship in the School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, UK. In her research, Iryna examines a suite of rapidly-developing communication and computer-visualization techniques, which enable reciprocal exchange between viewers, artefacts and spaces, and transform the way we experience, learn and co-create our culture. She researches immersive virtual environments, which are already an important aspect of current teaching and research, and promise enormous future potential for scholars in terms of understanding virtual ecologies and sustainability of virtual performance spaces.

Mark Childs is a Senior Research Fellow at Coventry University, UK, where he develops and researches online synchronous learning experiences and virtual collaborations, with 15 years experience in this field and work on over 30 educational technology projects. He holds a PhD on learners’ experience of presence in virtual worlds, and his research interests include virtual collaboration; digital identity; embodiment; and telepresence. Mark also works as an independent educational consultant, conducting evaluation and writing on behalf of funding agencies, universities, private sector technology companies, and museums.

Contributors include: Siera Pierpoint and Yuang-Fang Chen