Abstracts Anthropology

Through the wardrobe : exploring the potential of headset augmented reality to provide a Thirdspace immersive media experience

by Rob Eagle

This research investigates the potential in employing headset augmented reality (AR) for interactive documentary when the contributors are collaboratively involved in the production process. This research has grown out of the intersection of interactive documentary (incorporating methods from documentary production more broadly), immersive media studies, gender studies and social and visual anthropology. The research explores how headset AR invites a complex interaction amongst the immersant, the physical objects of a place, the physical affordances of the device and the virtual content that is activated. Headset AR affords a porous 'diegetic bubble' that integrates multisensory stimuli with physical and virtual elements in a storyworld. Presenting marginalised voices in a headset AR documentary can facilitate a Thirdspace, a hybrid space where physical materiality and virtual media come together simultaneously offering potentially radical and transformative ways of understanding and experiencing the world. To investigate the use of AR headsets for interactive documentary, I conducted research through dialogically engaging with both practice and theory. The research has been practice-based through the process of developing, iterating and exhibiting a headset AR documentary installation, Through the Wardrobe. The production process involved the collaboration of four nonbinary/genderqueer contributors. In addition to contributing their stories, they participated in the processes of interaction design, installation and exhibition of the work. Feedback from immersants also dynamically shaped the iterative process of exhibiting the installation. Both this written thesis and the resulting practice output, the headset AR installation Through the Wardrobe, demonstrate the rigour in my practice-based research.