Creativity in Virtual Reality

Update 12/05/2020: A paper on the “Movement and Creativity” module has been published in the journal Thinking Skills and Creativity. You can access the paper here.

Overview

In the summer of 2019, I did a research internship at the Laval Institute, Arts et métiers, France. Under the guidance of Prof. Simon Richir and Dr. Sylvain Fleury, I worked on a range of VR-related projects. These are briefly described below (followed by a video overview as well):

1. Movement and Creativity

We explored the effect of visual peripheral motion on creative performance. Virtual Reality presented a unique opportunity to design an environment where it was possible to separate the effect of visual motion and physical motion. I helped develop the train environment that we used to run the experiment - one that compared creative performance when participants were present in a stationary train, or a moving one.

2. Interactions for VR Creativity Support Tools

Time2Sketch is an in-house collaborative 3D Drawing VR application designed by the engineers at Arts et métiers Laval. I helped design and prototype new forms of interactions for the software, in order to make better use of the affordances of Spatial movement and the VR controllers.

3. VR Experience Dashboard Design

I designed and developed a control panel for a VR Experience on the ‘Future Cities of France’. The control panel was to help exhibitors decide what to show potential viewers, and when to trigger various events to better match the corresponding explanations.


A quick video overview of all of these modules can be viewed below.