NUMB - exploring emotionally charged interactions to motivate reflection on non-fiction topics

Elin Festøy

This PhD project in artistic research by Elin Festøy, research fellow at The Norwegian Film School, Innlandet University College, is situated in the field of interactive experiences. Festøy explores how emotionally charged interactions can be used to build trust and communicate non-fiction topics in a way that is more likely to motivate empathy and change. The artistic exploration consists of a consecutive row of conceptual VR experiences. The reflections turn to the role of freedom and agency in interactive experiences and how these can help build a trusting relationship between creator and participant.

I chose the VR medium and the research question “How can adults look at a child and see an enemy?” as the starting point for this artistic research project. The goal is to build on the experience I have gained of designing meaningful, emotionally charged interaction while using the most expressive and most immersive medium to date. The aim is to help the participants exploring the VR experience to understand how such a bias is created and spread, so that they might prevent the development of similar social mechanisms in the future.

Since we started in 2018, this artistic exploration has led to the development of four consecutive VR concepts.

These four concepts can be studied in more detail under the cloches on the kitchen table.

The development process has taken place over a five-year period that has also seen a rapid development and maturing of the VR medium, which in part can be recognised in the concepts.

My experience of the developments within VR and interactive experiences can be studied in the text “Interactive Experiences” in the library.

The following texts describe the evolution of my thinking while working on these concepts, with an epilogue summing up the explorative development process.

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