Communicating slow, invisible environmental processes such as corrosion remains challenging in public contexts. We explore how smell can function as a creative design material in a multisensory VR experience for science communication. Using Research-through-Design (RtD), we developed and iteratively refined a 5-minute VR experience across co-design, prototyping, and public deployment. Olfaction was introduced as an embodied layer to translate imperceptible chemical processes into experiential form. Findings from a festival deployment with 73 participants show that smell enhanced immersion and memorability for some users but was perceived inconsistently and often amplified already salient visual moments. We characterise smell as an unruly material due to variability in perception, diffusion, and context, and contribute an RtD account of multisensory VR design for science communication, outlining implications for designing with olfaction in public settings.

‘zones of flow (iv)’ is an interactive immersive audiovisual installation designed to be experienced horizontally, while people are sandwiched between flows: a projection featuring water surfaces and reflections (above), a fully functioning waterbed (below), and stereo sounds (around). Visitors are invited to lie down on the waterbed and use their bodies and hand gestures to self-regulate the flows of moving images playing above them, and the surrounding sounds. The media presented in the installation brings snippets of the landscape indoors through field recordings and moving images featuring water and flows. With their bodies, people move the water that gently enwraps them underneath, and with their hands (through pressure and proximity sensing) they control and self-regulate their audiovisual experience (see https://vimeo.com/844939019, 2:54min video documentation).

Location-aware mobile guides are a popular technology for enhancing the experience of heritage walks in historical outdoor sites. Smartphones, as typical mediums for such systems, have been criticised for limiting users’ opportunities for embodied engagement with the environment. In this work, we investigate how display technologies beyond the traditional personal mobile screen can facilitate embodied experiences during outdoor heritage walks. To do this, we revisit the use of portable projected displays as a medium that allows us to explore the effects of overt and blended displays in this context. We conducted a study with 42 participants on an outdoor heritage walk, using two display modalities: smartphone and projected display. We discovered that besides the display modality, users’ attitude toward technology, their embodied relationship with the device, and incorporation of spatial aspects in interaction play a key role in generating engagement and shaping the experience of heritage walks.

“zones of flow (iii)’’ is a photo-sensitive installation that investigates the fluid and changing connections between people, sea and land. It addresses the instantaneous but sometimes asynchronous connectivity between things as they move, are placed or displaced in their environments. The artwork brings origami structures, electronics and audiovisual media together to create an immersive cogitative environment. A video projection depicting water surfaces is mapped onto a 2.5m paper-boat. Underneath, arrays of light sensors receive waves of information and send signals to small paper-boats scattered across the floor. As the flotilla of small paper-boats is activated it becomes a changing water surface where non-linear patterns emerge over time.

Auditory interfaces offer a solution to the problem of effective eyes-free mobile interactions. In this article, we investigate the use of multilevel auditory displays to enable eyes-free mobile interaction with indoor location-based information in non-guided audio-augmented environments. A top-level exocentric sonification layer advertises information in a gallery-like space. A secondary interactive layer is used to evaluate three different conditions that varied in the presentation (sequentialversussimultaneous) and spatialisation (non-spatialisedversusegocentric/exocentric spatialisation) of multiple auditory sources. Our findings show that (1) participants spent significantly more time interacting with spatialised displays; (2) using the same design for primary and interactive secondary display (simultaneous exocentric) showed a negative impact on the user experience, an increase in workload and substantially increased participant movement; and (3) the other spatial interactive secondary display designs (simultaneous egocentric, sequential egocentric, and sequential exocentric) showed an increase in time spent stationary but no negative impact on the user experience, suggesting a more exploratory experience. A follow-up qualitative and quantitative analysis of user behaviour support these conclusions. These results provide practical guidelines for designing effective eyes-free interactions for far richer auditory soundscapes.

Lichtsuchende is an interactive installation, built using a society of biologically inspired, cybernetic creatures who exchange light as a source of energy and a means of communication. Visitors are invited to engage with the installation using torches to influence and interact with the phototropic robots. The embodied algorithms give rise to emergent behaviours with communicative and emotional resonance, allowing a duet between the humans and the cybernetic beings.