LABoral Centro de Arte presents a research on educational tools based on aumented and virtual reality
The project ‘Sonido, espacio, inmersión e interacción’ has been developed by the collective Arsgames –in residency at LABoral in 2015- and has been funded by Grupo de Mecenazgo Expandido. The results are interaction tools that will be put at the disposal of schools in the region and can position Asturias as a reference in the labour and education fields.
Image courtesy of the artists
Sonido, espacio, inmersión e interacción is a research project based on the development of several virtual environments to explore the various levels of reality through the interaction of users with the physical spaces, augmented reality and the virtual worlds. The project has been developed in close collaboration with the collective ArsGames and LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, since October 2015.
As a result of this research, several resources based on innovative methodologies have been developed that could position Asturias as a reference in the fields of labour and education, as they are open applications for students, teachers and other stakeholders may work jointly.
In search of new ways to deploy these technologies, Arsgames has worked with these tools -throughout the school year- with IES Barredos and C.P. Granda. This project is related with future areas of research to adapt these technologies to various formats and contexts in order to implement the work lines of the fablabs and medialabs into educational centres of diverse nature.
Through the integration of elements of our everyday life such as the urban space, a reflection is made upon the potential and dimension of the access and interaction with the virtual world, using emerging devices such as HMDs (Head-Mounted Display) and MSIDs (Motion Sensing Input Device). This results into a scenario where the virtual space, in a feedback loop with the physical space, is set up as a place for the expression of students, who develop their creative potential and have the chance to experiment with this environment through arts, while boosting their ability to generate ideas.
Here, artistic disciplines such as dance, performance, interactive painting, generative and digital art, or even music (including sound landscapes), find a meeting point thanks to touch-screen technologies and augmented and virtual reality, in a feedback process where many stakeholders take part: Teachers, students, artists, engineer, etc.
Sonido, espacio, inmersión e interacción is aimed at re-defining the educational arena using technologies such as virtual and augmented reality or IR-based movement sensors. The implementation of this type of technologies results in new dynamics of relating with the space and the information, boosting research on experimental and innovative methodologies.
The project integrates the following technologies:
-HMD or virtual reality glasses. The Oculus Rift DK2 are used at experimental level for immersion experiences. Several virtual environments developed ad-hoc to research its educational applications.
-Augmented reality applications. It consists of using the elements of the physical space as interconnected experiences with the virtual space.
-Light or IR based devices for detection, such as Kinect or Leap Motion. Body and hand movement is analysed to explore the potential of these devices to perform experimental activities in the educational context, such as generative sound composition or sculpting.
-Future research is planned to explore the use of biometric devices and wearables that register brain activity, for its experimental use with educational purposes and its implementation in learning environments.
Sonido, espacio, inmersión e interacción is part of the programme Mecenazgo Expandido, dirrected by Alicia Ventura, with the collaboration of Colección ACB, Julián Castilla, Tanalot 98 and Mariano Yera. It is a collaboration model that involves a group of private collectors and is considered a new paradigm in the support of artistic creation and cultural funding in public spaces.
Arsgames: Merging art, science, technology and education
Arsgames is cultural association devoted to video-games the educational, cultural, economic and artistic aspects of video-games. It is a pioneer reference in the field of Game Studies, Game Art and video-games in Spain. It has organised events, developed projects related with video-games, collaborated with many artists, researchers, academic institutions, art centres and prestigious firms in Europe, Asia and America. Over the last years Arsgames has successfully organised festivals (Arsgames 2009) exhibitions (Pasado y presente del videojuego en español), workshops and round tables (Open ARSGAMES-Mondopixel; PlayLab), educational projects (Gamestar(t)) and conferences (6th International Conference in Philosophy of Computer Games).
Arsgames has hosted artists and researches from many internationally recognised institutions and has collaborated with many collectives and prestigious research institutions. This collaboration has resulted in several projects that combine art, science, technology and education.
