Creating AWE: Artistic and Scientific Practices in Research-Based Design for Exploring a Profound Immersive Installation

The paper describes AWE (2018), an immersive mixed and virtual reality installation designed to elicit feelings of awe and wonder. Experiences of awe are found to prompt feelings of interconnectedness and an improvement to perceived well-being. To address the challenging prospect of designing for a specific emotional experience in a wellness application, we combined artistic and scientific practices through a research-based design process in order to identify awe-inspiring traits, generate a typology of awe, identify emotion validation techniques, and undertake iterative prototyping of the installation directly with participants. The resulting installation integrates a pre-VR mixed-reality experience to prime immersants for openness to the experience, followed by an immersive VR environment, and it uses a novel, custom interface for intuitive hands-free navigation. Our methods involve phenomenological interviews and physiological sensors to evaluate the evoked emotional experiences, which then inform design decisions to improve the system. Additionally, we integrate bio-responsive elements into the environment to further personalize the experience. Results suggest that AWE can elicit the target emotional experience of awe, prompt a transformative experience, and improve well-being in some participants.