Current Directions
A second major direction develops around spectatorial VR, a concept describing immersive works that are experienced primarily through watching and inhabiting an authored space rather than navigating a game, completing a task, or manipulating a simulated environment.
Spectatorial VR includes immersive films, VR180 and 360-degree video, spatial documentaries, artistic environments, and other works in which spectatorship remains central. These experiences may contain interactive elements, but their primary structure is organized around perception, attention, duration, sensory engagement, and the viewer’s relationship to an authored environment.
Through research, filmmaking, curation, and exhibition, RhizomeMind examines questions including:
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how immersive images organize attention and spatial perception;
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how viewers experience proximity, scale, presence, and distance;
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how the body participates in apparently observational forms of viewing;
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how sound, stereoscopic vision, and head movement contribute to an authored experience;
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how comfort and viewing duration affect sustained engagement;
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and how exhibition conditions influence the interpretation and evaluation of immersive work.
This direction connects theoretical research on embodiment and environmental experience with the practical production and presentation of VR films and other immersive media. It also provides a framework for thinking about VR as a viewing medium in its own right, rather than treating cinematic and artistic content as secondary applications of technologies designed primarily for gaming or general-purpose spatial computing.