Science Club invited three representatives from Aalto University to discuss about the research on experiences and audio experiences. Virtual reality experience designer Eero Tiainen interviewed professor of experience design Virpi Roto and professor of sound design for virtual reality Sebastian Schlecht. The podcast was produced in collaboration with The Finnish Society for Futures Studies and Aalto Experience Platform.
Tiainen introduced the topic by introducing the Daniel Kahneman’s theory about the psychological divide between the experiencing self and the remembering self. Perceptions, emotions and thoughts were mentioned as the underlying components of experience.
Professor Roto gave a short presentation under the title of ”Experience Research - From Silos to Networks”. Roto works as a chair of Experience Platform, which is one of the seven platforms in Aalto University. They are founded to foster research innovations in the intersections of different disciplines. A literature analysis of more than 50.000 publications related to experiences by Roto et al. revealed the highly multidisciplinary nature of experience research, covering social sciences, technical, medical and business fields, with “user experience” as the most common keyword. To forward from the currently siloed experience research towards a network of experience researchers, Aalto Experience Platform organized 7 Experiences Summit, an online event that functions as a springboard for establishing an international Experience Research Society.
Professor Schlecht shared his insights about creating sound environments and sensory aspects involved in the technology of acoustics. Titled "Augmenting Sound Experiences", his talk introduced the concepts of virtual reality (VR)," human sensorium," and auditory senses. He pointed out that video conferences can be tiring because of small sensory mismatches in reproducing sound with signal-processing technologies. Through audio clips, Schlecht exemplified the effects of spatialization of sound that affect the human capability to understand what has been said cognitively. In regards to virtual reality and VR conferences as a future technology, cognitive and emotional understanding is needed to create acoustics for VR.
Lastly, Tiainen, Roto, and Schlecht discussed the experiences and experience design. Experiences can be evaluated during or after the experience with self-reported questionnaires, biometric signals, or brain imaging. The challenge of measuring experiences is that they are subjective dynamic, and contextual phenomena that can not necessarily be expressed through words and language. The aspects of artificial intelligence's effects on working place experiences and music and the means of increasing human well-being with experience design and sound design were discussed.
Information related to experiential research:
- The Experience Age is here: https://medium.com/creativity-unfolded/the-experience-age-is-here-61bbe1b6c291
- Aalto Experience Platform: https://experience.aalto.fi/#
- 7 Experiences – Aalto Experience Summit, September, 2020: https://experience.aalto.fi/7-experiencessummit/