WATERGAIT: Trusting the Senses to Walk on Water/ Uneven Steps on-and-in Water Immersion

Esthir Lemi¹, Marientina Gotsis², Vangelis Lympouridis³

1. Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, Finland.
2. Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center, University of Southern California, USA.
3. Creative Media and Behavioral Health Center, University of Southern California, USA.

Abstract: Watergait explores the natural boundaries of aquatic immersion and investigates the physicality of integrating senses, sound, memory and interactive technologies to cultivate new kinaesthetic experiences. We present the technical, conceptual and philosophical background that inspired the Watergait project. For the realisation we used a holistic design model aiming to connect health science to an artistic process using minimum information focusing on body balance. The embodied interaction enabled by Watergait keeps the user to an entertaining experience, while at the same time the artificial soundspace functions like a corridor and threshold to movement and mindfulness, since the only action demanded by the user is to take a walk in some interior place while wearing headphones and take a leap after one minute and five seconds. This attempt to simplify a complex system of calculating navigation and foot-pressure for any user has proved to be a successful one for comprehending rhythm and balance, as well as cheering up levels of depression. We created a playground for any who might be interested to investigate his/her balance and transposition of weight in every step from right to left foot and so on via an artificial sound system of an idyllic walking across the shore, inside the water and dive-in to the water. It seems that sound compositional structure based on progressive narrating models of ambience could be a functional model for therapy in various domains, as well as an entertaining model for gaming pleasure.

Keywords: Water Immersion Sound Design, Perception, Holistic Model, Epicurean Theory.

Pages: 1 – 11 | Full PDF Paper