Participatory Actions in Virtual Spaces. The Role of Images in the Construction of Shared Spaces

Participatory actions in public spaces are practices of encounter with the potential to reinforce social ties and foster a renewed sense of belonging to places. They are well-established and widely practiced – both at the national level [1] and internationally [2, 3] – as modes of exploration [4] and participation that are located at the intersection between different disciplinary domains. The particular form of participatory action discussed here ideally takes place on the street, in squares, and on public ground, via interventions that are often temporary in nature and involve the transformation, but even more fundamentally the re-appropriation, of collective space. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, among its numerous repercussions, has also made it difficult if not impossible to carry out such forms of participation in person and on public ground. It has thus become necessary to modify and reformulate the ways in which participatory action is implemented, so as to continue harnessing its communicative power, and to identify new ways of fostering participation, at a time when it is needed more urgently than ever to counteract the risk of isolation. In this paper, we present and discuss forms of participatory action that have recently been transposed into virtual public space and are primarily based on the sharing of images. We investigate the possibilities and valences of such an approach, both in general and at this specific historical moment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Gaia VR: A Virtual Reality-based Neuro and Biofeedback Meditation Application

Meditation and mindfulness are practices that can reduce psychological stress and stress-related health problems during times of crisis such as the current global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development, and in this study, we proposed a neuro and biofeedback meditation virtual reality application and heart rate band called Gaia VR to make meditation fun, measurable, and personalized. This system could also potentially reduce the stress people have been experiencing in the pandemic. By implementing data such as heart rate variability and Alpha brainwaves, users can get feedback on their daily stress level and interact with the virtual reality environment through their meditation based on how relaxed they are through the process. © 2022 IEEE.