The Room: Design and Embodiment of Spaces as Social Beings

We are investigating interaction with entities showing features different from humans', to understand how they can be embodied as avatars and perceived as living, social beings. To push this investigation to its limit, we have designed as an avatar an interactive space (the Room), that challenges both the anthropomorphic structure, and most of the social interaction mechanisms we are used to. We introduce a first framework for the Room design, addressing challenges related to its body, perception, and interaction process. We present a pilot implementation of some of the aspects of the framework as an interactive installation, namely a real-time, two-player, VR experience, featuring the Room avatar, with a focus on haptic feedback as the main means of perception for the subject embodying the Room. By radically challenging anthropomorphism, we seek to investigate the most basic aspects of embodiment and social cognition.