@article{7ff1f9383a274d26916a855d0ee88ec8,
title = "Exploring the potential of virtual reality technology to investigate the health and well being benefits of group singing",
abstract = "There is a growing body of academic research aiming to quantify and understand the associated health and well being benefits of group singing. The social interaction is known to strongly contribute to perceived improvements to mental and physical health but there are also indications that singing together elicits better well being outcomes than other community activities. This paper introduces the Vocal Interaction in an Immersive Virtual Acoustic (VIIVA) system, which allows the user to take part in a group singing activity in 360 degree virtual reality, hearing themselves in the recorded venue alongside the other singers. The VIIVA is intended to make group singing accessible to those unable to attend real community choirs but also as a tool for experimental research into the health and well being benefits of group singing. This paper describes the VIIVA system and presents a number of methodologies and applications which are discussed in relation to three ongoing research projects. Preliminary work indicates that the VIIVA system provides a promising tool with which to study the health and well being benefits of group singing, and in particular to control for the social interactions inherent in real group singing activities.",
keywords = "choir singing, performance, singing, virtual acoustics, Virtual reality, well being",
author = "H. Daffern and Camlin, {D. A.} and H. Egermann and Gully, {A. J.} and G. Kearney and C. Neale and J. Rees-Jones",
note = "Funding Information: In an attempt to address the limitations of the expensive, cumbersome and complex system that was installed at the Museum, these VIIVA experiences were adapted for use with Samsung Gear headsets and phones. This version of the experience did not require the user to wear a microphone (which is needed for the real-time convolution of the acoustic), exploiting the acoustic of the original space (on a mountain summit) which had negligible impact on the sound of the experience as it is nearly anechoic. The chosen experience plays on a loop allowing users who have never used VR technology before to follow simple written instructions to put on the headset and headphones to take part. Three of these headsets were installed at the Lakes Alive Festival in Kendal, the Lake District, alongside the HTC Vive version that had been part of the Museum exhibit. The Samsung headsets ran the audience position of {\textquoteleft}The Fellowship Song{\textquoteright} whilst the Vive (supported by the research assistant) ran the improvisation. Over the festival weekend, 140 people tried the VIIVA experience. The self-assessment manikin was used to measure participant responses which 44 people completed (Bradley and Lang 1994). After using the experience, 12 felt excited / aroused; 17 felt somewhat excited; 11 felt calmer; 4 felt sleepier, with 100% of the responses on the positive end of the spectrum. Based on the Circumplex model of affect by Russell (1980) this suggests people felt happy, delighted, aroused and excited after the experience. Funding Information: The work reported in this paper was part-funded by the Wellcome Trust [ref: 204829] through the Centre for Future Health (CFH) at the University of York; and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under Grant AH/R009139/1; and the University of York Creativity ResearchPump Priming Fund. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, {\textcopyright} 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2019",
month = jan,
day = "2",
doi = "10.1080/14794713.2018.1558807",
language = "English",
volume = "15",
pages = "1--22",
journal = "International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media",
issn = "1479-4713",
publisher = "Intellect Publishers",
number = "1",
}
