Sing from your Seat: community singing in the great outdoors in VR as a beneficial intervention for the elderly

研究项目《群山是活的：通过沉浸式技术结合自然环境和群唱的好处》，成功开发并实现了一种新的沉浸式体验，即个人在虚拟现实中参与湖区山顶的群唱活动。该项目与项目合作伙伴国家信托基金和凯斯威克博物馆共同构思，实现了其核心目标，不仅为身体健全的参与者提供了在山顶上唱歌的多种福利好处，而且还为那些原本无法参加此类活动的人提供了通过身临其境的虚拟现实体验来实现这一目标的机会。为此，30名普通市民在凯斯威克博物馆体验了这一体验；戴上麦克风、VR耳机和耳机，他们可以参加即兴演唱工作坊，或者在大山墙之巅唱歌或观看合唱表演。现场展览为期6周，有50多人参观(被动、非身临其境地观看录制的表演)。除了原始项目的目标之外，我们还设计并测试了一种高效的工作流程，用于移动版本的体验，利用了更广泛可用和更便宜的技术。在活湖艺术节上，150人参加了这场移动体验。所有参与者在尝试了博物馆版和手机版的体验后，都报告了*和*。这一后续项目针对的是一个全新的社区：住在庇护所或民宿中的老年人，从而为这些先前确定的影响途径增加了重大价值。这一群体特别适合从这项工作中直接受益，该部门和学术研究都承认，集体唱歌活动和户外活动对他们的福祉和生活质量都很重要。然而，他们的参与超出了最初项目的范围，因为即使是参观博物馆也不在许多居民的日常能力范围内。因此，需要一个独特的新工作机构，以有意义的方式传播研究项目的成果，最大限度地提高参与度，满足老年社区的具体需要。这项工作将应用研究项目中制定的相关工作流程，并借鉴我们试点经验中收到的反馈，为老年社区创造一种新的、定制的互动群唱体验。我们将与我们的新合作伙伴AgeUK和约克郡的四家养老院密切合作，就他们对这一新人群的专业理解进行有意义的知识交流，以设计与现有合作伙伴兼艺术总监Dave Camlin的新体验。我们将在四个月的时间里将我们的新体验带到约克的日间中心和疗养院，收集参与者和工作人员的反馈。我们会透过一种新的影响量度模式，以不同程度的量度和描述性理解，衡量这些公众参与活动的影响，包括：尝试体验、评分和重返体验的人数；从员工的角度衡量使用者的参与度，特别是考虑到他们与居民的关系；以及员工愿意/热心将体验作为改善居民生活质素的一项重要干预/活动。我们会发展一套新的工作流程，让机构可以把我们的体验融入其活动架构，照顾个别的实际需要，包括经济限制、现有的内部技术和技能组合。这些在线内容将使组织能够根据可用的资源，在不同的参与级别上不受限制地轻松访问我们的体验，提供可持续、有影响力和引人入胜的体验，并在整个社会范围内带来潜在好处。

The research project 'The Hills are Alive: combining the benefits of natural environments and group singing through immersive technologies', successfully developed and implemented a new immersive experience in which individuals participate in a group singing event on a Lake District mountain summit in virtual reality. Conceived with project partners the National Trust and Keswick Museum, this project achieved its core aim to provide opportunities not just for able-bodied participants to enjoy the multiple wellbeing benefits of singing on mountain summits, but also to present opportunities for those otherwise unable to access such activities to do so through an immersive virtual reality experience. To this end, 30 members of the general public tried the experience at Keswick Museum; wearing a microphone, VR headset and headphones, they could participate in an improvised singing workshop, or sing or observe a choral performance on the top of Great Gable. The exhibit which was in situ for 6 weeks was visited by over 50 people (for passive, non-immersive observation of the recorded performances). Beyond the objectives of the original project we devised and tested an efficient workflow for a mobile version of the experience utilising more widely available and cheaper technology. At the Lakes Alive Festival 150 took part in this 'mobile' experience. All participants reported *** and *** after trying both museum and 'mobile' versions of the experience. This follow-on project adds significant value to these previously defined pathways for impact, by targeting an entirely new community: Elderly people living in sheltered or residential accommodation. This demographic are especially suited to benefit directly from this work, with both group singing activities and access to the outdoors acknowledged in the sector and in academic research as being important to their wellbeing and quality of life. However their engagement was beyond the scope of the original project as even a visit to a museum is not within the everyday capabilities of many residents. A distinct new body of work is therefore needed to disseminate the outputs of the research project in a meaningful way that maximises engagement and meets the specific needs of the elderly community. This work will apply the relevant workflows developed in the research project, and learn from the feedback received from the experiences we piloted, to create a new, bespoke interactive group singing experience for the elderly community. We will work closely with our new partners, AgeUK, and four care homes in Yorkshire, to engage in meaningful knowledge exchange of their expert understanding of this new demographic to devise the new experience with existing partner and artistic director Dave Camlin. We will take our new experience to day centres and care homes in York over a four month period, gathering feedback from participants and staff. We will measure the impact of these public engagement activities through a new model of impact measurement, with different levels of metrics and descriptive understanding, including; the number of individuals trying, rating and returning to the experience; the engagement of users from the perspective of staff, especially considering their relationship with the residents; and, the willingness / enthusiasm of staff to implement the experience as an important intervention / activity to improve the quality of life of their residents.A new workflow will be developed to enable organisations to integrate our experiences into their activity structures, catering for individual practical requirements, including economic constraints, available in-house technologies and skills sets. This online content will enable organisations unrestricted and easy access to our experience at different levels of participation depending on the resources available, providing a sustainable, impactful and engaging experience with potential benefits across society.