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

研究项目“The Hills are Alive：通过沉浸式技术结合自然环境和集体歌唱的好处”，成功开发并实施了一种新的沉浸式体验，在这种体验中，个人在虚拟现实中参与湖区山顶的集体歌唱活动。与项目合作伙伴国家信托基金会和Keswick博物馆合作，该项目实现了其核心目标，不仅为身体健全的参与者提供机会，享受在山顶唱歌的多重福利，而且为那些无法参加此类活动的人提供机会，通过沉浸式虚拟现实体验。为此，30名普通市民在Keswick博物馆尝试了这种体验；他们可以戴上麦克风、VR耳机和耳机，参加即兴歌唱工作坊，或者在大山墙顶上唱歌或观看合唱表演。展览在现场进行了6周，超过50人参观了展览（为了被动地、非沉浸式地观察录制的表演）。除了最初项目的目标之外，我们还设计并测试了一个高效的工作流程，利用更广泛和更便宜的技术来实现手机版本的体验。在Lakes Alive音乐节上，150人参加了这种“移动”体验。在尝试了博物馆和“移动”版本的体验后，所有参与者的反馈都是“***”和“***”。这个后续项目通过针对一个全新的社区：居住在庇护或住宅中的老年人，为这些先前定义的影响途径增加了重要的价值。这一人群特别适合从这项工作中直接受益，团体歌唱活动和户外活动在行业和学术研究中都得到了认可，对他们的健康和生活质量都很重要。然而，他们的参与超出了原始项目的范围，因为甚至参观博物馆也不是许多居民的日常能力范围。因此，需要一个独特的新工作体系，以一种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，满足老年人社区的具体需求。这项工作将应用研究计划的相关工作流程，并从我们试点的经验中吸取反馈，为长者社区创造一个全新的互动团体歌唱体验。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，就他们对新人口的专业理解进行有意义的知识交流，与现有的合作伙伴兼艺术总监Dave Camlin一起设计新的体验。在四个月的时间里，我们将把我们的新体验带到约克郡的日托中心和护理院，收集参与者和工作人员的反馈。我们将通过一种新的影响衡量模式来衡量这些公众参与活动的影响，采用不同层次的衡量标准和描述性理解，包括；尝试、评价和返回体验的个体数量；从员工的角度来看，用户的参与度，特别是考虑到他们与居民的关系；以及，工作人员将体验作为一项重要的干预/活动来实施的意愿/热情，以提高居民的生活质量。我们将开发新的工作流程，使组织能够将我们的经验整合到他们的活动结构中，以满足个人的实际需求，包括经济限制、可用的内部技术和技能集。这些在线内容将使组织能够根据可用资源，在不同的参与水平上不受限制地轻松访问我们的经验，为整个社会提供可持续的、有影响力的、引人入胜的体验，并带来潜在的好处。

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.