EXPLORING THE CREATION OF IMMERSIVE AND RESPONSIVE SPACES FOR INTERRELATIONSHIP THROUGH THE CONCEPT OF PLAYFULNESS

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 is causing serious damage to many countries. As of May, the number of confirmed patients worldwide is at 3.35 million and the death toll stands at 239,000 people. As a way to prevent the pandemic, most countries encourage people to keep social or physical distance and self-quarantine. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they recommend that people stay at least six feet away from each other and the South Korean government also recommend keeping their distance from each other at least two meters. Because of the current situation, the places where people can interact with each other, such as schools, businesses, restaurants, etc., are not able to function properly because of the prevention of people’s physical contact with each other and the need to ‘social distance’ and this is causing continued economic deterioration. Through this pandemic, I have realized once again how important interrelationships are in the society we belong to, and at the same time, how the society we live in has been changed by modern technologies. With the development of automobiles, machinery and technology day by day, these modern technologies have become a natural convergence of our society. But as a result, teenagers, in particular, were exposed too much to the information technology, such as mobile phones and computers, and such developments have caused a lack of thinking, creativity and physical abilities, resulting in a cut-off in communication with each other, and making it a non-face-to-face and isolated society. People in various fields, such as philosophy, sociology, and art, talk about how important each other\u27s interrelationship plays a role in shaping the framework of society. While the development of technology is increasing the number of people who are becoming isolated from society, the development of these technologies now helps people engaging in constant exchanges to escape the isolated environment by allowing them to see and communicate with each other at a time when they have to maintain a distance of more than six feet or be isolated at home by the COVID-19 pandemic. An important difference in the impact of technology on well-being lies in other aspects of technology, how it is used, and with other users and situations. Just as the technological developments exemplify the potential to have a positive impact on people\u27s lives, I also aim to apply a positive use of technology to create a virtual interactive space where people can once again feel how important interrelationships are in our society through experiences. I have so far emphasized two things, the concept of playfulness and designing a virtual interactive space optimized for engagement and play, for the past two years to create the virtual space based on my experience. The goal of my thesis work, based on the two things that I have emphasized greatly above, is to build an environment in which audiences can share various movements through cooperation without being restricted by their actions or aware of the surrounding environment, to enhance their thinking, creativity, and engaged living by using the design I envisioned through instilling positive emotions. Unfortunately, my thesis work could not be installed due to the current pandemic and it is also unclear that if the design I structured for people was successful. It greatly affected the development of work, and made it impossible to install and interact with various players in that it is necessary to return to South Korea due to the closure of the studio and the pandemic