Immersive experience in technology and the senses | Mick Odelli | TEDxVicenza

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Mick Odelli has studied Visual Communication at the University of New England at Sydney (Australia) and it's there that the idea of fascinating people using digital media grew in him. In his TEDx Talk, Mick demonstrates how senses are the key of our daily perceptions and are crucial for our memory. Immersive technology can thus be an innovative instrument for stimulating and expanding our life experiences.

Hello everybody.

What we are having right now
is an experience.

It is one for you, and above all it is
one for us on this side of the stage.

By the way, today, Steve was right:
it feels good to see you all in underwear.

(Laughter)

For those on this side,
the idea is to leave a mark,

to communicate something,

to get you involved,
to trigger your senses,

and to give you an experience.

But how can this be done?

We need to understand what inspires us
while remembering a situation,

just like when we were kids.

As kids, listening was hard,

but remembering through experience
was much easier.

Now that we are adults,
we are not so different:

experience is the best way to learn.

My team and I make
immersive and interactive installations,

designed to offer to people
a special moment of being,

aiming to be remembered
when they go back home.

Doing this, we discovered
three kinds of situations

that characterize
these important moments.

We try to reach them through technology.

It’s not easy, because it depends
on the situation,

on the means at our disposal,

like, for instance, this presentation.

Now I’m here, you are here,
and we have this screen - or maybe not.

(Electronic sound)

We try to attract people with the unusual,
with the 'impossible',

but nowadays it’s hard to find
something different and unique.

Everyone does something different,

everybody tries to do something
in order to be original,

but everything happens too fast.

It happens overnight.

Indeed, we try to create the sensational,
we try to amaze,

but the sensational is nothing more
than the breaking of an equilibrium.

It’s the unexpected
in a moment of comfort.

(Sound of falling masonry)

But why is this so?

Because our brain works with patterns.

It processes all that surrounds us,
and that is why it’s flexible.

It's receptive to
the repetitiveness of our past.

It recognizes what it has seen before,

and that happens
all the time, it’s primordial.

'I’ve already experienced
this situation, so it’s all right.'

We reason according to emotional
connections that are predictable.

Thus our state of equilibrium
is disrupted

and most of the time this brings
a joy of the unexpected.

However, to have a disruption
we need to break something:

we need equilibrium.

This, for instance, is visual rhythm,
and that is the disruption.

Therefore, as you see, the sensational
is the first key characteristic,

and it does not arise
without time and rhythm.

In our studio we work with visual arts;

therefore, the most important
sense for us is sight.

We look for something different,
we look for disruption,

and we do it through technology

that helps us think 'out of the box'.

It helps us with solutions, formulae.

So the first thing we asked ourselves was:

Why do we use a white and plane surface

when there are other more interesting
shapes out there?

This is a structure made of poor material.

But let’s imagine, for a moment,
it's a product to be presented,

or it's the unveiling of a piece of art,
or even, a marble monolith.

In our studio, we lovingly
called it 'Monalita'.

We designed it as an example

to help people
understand the possibilities

of communicating through shape,

as this, in fact, may be
potentially considered

a new level of communication.

Just imagine its uses.

Imagine a showroom.

Imagine a purse in a store, a purse able
to communicate with the hide it's made of,

the various materials it's made of,

or the various colours
in which it's offered.

Take a step back, imagine furnishings,
or something even bigger.

We took that step back and we thought:

Since a screen may have its limitations,

why should light stay stuck inside a bulb?

Why mightn't it be free
to draw itself on walls?

Could this be a new way to create

a non-conventional
and unique lighting system?

Yes, it's possible!

And that is how, last year,
we designed and patented VEDO.

(Simple electronic chime-like music)

This is a corner of our studio.

The walls are white, as is the furniture.

Everything happens live
and is synchronized with the subject.

This system is similar
to the one in use today.

(Electronic, piano-like music)

These are what we call
'immersive atmospheres';

they’re living walls, and lighting sources
different from those we are familiar with.

The environment changes dynamically,
letting us cross spatial boundaries.

Everything is controlled
via a smartphone, via an app

that allows me to change the atmosphere
according to my emotions

and according to the experience
I want to live that moment, in that space.

(More powerful,
pulsating electronic music)

We are talking
about a pulsing environment.

We’re talking about stimulation
of the senses.

There are no more displays.

And it’s not a form of communication
between people anymore,

but communication
between people and environment.

Suppose you’re entering the lobby
of a hotel as a guest,

and the environment changes

according to the situation,
the time frame, or the event.

Imagine that you’re in a restaurant,
and while you’re eating

your senses are enhanced
by the walls that surround you.

Again, museums, small ambients
like those in boats, yachts,

up to huge public areas.

They communicate geometries.

So why are we limiting ourselves
to a white screen

when we can have all this?

This is spatial involvement, and is the
second key characteristic.

We call it 'immersive experience'.

It’s a skin-changing architecture,

which enhances concepts,
augments my senses and my space,

while communicating emotions, imagination.

This is the most ancient
indoor theatre in the world.

Imagine taking
an immersive tour around it.

Suppose you could see
within its structure,

see how it was conceived.

Imagine you could immerse
yourself in the work,

see how it was designed,

and all this via a completely
hidden technology.

Imagine how you could explore it -

(Rumbling electronic music
with percussive sounds)

via a new form of communication.

Another way to penetrate the places
you’d like to visit.

So no more interactive kiosks
that nowadays look like outdated tablets;

and no more gigantic advertising
video walls screaming 'sales' everywhere.

Nowadays, technology can be
much more than that.

It can emphasize the value of things.

(Electronic sound)

revealing information.

It can entertain people
in a functional way.

It can bring out majesty,

or simulate its past

(Electronic airplane sound followed by
electronic explosive sound)

by exposing its very scars.

But all this has no value

(Discordant electronic sound)

without the third and last key,
which is probably the most important:

Emotion.

We and our senses are
at the core of all this;

all the rest is an alchemy of means.

It reaches its peak only if we,
acting like conductors of orchestras,

are able to balance them correctly,

and express ourselves in the same way
we express emotions through our senses.

The medium must be
in line with the content.

Just as it happens here at TEDx,

where speeches and ideas
are encapsulated and packed-up

under one sole title:
'Planting the Seeds'.

Its meaning is nothing
but the planting of a seed

(Electronic sound of plants growing)

of what will be great in the future,

as well as a vital part of what we are.

Thank you.

(Applause)