I often jest with people ‘I amnot only technologically incompetent but also technologically intolerant; a nasty combo’. While others grab the controls of an Xbox I grab a pair of gardening gloves. So it is with surprise that I recently watched—and became enthralled by —three 360° virtual reality (VR) immersive films produced by illuminart®, at the 2018 Annual International Arts and Health Conference in Port Macquarie, Australia. In 2017, David Ryan and his team of multi-media artists from illuminart® engaged with older adults (55 years plus) from low socio-economic backgrounds in Western Sydney (St Marys) for several years to co-create three 3-minute virtual reality experiences (Houston 2018). Project participants included Llandilo Maltese seniors from ‘heirloom farms’, who were asked to imagine life in their community in 2068 (50 years in the future). Over a three-month period, the Persian community co-created an original song, which they performed as part of Persian Picnic, one of the three films (Finn-Powell 2018). When I sat down on the stool to trial the VR it was with a strange sense of curiosity. Daunting memories of various science fiction films flashed into my mind (The Matrix (1999), Star Trek (1991 S5:E6), The Butterfly Effect (2004), Ready Player One (2017) and so forth), while I read the list of risks and warnings that I was required to read before consenting to put the headset on. There was a risk of vertigo. I get that just standing up from my desk. There was a chance that I might fall off my chair. Again, this is something I’ve achieved without VR headset (and evidence suggests that VR might actually be protective against this (Singh et al. 2012)). So with the risks analysed, and Mary Douglas now coming to mind (Douglas 2013; Douglas and Wildavsky 1982), I put the headset on.

中文翻译：

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老年人的虚拟现实，时间和联系

我经常开玩笑说：“我不仅在技术上不称职，而且在技术上不宽容；令人讨厌的组合”。当其他人抓住Xbox的控件时，我抓住了一副园艺手套。因此，令人惊讶的是，我最近在澳大利亚麦克夸利港举行的2018年度国际艺术与健康会议上观看了由illuminart®制作的三部360°虚拟现实（VR）沉浸式电影，并对此深深着迷。2017年，David Ryan和他的illuminart®多媒体艺术家团队与来自西悉尼（St Marys）具有低社会经济背景的老年人（55岁以上）进行了数年合作，共同创作了三个3分钟的虚拟现实体验（休斯顿，2018年）。项目参与者包括来自“传家宝农场”的Llandilo马耳他老人，他们被要求想象他们在2068年（未来50年）的社区生活。在三个月的时间里，波斯人社区共同创作了原创歌曲，作为三部电影之一的波斯野餐的一部分进行了表演（Finn-Powell 2018）。当我坐在凳子上尝试VR时，充满了好奇心。当我阅读列表时，各种科幻电影令人生畏的记忆闪现了我的脑海（《黑客帝国》（1999），《星际迷航》（1991 S5：E6），《蝴蝶效应》（2004），《就绪玩家一》（2017）等）。同意戴上耳机之前必须阅读的风险和警告。有眩晕的危险。我刚从办公桌上站起来。我有可能从椅子上掉下来。再次，这是我在没有VR头戴式耳机的情况下实现的（证据表明VR可能实际上对此起到了保护作用（Singh等，2012））。因此，在分析了风险之后，现在我想到了玛丽·道格拉斯（Douglas 2013； Douglas和Wildavsky 1982），我戴上了耳机。