Designing VR Safety: Research and Performance

In response to the spread of sexual harassment in social VR, Andrea Zeller and I wrote a paper advising designers to use consent ideology to design safer virtual spaces. The paper, ‘Designing Safe Spaces for VR,’ is now a chapter in the book, Ethics in Design and Communication (Bloomsbury Visual Arts)—see VR journal Immerse for more on the chapter. The research from ‘Designing Safe Spaces for VR’ inspired multiple Facebook Horizon safety features and bloomed into various tech talks at Thinking Digital, MIT, Hardwired, FITC and more. The entire process (including Virtual and Other Pleasures, the OnCanal performance it inspired) is documented in the article, Virtual Healing.

Role: Researcher, Designer, Co-Author