“Magic You: A Poetic VR Journey into the Mind of ADHD” by Zhou, Guo, Ding, Liu, Chen, et al. …
Conference:
Experience Type(s):
Title:
- Magic You: A Poetic VR Journey into the Mind of ADHD
Presenter(s):
Description:
Magic You” is a virtual reality interactive narrative experience. It is a coming-of-age story about ADHD, with joys, anxieties, bitter memories, and growing pains, told in a hand-drawn, coloured-pencil aesthetic as a magical journey. The artwork hopes to present the experiences and imagination of ADHD patients to the audience in a poetic way and give the audience a better understanding of ADHD, a manifestation of neurodiversity. The design integrates research and patient interviews, translating “Attention Deficit” and “Hyperactivity” into interactive metaphors. Childhood memories inform elements like transforming paper balls into planes, while illegible texts and elusive objects mirror concentration challenges. Purposefully distracting flickering colors paradoxically guide players toward interactive hotspots, reflecting ADHD’s paradoxical nature. Key interactions include the “Paper Plane Launch” using pinch gestures for narrative progression, and an experimental hand-tracking climbing system optimized through grip coordinate adjustments. Unlike conventional VR climbing using controllers, this naturalistic approach reduces motion sickness through vertical spatial design that aligns with body interaction. The vertical narrative structure encourages upward exploration, contrasting typical horizontal VR environments. Hand-tracking extends beyond object manipulation, becoming central to paper-plane interactions and environmental navigation. Paper planes serve dual purposes – advancing the story while incentivizing organic exploration beyond linear paths. This creates a cyclical relationship between focused tasks and free discovery, mirroring ADHD cognitive patterns. Through its whimsical visual language and embodied interactions, the experience aims to foster an understanding of neurodiversity while offering intuitive engagement. Technical innovations in hand-tracking integration and vertical spatial design propose new approaches for VR storytelling, particularly in representing neurodivergent perspectives.
References:
[1] Lydia Furman. 2005. What Is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Journal of Child Neurology 20, 12 (Dec. 2005), 994–1002.
[2] Tongze Guo, Wen Zhou, Xiangrong Xiao, Ni Ding, Yansong Chen, and Shaolong Liu. 2024. Magic You. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 XR(SA ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–2.
