Denise Quesnel

profile

Position:

PhD Student

Contact:

dquesnel at sfu.ca
http://www.denisequesnel.ca/

Affiliations:

Biography

Denise joined the iSpace team in Fall 2016 as a grad­u­ate stu­dent and has been involved in the immer­sive real­i­ties as a designer and researcher since 2009. Denise explores how con­tem­pla­tive prac­tices of com­pas­sion and pos­i­tive emo­tion cul­ti­va­tion like awe and wonder, com­bined with social sup­port, can be opti­mized into ther­a­peu­tic vir­tual real­ity (VR) expe­ri­ences for both clin­i­cal and non-clinical pop­u­la­tions. To under­stand how this approach may enhance pos­i­tive life tra­jec­to­ries and flour­ish­ing of vul­ner­a­ble groups, she draws upon inter­dis­ci­pli­nary knowl­edge and method­olo­gies from com­puter sci­ence, clin­i­cal sci­ences, and con­tem­pla­tive sci­ences, ensur­ing a com­pre­hen­sive and holis­tic approach to the study of dig­i­tal health tech­nol­ogy. This knowl­edge stems from her prior activ­i­ties in sci­en­tific research/R&D, cre­ative indus­tries, vol­un­teer work, and life expe­ri­ences, inform­ing her com­mit­ment to explore VR as a ther­a­peu­tic inter­ven­tion within care sys­tems and her moti­va­tion around under­stand­ing how tech­nol­ogy can help facil­i­tate com­pas­sion, under­stand­ing, inter­con­nec­tiv­ity for our­selves, one another, and our planet. Denise’s method­olog­i­cal approaches aim to empower end users as experts through­out all phases of research as co-designers and co-creators. By cen­ter­ing their lived expe­ri­ences and insights, we can improve effec­tive­ness and trans­fer­abil­ity of VR inter­ven­tions across diverse pop­u­la­tions. Her 2017 TEDxSFU talk describes more about her per­sonal approach.

As an advo­cate, Denise sees sci­en­tific research as a pow­er­ful tool to amplify advo­cacy efforts and make poten­tial solu­tions acces­si­ble for indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties. As an active vol­un­teer with ser­vice to the global com­mu­nity, she vol­un­teers as an indi­vid­ual and with non-profit orga­ni­za­tions involved in health care and tech­nol­ogy advo­cacy and pol­i­cy­mak­ing. Denise cre­ated and chaired the SIGGRAPH VR Village (2015−2017) for inter­dis­ci­pli­nary syn­ergy for VR devel­op­ment and access in sci­en­tific, enter­tain­ment, med­ical, and edu­ca­tion fields. Overall, Denise’s work at iSpace Lab encom­passes not only rig­or­ous sci­en­tific inquiry but also a broader com­mit­ment to advo­cacy, acces­si­bil­ity, and the well-being of indi­vid­u­als and communities.

Projects

Awedyssey

We are investigating and creating a new virtual reality (VR) experience, 'Awedyssey', for the promotion and enhancement of well-being. Today, digital technology pervasively intersects with our daily lives, and VR stands out as a digital tool capable of fostering adaptive coping and resilience skills, and authentic social connection. We welcome queries from potential collaborators and members of...


HyperJump flying to combat motion sickness

HyperJumping in Virtual Vancouver: Combating Motion Sickness by Merging Teleporting and Continuous VR Locomotion in an Embodied Hands-Free VR Flying Paradigm Motion sickness, unintuitive navigation, and limited agency are critical issues in VR/XR impeding wide-spread adoption and enjoyable user experiences. To tackle these challenges, we present HyperJump, a novel VR interface merging advantages ...


SIRIUS - Virtual Earthgazing to mitigate effects of sensory isolation

SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) is a series of on-land isolation experiments modelling long-term spaceflight in order to assess the psychophysiological effects of isolation on a crew and prepare for long-duration spaceflights, such as a trip to Mars. An 8-month-long isolation study commenced in Moscow on Nov 4th, 2021, where a crew of 6 people (from Roscosm...


VR/MR/AR 4 Good: Creating with a Purpose

Interested in connecting & joining? If you're interested in connecting to others engaged or interested in the xR4Good field, you could join the xR4Good facebook group, or fill out this online signup sheet and state what you're interested in Introduction Over the past five years, we have seen awareness and creation of Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality (VR/MR/AR or, the ‘immersive realit...


Connected through "AWE": creating immersive experiences for social connection

Do you get enough “awe” in your life? In our busy day-to-day lives, we often take our experiences for granted. While we have the technology to connect with one another, like smart phones, we don’t necessarily get outside with nature, or stargaze. Such activities may consist of common awe-inspiring moments, and we now understand that feeling awe is associated with all sorts of social and well...


Virtual Earthgazing - towards an overview effect in Virtual Reality

How can we use immersive VR to give people pivotal positive experiences without having to send them out into space?   “We went to the Moon as technicians, we returned as humanitarians” reflected Edgar Mitchell after his space flight. This describes the overview effect – a profound awe-inspiring experience of seeing Earth from space resulting in a cognitive shift in worldview, le...


Sonic Cradle

Sonic Cradle suspends the body is a completely dark chamber which encourages experiences comparable to mindfulness meditation.  Users compose peaceful soundscapes in real-time using only their breathing. [vimeo 35764652] Introduction and demo of the Sonic Cradle Sonic Cradle is a relaxing human-computer interaction paradigm designed to foster meditative attentional patterns.  The current p...


Publications

Quesnel, D., DiPaola, S., & Riecke, B. E. (2018). Deep Learning for Classification of Peak Emotions within Virtual Reality Systems. International SERIES on Information Systems and Management in Creative EMedia (CreMedia), 2017/2, 6–11. http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Journal/index.php/series/article/view/274
Quesnel, D., & Riecke, B. E. (2018). Are You Awed Yet? How Virtual Reality Gives Us Awe and Goose Bumps. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02158
Stepanova, E., Quesnel, D., Kitson, A., Prpa, M., Aguilar, I., & Riecke, B. E. (2018, June). A framework for studying Transformative Experiences through VR [Symposium presentation]. 23rd Annual CyberPsychology, CyberTherapy & Social Networking Conference, Gatineau, Canada. http://interactivemediainstitute.com/cypsy23/
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D. T., & Riecke, B. E. (2019). Space - a Virtual Frontier: How to Design and Evaluate a Virtual Reality Experience of the Overview Effect Promoting The Feeling of Connectedness. Frontiers in Digital Humanities - Human-Media Interaction, 6(7), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdigh.2019.00007
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D. T., & Riecke, B. E. (2019). Understanding AWE: Can a virtual journey, inspired by the Overview Effect, lead to an increased sense of interconnectedness? Frontiers in Digital Humanities - Human-Media Interaction, 6(9), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdigh.2019.00009
Quesnel, D., & Riecke, B. E. (2017). Awestruck: Natural Interaction with Virtual Reality on Eliciting Awe. 205–206. https://doi.org/10.1109/3DUI.2017.7893343
Riecke, B. E., Pennefather, P. P., & Quesnel, D. T. (2018). VR/MR/AR 4 Good: Creating with a Purpose. ACM Siggraph Birds of a Feather, 1. http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/project/mr4good/
Quesnel, D., Stepanova, E. R., Aguilar, I., Pennefather, P., & Riecke, B. E. (2018). Creating “AWE”: Combining artistic intuition and research-based design for an emotionally-profound art installation. 2018 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM) (Full Paper), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/GEM.2018.8516463
Stepanova, E., Quesnel, D., & Riecke, B. E. (2018). Transformative Experiences become more accessible through Virtual Reality. 2018 IEEE Workshop on Augmented and Virtual Realities for Good (VAR4Good), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1109/VAR4GOOD.2018.8576881
Cole, A. W., Quesnel, D. T., Pekcetin, S., Gromala, D., O’Brian, H., Antle, A. N., & Riecke, B. E. (2017). Integrating Affective Responses and Gamification into Early Reading Acquisition Software Applications. CHI PLAY’17 Extended Abstracts, 73–85. https://doi.org/10.1145/3130859.3131433
Quesnel, D. (2017, November 28). Inspired, magical, connected: How virtual reality can make you well. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/inspired-magical-connected-how-virtual-reality-can-make-you-well-87665
Quesnel, D. T. (2017, December 1). How virtual reality is making people “well” again. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/12/how-virtual-reality-is-making-people-well-again/
Sirius. (2021, October 1). [Curated & peer-reviewed Virtual Reality Exhibition]. V-Unframed, Vancouver, BC, Canada. https://www.alliancefrancaise.ca/v-unframed/the-artworks/sirius/
Quesnel, D. T., & Riecke, B. E. (2017, October 6). Connected Through Awe: Can Interactive Virtual Reality Elicit Awe for Improved Well-Being? [Poster]. 3rd Annual Innovations in Psychiatry and Behavioral Health: Virtual Reality and Behavior Change, Stanford University, CA, USA. https://med.stanford.edu/cme/courses/2017/psychiatry17.html
Stepanova, E. R., Quesnel, D., Kitson, A., Prpa, M., & Riecke, B. E. (2017, November). Virtual Reality as a Tool for Inducing and Understanding Transformative Experiences [Poster]. Psychonomic Society 58th Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Prpa, M., Quesnel, D., Vidyarthi, J., Kitson, A., & Riecke, B. E. (2016, May). Sonic Cradle - Immersive interaction design combining breathing- and neurofeedback to foster focused attention meditation on breath [Poster]. 2nd International Conference on Mindfulness, Rome, Italy. http://www.cmc-ia.org/icm2016rome/
Miller, N., Stepanova, E. R., Desnoyers-Stewart, J., Adhikari, A., Kitson, A., Pennefather, P., Quesnel, D., Brauns, K., Friedl-Werner, A., Stahn, A., & Riecke, B. E. (2023). Awedyssey: Design Tensions in Eliciting Self-transcendent Emotions in Virtual Reality to Support Mental Well-being and Connection. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3595998
Quesnel, D., & Riecke, B. E. (2023, June 8). Get (Com)Passionate for Wellbeing: Designing a Virtual Reality Wellbeing Intervention for Emerging Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions. Poster Session. Mind & Life 2023 Summer Research Institute (SRI), Garrison, New York, USA. https://www.mindandlife.org/event/2023-summer-research-institute/
Quesnel, D. T. (2017, November 12). Evoking Deep Connections by Embodying Another’s Reality [Talk]. TEDxESFU, Vancouver, BC, Canada. https://youtu.be/xsRzjUoSbE0
Riecke, B. E., Clement, D., Quesnel, D., Adhikari, A., Zielasko, D., & von der Heyde, M. (2022). HyperJumping in Virtual Vancouver: Combating Motion Sickness by Merging Teleporting and Continuous VR Locomotion in an Embodied Hands-Free VR Flying Paradigm. Siggraph ’22 Immersive Pavilion, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532834.3536211
Miller, N., Desnoyers-Stewart, J., Stepanova, E. R., Adhikari, A., Kitson, A. J., Quesnel, D. T., Pennefather, P., & Riecke, B. E. (2021, October 1). Sirius [Curated & peer-reviewed Virtual Reality Exhibition]. V-Unframed, Vancouver, BC, Canada. https://www.alliancefrancaise.ca/v-unframed/the-artworks/sirius/
Quesnel, D., Stepanova, E. R., Aguilar, I., Kitson, A., & Riecke, B. E. (2017). AWE [Invited Virtual Reality Exhibition]. SPLASH, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Quesnel, D., Stepanova, E. R., Aguilar, I., Kitson, A., & Riecke, B. E. (2017). AWE [Invited Virtual Reality Exhibition]. TEDxEastVan, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Quesnel, D., Stepanova, E. R., Aguilar, I., Kitson, A., & Riecke, B. E. (2017). AWE [Invited Virtual Reality Exhibition]. TEDxSFU, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Miller, N., Desnoyers-Stewart, J., Stepanova, E. R., Adhikari, A., Riecke, B. E., Pennefather, P. P., Kitson, A., & Quesnel, D. (2023, November 23). Awedyssey [Curated Mixed Reality Exhibition]. Cosmic Nights: Humans in Space, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. https://events.sfu.ca/event/37966-cosmic-nights-humans-in-space