Jay Vidyarthi

profile

Position:

Alumnus (M.Sc.)

Contact:

kvidyart@sfu.ca
http://www.jayvidyarthi.com/

Affiliations:

SIAT, SFU, McGill University, Yu Centrik; now at http://www.interaxon.ca/

Biography

Jay Vidyarthi is simul­ta­ne­ously a per­form­ing musi­cian, human-computer inter­ac­tion designer and psy­cho­log­i­cal researcher.  His expe­ri­ence spans from indus­try to acad­e­mia, where he is presently pur­su­ing a Masters degree at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at SFU.

Jay’s port­fo­lio includes a unique brand of psy­che­delic blues music, com­pre­hen­sive inter­face design spec­i­fi­ca­tions for var­i­ous media, and research focused on the psy­chol­ogy of tech­nol­ogy use.  As diverse as it may seem, Jay’s work inter­sects at the con­cepts of ‘immer­sion’ and ‘expres­sion’.  Whether study­ing how a user and machine express to each other, design­ing tech­no­log­i­cal medi­a­tion of expres­sion between people, or simply express­ing him­self to audi­ences, the goal is uni­fied: to create, under­stand and use new, immer­sive forms of human expression.

» Read about Jay at the SFU Graduate Studies blog

Projects

Cross-Disciplinary

Cross-Disciplinary 'Immersion' Framework

Describing media as 'immersive' is ambiguous.  From debilitating addiction to therapeutic relief, media engagement holds a clear duality in its effect on humanity... Without an interdisciplinary characterization of "immersion", why do we allow this concept to be so readily invoked in discussions of books, visual art, video games, virtual reality systems and more? While "immersion" into tradit...

By jay vidyarthi & bernhard riecke Read more
Sympathetic Guitar

Sympathetic Guitar

Do humans response socially to abstract, expressive human-computer interfaces? To interact with the Sympathetic Guitar is to use a familiar and comfortable Western musical interface to feel an instant connection to musical culture and style of the East.  The prototype senses guitarists' hand motions and performance dynamics to augment a standard classical guitar with a digital drone...

By jay vidyarthi, bernhard riecke & alissa antle Read more
Sonic Cradle

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...

By jay vidyarthi, bernhard riecke, diane gromala, alex kitson, mirjana prpa & denise quesnel Read more

Publications

Vidyarthi, J., & Riecke, B. E. (2013). Mediated Meditation: Cultivating Mindfulness with Sonic Cradle. Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ALT.CHI, 2305–2314. https://doi.org/10.1145/2468356.2468753
Kitson, Alexandra, Bernhard E. Riecke, and Jay Vidyarthi. 2014. “Sonic Cradle: Investigating Meditative Aspects of an Interactive Technology.” In NCE-GRAND 2014 Conference, 1–4. Ottawa, Canada. https://youtu.be/kB8qfJ1M0gg.
Vidyarthi, Jay, Bernhard E. Riecke, and Diane Gromala. 2012. “Sonic Cradle: Designing for an Immersive Experience of Meditation by Connecting Respiration to Music.” In Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems (ACM DIS) Conference, 408–17. DIS ’12. New York, NY, USA: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318017.
Vidyarthi, Jay, Bernhard E. Riecke, and Diane Gromala. 2012. “Encouraging Meditative Experiences through Respiratory-Musical Interaction.” In NCE-GRAND 2012 Conference, 1–4. Montreal, Canada.
Vidyarthi, Jay, Bernhard E Riecke, and Alissa N. Antle. 2011. “Sympathetic Guitar: Humans Respond Socially to Interactive Technology in an Abstract, Expressive Context.” In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization, and Imaging (ACM CAe ’11), 9–16. Vancouver, BC, Canada: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2030441.2030443.
Vidyarthi, Jay, Alissa N Antle, and Bernhard E Riecke. 2011. “Sympathetic Guitar: Can a Digitally Augmented Guitar Be a Social Entity?” In Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1819–24. CHI EA ’11. https://doi.org/http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1979742.1979863.
Vidyarthi, J., & Riecke, B. E. (2014). Interactively Mediating Experiences of Mindfulness Meditation. International Journal Of Human-Computer Studies, 72(8–9), 674–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.01.006
Prpa, Mirjana, Denise Quesnel, Jay Vidyarthi, Alexandra Kitson, and Bernhard E. Riecke. 2016. “Sonic Cradle - Immersive Interaction Design Combining Breathing- and Neurofeedback to Foster Focused Attention Meditation on Breath.” Poster presented at the 2nd International Conference on Mindfulness, Rome, Italy, May. http://www.cmc-ia.org/icm2016rome/.
Vidyarthi, Jay, and Bernhard E. Riecke. 2013. “Could an Interactive Medium Introduce Non-Practitioners to Mindfulness Meditation?” Talk presented at the First International Conference on Mindfulness, Rome, Italy, May.
Vidyarthi, J., Diane Gromala, and Bernhard E. Riecke. 2011. “Are You Immersed? Characterizing Immersion across Literature, Art and Interactive Media.” Talk presented at the Society of Literature, Science and Art (SLSA) Conference 2011, Kitchener, Canada.
Vidyarthi, J., Riecke, B. E., & Gromala, D. (2012). Sonic Cradle [Curated Virtual Reality Exhibition]. TEDactive conference, Palm Springs, CA, USA. http://conferences.ted.com/TEDActive2012/
Vidyarthi, J. (2012). Sonic Cradle: Evoking Mindfulness through ‘Immersive’ Interaction Design [MSc Thesis, Simon Fraser University]. https://summit.sfu.ca/item/12546
Gromala, D., Vidyarthi, K. J., & Riecke, B. E. (2011). Sonic Cradle; Project Exhibition in Chronic Pain: Art & Science Collaborations [Exhibition].