{"type": "project", "title": "Synedelica", "logoImg": "bafkreidiosewgyleybse6qcu7e4pzu34p4pkp25hk2qry452hwr2skoxwe", "website": "https://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/project/synedelica", "bannerImg": "bafkreib4l4t2zlqyhahxnkxtdanzzdaiesil5lcsgbwxboddgwxzwelusi", "createdAt": 1722480091392, "credentials": {}, "description": "# Summary\n**Synedelica** is a synesthetic cyberdelic mixed reality experience that promises to revolutionize immersive media and pioneer new forms of interactive performance. **Synedelica** brings virtual reality outside into nature. It completely immerses the participant in visualizations of sound seen in the real world, encouraging them to express themselves and connect with those who surround them. The experience responds uniquely to every context, giving participants a new perspective on reality, allowing them to see beauty in the seemingly mundane. From walking through a forest to dancing at a music festival or party, Synedelica is perhaps the only mixed reality experience that fully responds to the context which surrounds it.\n\nWe hope to conduct research, development, and artistic explorations to develop Synedelica from its current state as a prototype into a widely distributed tool for connecting more deeply with ourselves, each other, and our environment. The aim is not to replicate existing psychedelic experiences but to create entirely new opportunities for transformative experiences through mixed reality technology.\n\n# Where We're At Today\n## Current Implementation\nUsing the built-in cameras and microphones on a VR headset, Synedelica reimagines the users\u2019 surrounding reality by modulating the visuals based on the sound input. The real-time feed from the microphone alters the visuals--Low frequencies modulate shadows while high frequencies modulate the highlights and beat detection sends bursts of light across the spectrum, radiating from the highlights into the shadows, appearing to traverse the physical space around the user. Virtual scans of performers and interactive objects can be seen inside the headset, blurring the line between what is real and virtual. Rather than being isolated in a solitary experience, Synedelica allows people to see each other and the world that surrounds them in a new light.\n\n[Trailer Featuring some sample interactions](https://youtu.be/r5Y9YyFTQX4)\n\n## Exhibitions and Performances to Date\nWe have exhibited Synedelica as an installation and as part of a roaming performance at several regional Burning Man events. Exhibitions include:\n- V-Unframed 2022 (Vancouver, BC)\n- IRL x iSpace Open Lab 2023 (Santiago de Compostela, Spain)\n- Otherworld 2023 & 2024 (Duncan, BC)\n- Burn in the Forest 2023 & 2024 (Merrit, BC)\n\n[Photos from Otherworld 2023](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cteph77viQS)\n[Video from Otherworld 2023](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CthJsyLumTt/)\n\n# Where this Funding Will Take Us\nThis funding round deeply aligns with our vision for Synedelica and will enable us to conduct further research and develop a platform for distributed cyberdelic experiences in mixed reality.\n\n## 1. Project Focus \nThis project is focused on the creation of new psychedelic aesthetic experiences accessed through mixed reality technology. We also aim to develop deep scientific understandings of participants' experiences of transformative cyberdelic experiences.\n\n## 2. Core Team Experience\nSynedelica is the culmination of nearly a decade of research into transformative experience design in mixed reality. Key team members include immersive artist/researcher [Dr. John Desnoyers-Stewart](http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/person/john-desnoyers-stewart/) and transformative experience researcher [Noah Miller](http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/person/noah-miller/). Our combined experience is demonstrated by numerous exhibitions and publications on transformative experience design. \n\nDr. Desnoyers-Stewart has exhibited his immersive artworks publicly over 60 times in the past 6 years and has published over 30 academic papers on a range of topics from encouraging social connection through interactive art to reshaping our experience of embodiment [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=00AYvyaUBGAC&hl=en). Desnoyers-Stewart shares his work broadly through a variety of means to reach broad audiences. For example, his solo immersive artwork Star-Stuff is published on [Meta Horizon](https://www.meta.com/experiences/3367089710082568/), included in the [Hoame VR meditation app](https://www.meta.com/experiences/6148239151883485) and has been featured at the [H.R. MacMillan Space Centre for nearly 2 years](https://youtu.be/gDrElEXtHL0?si=U2gNBun5w6jJcZ0S).\n\nMiller is a PhD candidate currently researching the design of self-transcendent and transformative experiences in VR. His research has included eliciting self-transcendent emotions in VR to support mental well-being and connection as well as an autoethnographic study of moments of self-transcent experience in Ayahuasca Kosmik Journey. Miller also actively works in motion-capture research and has created software used for VR research in space that is currently deployed on the International Space Station.\n\nBuilding on our experience we will continue to collaborate with artists and researchers around the world including the [iSpace Lab](https://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/) in Canada and the [Intangible Realities Lab](https://www.intangiblerealitieslab.org/) in Spain.\n\n## 3. Community Engagement\nCommunity engagement is at the core of this project. We will continue to engage with the community in-person through exhibitions, performances, and burning man events. We will also distribute our software for anyone with a headset to use at a reasonable cost to support continued development and broad accessibility. We will share our progress through social media and through both academic and alternative publications and conferences.\n\n## 4. Impact and Innovation\nSynedelica promises to pioneer an entirely new artistic medium centered in altering the aesthetic experience of our surroundings. This project will have considerable impacts across art, research, and immersive experience design.\n\n***Mixed Reality Application***. Building on our prototype we will develop an application that can be distributed on Meta Horizon. This app will allow people to design and control their own cyberdelic experiences and share them with others. It will form a platform where artists can contribute everything from sculputral to performance work that can be transformed and resituated into any context. Importantly, this will contribute to reshaping mixed reality towards a tool that allows us to more deeply connect with our physical surroundings rather than escape them.\n\n***Research***. This funding will enable us to complete ongoing research and publish our findings from the design process of the Synedelica prototype. It will allow us to conduct research exploring how people experience transformative aesthetic experiences like Synedelica and develop design guidelines for other artists, designers, and researchers. As this research progresses we hope to work with other psychedelic researchers to understand the potential of using a cyberdelic like Synedelica in combination with psychedelics to carefully craft mediated transformative experiences. For example, one user of Synedelica has found that microdosing in combination with Synedelica produces a profound experience that can be carefully modulated to gain control over the intensity of the experience.\n\n***Performances and Exhibitions***.\nSynedelica will be used as a platform for artistic expression. We will work with artists and performers to integrate visual layers into the real-world experience that users can access and share. We will also continue to exhibit Synedelica at festivals, conferences, and more to showcase our vision for the future of cyberdelic experience in mixed reality. We hope this will lead to new models of sustainable income for artists in the emerging immersive future.\n\n## 5. Feasibility and Sustainability:\n\nProgress in this project will depend considerably on the amount of funding received. However, the project is modular allowing us to focus on different elements to suit different levels of funding. For example, with a smaller budget we can focus on researching the existing artefact and work towards applications for further funding to complete the application. A modest budget could allow us to develop the app but limit our ability to integrate interactive artworks at this stage. Fully funded, this project would lead to the creation of a platform that could transform how we use mixed reality to interact with each other and the world around us.\n\n***Funding Sources***. We have been applying to funding sources including the Canada Council for the Arts but the subject matter of this research makes funding through traditional streams challenging. Our hope is that the Empowering Decentralized Science and Art in Psychedelics fund will help us to overcome these challenges. We will nonetheless continue to seek traditional arts and research funding streams in addition to support the best possible outcome for this project.\n\n***Timeline***\n**Sep 2024:** Scoping project based on funding received. Begin writing publications on work to date and identifying project focus.\n**Dec 2024:** Publications on our existing work submitted to major publishers and conferences. This will offer opportunities to share the work in progress and gain community feedback.\n**Jan-May 2025:** Begin development on the Meta Horizons app focusing on customization and \"animation\" of how the physical world is percevied.\n**Jun-Jul 2025:** Feedback from regional Burning Man Events, music festivals, and other psychedelic communities collected to guide further development.\n**Aug-Sep 2025:** Continued development iterating on community feedback\n**Oct 2025:** User experience research focused on participant observation and interviews\n**Nov 2025:** Continued iteration and launch of Synedelica on Meta Horizons store\n**Jan 2026:** Additional publications submitted to journals and conferences on our findings from this project\n\n\n***Budget** ($ CAD)*\nItem Cost\nVR Development (500 hrs) $40,000\nDevelopment Hardware $ 2000\nArtist Fees for artistic contributions$20,000\nOpen Access Publication Fees $ 3000\nTravel and Conference Fees $ 8000\nResearch Fellowship/Assistants (500 hrs) $ 20,000\n**Total $ 93,000**\nThis Round $33,000\nCanada Council for the Arts $25,000\nOther Sources $35,000\n\n## 6. Ethical Considerations\nWe will follow Canada's [TCPS2 (2022)](https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique_tcps2-eptc2_2022.html) guidance on ethical research involving humans. We will ensure participants are fully informed in understanding what they will be engaging in when using Synedelica. We will do this not through lengthy forms filled with legalese but through common and humane language that is easily understood. When working with research partners such as Universities we will seek ethics approval from their research ethics boards. We will only conduct research with enthusiastic consent from participants and will offer participants the opportunity to experience Synedelica even if they chose not to participate in our research. We will inform users of our application of the risks of using it and recommended safety precautions. ", "logoImgData": {}, "bannerImgData": {}}
Synedelica
# Summary
**Synedelica** is a synesthetic cyberdelic mixed reality experience that promises to revolutionize immersive media and pioneer new forms of interactive performance. **Synedelica** brings virtual reality outside into nature. It completely immerses the participant in visualizations of sound seen in the real world, encouraging them to express themselves and connect with those who surround them. The experience responds uniquely to every context, giving participants a new perspective on reality, allowing them to see beauty in the seemingly mundane. From walking through a forest to dancing at a music festival or party, Synedelica is perhaps the only mixed reality experience that fully responds to the context which surrounds it.

We hope to conduct research, development, and artistic explorations to develop Synedelica from its current state as a prototype into a widely distributed tool for connecting more deeply with ourselves, each other, and our environment. The aim is not to replicate existing psychedelic experiences but to create entirely new opportunities for transformative experiences through mixed reality technology.

# Where We're At Today
## Current Implementation
Using the built-in cameras and microphones on a VR headset, Synedelica reimagines the users’ surrounding reality by modulating the visuals based on the sound input. The real-time feed from the microphone alters the visuals--Low frequencies modulate shadows while high frequencies modulate the highlights and beat detection sends bursts of light across the spectrum, radiating from the highlights into the shadows, appearing to traverse the physical space around the user. Virtual scans of performers and interactive objects can be seen inside the headset, blurring the line between what is real and virtual. Rather than being isolated in a solitary experience, Synedelica allows people to see each other and the world that surrounds them in a new light.

[Trailer Featuring some sample interactions](https://youtu.be/r5Y9YyFTQX4)

## Exhibitions and Performances to Date
We have exhibited Synedelica as an installation and as part of a roaming performance at several regional Burning Man events. Exhibitions include:
- V-Unframed 2022 (Vancouver, BC)
- IRL x iSpace Open Lab 2023 (Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
- Otherworld 2023 & 2024 (Duncan, BC)
- Burn in the Forest 2023 & 2024 (Merrit, BC)

[Photos from Otherworld 2023](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cteph77viQS)
[Video from Otherworld 2023](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CthJsyLumTt/)

# Where this Funding Will Take Us
This funding round deeply aligns with our vision for Synedelica and will enable us to conduct further research and develop a platform for distributed cyberdelic experiences in mixed reality.

## 1. Project Focus 
This project is focused on the creation of new psychedelic aesthetic experiences accessed through mixed reality technology. We also aim to develop deep scientific understandings of participants' experiences of transformative cyberdelic experiences.

## 2. Core Team Experience
Synedelica is the culmination of nearly a decade of research into transformative experience design in mixed reality. Key team members include immersive artist/researcher [Dr. John Desnoyers-Stewart](http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/person/john-desnoyers-stewart/) and transformative experience researcher [Noah Miller](http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/person/noah-miller/). Our combined experience is demonstrated by numerous exhibitions and publications on transformative experience design. 

Dr. Desnoyers-Stewart has exhibited his immersive artworks publicly over 60 times in the past 6 years and has published over 30 academic papers on a range of topics from encouraging social connection through interactive art to reshaping our experience of embodiment [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=00AYvyaUBGAC&hl=en). Desnoyers-Stewart shares his work broadly through a variety of means to reach broad audiences. For example, his solo immersive artwork Star-Stuff is published on [Meta Horizon](https://www.meta.com/experiences/3367089710082568/), included in the [Hoame VR meditation app](https://www.meta.com/experiences/6148239151883485) and has been featured at the [H.R. MacMillan Space Centre for nearly 2 years](https://youtu.be/gDrElEXtHL0?si=U2gNBun5w6jJcZ0S).

Miller is a PhD candidate currently researching the design of self-transcendent and transformative experiences in VR. His research has included eliciting self-transcendent emotions in VR to support mental well-being and connection as well as an autoethnographic study of moments of self-transcent experience in Ayahuasca Kosmik Journey. Miller also actively works in motion-capture research and has created software used for VR research in space that is currently deployed on the International Space Station.

Building on our experience we will continue to collaborate with artists and researchers around the world including the [iSpace Lab](https://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/) in Canada and the [Intangible Realities Lab](https://www.intangiblerealitieslab.org/) in Spain.

## 3. Community Engagement
Community engagement is at the core of this project. We will continue to engage with the community in-person through exhibitions, performances, and burning man events. We will also distribute our software for anyone with a headset to use at a reasonable cost to support continued development and broad accessibility. We will share our progress through social media and through both academic and alternative publications and conferences.

## 4. Impact and Innovation
Synedelica promises to pioneer an entirely new artistic medium centered in altering the aesthetic experience of our surroundings. This project will have considerable impacts across art, research, and immersive experience design.

***Mixed Reality Application***. Building on our prototype we will develop an application that can be distributed on Meta Horizon. This app will allow people to design and control their own cyberdelic experiences and share them with others. It will form a platform where artists can contribute everything from sculputral to performance work that can be transformed and resituated into any context. Importantly, this will contribute to reshaping mixed reality towards a tool that allows us to more deeply connect with our physical surroundings rather than escape them.

***Research***. This funding will enable us to complete ongoing research and publish our findings from the design process of the Synedelica prototype. It will allow us to conduct research exploring how people experience transformative aesthetic experiences like Synedelica and develop design guidelines for other artists, designers, and researchers. As this research progresses we hope to work with other psychedelic researchers to understand the potential of using a cyberdelic like Synedelica in combination with psychedelics to carefully craft mediated transformative experiences. For example, one user of Synedelica has found that microdosing in combination with Synedelica produces a profound experience that can be carefully modulated to gain control over the intensity of the experience.

***Performances and Exhibitions***.
Synedelica will be used as a platform for artistic expression. We will work with artists and performers to integrate visual layers into the real-world experience that users can access and share. We will also continue to exhibit Synedelica at festivals, conferences, and more to showcase our vision for the future of cyberdelic experience in mixed reality. We hope this will lead to new models of sustainable income for artists in the emerging immersive future.

## 5. Feasibility and Sustainability:

Progress in this project will depend considerably on the amount of funding received. However, the project is modular allowing us to focus on different elements to suit different levels of funding. For example, with a smaller budget we can focus on researching the existing artefact and work towards applications for further funding to complete the application. A modest budget could allow us to develop the app but limit our ability to integrate interactive artworks at this stage. Fully funded, this project would lead to the creation of a platform that could transform how we use mixed reality to interact with each other and the world around us.

***Funding Sources***. We have been applying to funding sources including the Canada Council for the Arts but the subject matter of this research makes funding through traditional streams challenging. Our hope is that the Empowering Decentralized Science and Art in Psychedelics fund will help us to overcome these challenges. We will nonetheless continue to seek traditional arts and research funding streams in addition to support the best possible outcome for this project.

***Timeline***
**Sep 2024:** Scoping project based on funding received. Begin writing publications on work to date and identifying project focus.
**Dec 2024:** Publications on our existing work submitted to major publishers and conferences. This will offer opportunities to share the work in progress and gain community feedback.
**Jan-May 2025:** Begin development on the Meta Horizons app focusing on customization and "animation" of how the physical world is percevied.
**Jun-Jul 2025:** Feedback from regional Burning Man Events, music festivals, and other psychedelic communities collected to guide further development.
**Aug-Sep 2025:** Continued development iterating on community feedback
**Oct 2025:** User experience research focused on participant observation and interviews
**Nov 2025:** Continued iteration and launch of Synedelica on Meta Horizons store
**Jan 2026:** Additional publications submitted to journals and conferences on our findings from this project


***Budget** ($ CAD)*
Item Cost
VR Development (500 hrs) $40,000
Development Hardware $ 2000
Artist Fees for artistic contributions$20,000
Open Access Publication Fees $ 3000
Travel and Conference Fees $ 8000
Research Fellowship/Assistants (500 hrs) $ 20,000
**Total $ 93,000**
This Round $33,000
Canada Council for the Arts $25,000
Other Sources $35,000

## 6. Ethical Considerations
We will follow Canada's [TCPS2 (2022)](https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique_tcps2-eptc2_2022.html) guidance on ethical research involving humans. We will ensure participants are fully informed in understanding what they will be engaging in when using Synedelica. We will do this not through lengthy forms filled with legalese but through common and humane language that is easily understood. When working with research partners such as Universities we will seek ethics approval from their research ethics boards. We will only conduct research with enthusiastic consent from participants and will offer participants the opportunity to experience Synedelica even if they chose not to participate in our research. We will inform users of our application of the risks of using it and recommended safety precautions. 
Synedelica