FlumeRide: Interactive Space Where Artists and Fans Meet-and-Greet Using Video Calls

Abstract

Recently, artists and fans meet more often online owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, fans need to engage closely with artists and enjoy rich content. FlumeRide is a mobile application that helps artists and fans meet and greet through video calls. Beyond simply connecting the two, it provides detailed features similar to that fans experience in face-to-face meetings. We first investigated the overall contexts and challenges faced by fans during online meet-and-greets and derived the design elements. Then, we designed and implemented a system that supports various communications and contents in situations before, during, and after the conversation between fans and artists. FlumeRide incorporates various features to support communications in highly immersive and efficient ways, such as chat, video calls, streaming, and recordings. Our user study results demonstrate that FlumeRide enables fans to have private video calls with artists and experience rich interactions. Artists-fans interaction, meet-and-greet, video-mediated communication, K-pop. INDEX TERMS

Virtual Craft: Experiences and Aesthetics of Immersive Making Culture

“…This study aims to explore the nature of immersive media, with a particular emphasis on the materiality aspect. Despite the rapid expansion of immersive media during the pandemic era, encompassing diverse domains such as communication systems (Kachach et al 2021), learning environments (Florez M. 2022;Stavroulia et al 2021;Hollick et al 2021), social networking (Langa et al 2022;Kim et al 2023), and healthcare (Bansal et al 2022;Powell et al 2022), there has been limited research into their material aspects. While immersive technologies may appear to challenge traditional notions of materiality, as particularly seen within the field of digital heritage (Al-Thani and Liginlal 2018;Trichopoulos et al 2021), this study pays attention to a new form of material implementation that has emerged within the context of VR making culture, referred to herein as "virtual craft".…”