Art as therapy in virtual reality: A scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review focuses on therapeutic interventions, which involve the creation of artworks in virtual reality. The purpose of this research is to survey possible directions that traditional practices of art therapy and therapeutic artmaking could take in the age of new media, with emphasis on fully immersive virtual reality. After the collection of papers from online databases, data from the included papers were extracted and analyzed using thematic analysis. The results reveal that virtual reality introduces novel opportunities for artistic expression, self-improvement, and motivation for psychotherapy and neurorehabilitation. Evidence that artmaking in virtual reality could be highly beneficial in therapeutic settings can be found in many aspects of virtual reality, such as its virtuality, ludicity, telepresence capacity, controlled environments, utility of user data, and popularity with digital natives. However, deficiencies in digital literacy, technical limitations of the current virtual reality devices, the lack of tactility in virtual environments, difficulties in the maintenance of the technology, interdisciplinary concerns, as well as aspects of inclusivity should be taken into consideration by therapy practitioners, researchers, and software developers alike. Finally, the reported results reveal implications for future practice.

Therapist perspectives on telehealth-based virtual reality exposure therapy

“…Demand for radically customizable VR therapy has been increasing in the literature (Baghaei et al, 2020;Halim et al, 2022), and some researchers have suggested VRET may lead to poor results if VR content does not match clients' personal experiences or expectations (Chard et al, 2023). Emerging techniques for the nontechnical creation of self-produced VR content should be examined for clinical potential in the hands of therapists and their clients (Brandstätter, 2023;Georgieva & Georgiev, 2022;Hadjipanayi et al, 2023;Schöne et al, 2023). Therapists in this study described how the proposed features of tele-VRET could also expand clinical options beyond exposure therapy.…”

Perceptions of Colour Pickers in Virtual Reality Art-Making

“…Given that a tool's aesthetics influences the user's perception of its utility and formation of the user's persistent attitude towards the tool [HT06, JWTY16,YKW22], it is critical to understand how features impact users' understanding, emotions, and expectations the first moment they are perceived. While there is a substantial body of research on virtual reality (VR) and its use for art making [HBM23], there are limited studies that explore factors that influence the first-impressions of VR art experiences.…”