1. Introduction

The contemporary technological paradigm has been characterized by a fostering of values based on progressive efficiency, effectiveness and speed of consumption. In fact, certain lines of thought argue that this new technological introduction forms the genesis of a growing apathy and generalized alienation in the different social spectra (and is therefore also associated with the advent of a growth in depression, psychosocial stress or burnout (Coelho 2021)), being discussed by intellectuals such as Vullierme (2014), Noam Chomsky (2013), Byung-Chul Han (2020), or Jonathan Crary (2014). This perspective (which is evident in a strong critique of the capitalist landscape and its consequences) has a direct correlation with the iconocracy (or dictatorship of the image) presented by Martine Joly (2019), the materiality of which is manifested in the proliferation of new technological devices, as well as - according to João Aguiar Coelho (2021) or José Maria Mardones (2003) - instigating intellectual apathy and, according to Bernard Steigler (2014), a generalized aesthetic and symbolic anemia.

Taking into account this issue, that can be framed within the realm of personal well-being, technologies, and in particular those aimed at the increase and development of this matter, are here conceptualized as having an inherent potential with providing valuable insights to tackle this problem. Specifically, interactive technologies can be thought about as having the ability to trigger meaningful, even transformative experiences in the individual, mainly due to the dialectic possibilities it affords between user and the computational corpus.

In this context, Gaggioli (2016) introduces the Transformative Experience Design (TED) framework: a domain in interaction design that aims to create experiences that foster self-actualization and self- transcendence, based on the premise that certain experiences can induce lasting changes in an individual’s self-perception, personality, beliefs, and values. These transformative experiences, defined as unique and extraordinary events that provoke both emotional and epistemic expansion

(Chirico et al. 2021; Chirico, Serafini, et al. 2022; Gaggioli 2016; Kitson et al. 2020), draw on theoretical and practical insights from disciplines as varied as psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Central to this discussion is the study of awe: a complex emotion that blends amazement, admiration, and at times fear or humility (Chirico et al. 2018; Gaggioli 2016; Keltner 2024; Keltner and Haidt 2003; Yaden et al. 2017). Awe is conceptually linked to the philosophical notion of the sublime, which was extensively elaborated by Kant (1790) and Burke (1767) in the field of aesthetics. Kant (1790) distinguishes between the mathematical sublime (experiences of vastness that exceed our perceptual capacities, like the view of the vast sea or the infinity of stars) and the dynamical sublime (experiences that challenge our cognitive limits and evoke a need for accommodation, like the concepts of God or death). In contrast, Burke (1767) emphasizes the somatic aspects of the sublime, associating it with visceral responses such as terror, pain, or (quite literally) bodily paralysis when confronted with overwhelming stimuli (Burke 1767; Shusterman 2012). Despite the conceptual overlaps between awe and the sublime, there is little consensus on their precise relationship, with some scholars arguing that one may represent a subtype of the other, while others see them as distinct yet related constructs (Clewis et al. 2022). Both concepts, however, share common themes of belonging, elevation, and the active engagement of imagination.

Here, Gaggioli (2016) proposes a perturbation experiment approach that deliberately destabilizes users’ existing frames of reference to stimulate a restructuring of meanings and beliefs. In his framework, Virtual Reality (VR) is highlighted as a particularly promising medium for facilitating these transformative experiences, mainly due to its unique phenomenological affordances - such as the ability to engender a profound sense of presence (Berkman and Akan 2019; Kilteni et al. 2012), to allow users to adopt alternative embodied perspectives, and to create environments that defy the conventional laws of reality (Gaggioli 2016) – which can stimulate both the mathematical and dynamical aspects of Kant´s sublime: the first, where the user is exacerbated with a virtual construction that exceeds their perceptual abilities to grasp everything that is represented before them (making special use of the embodied possibilities that VR provides); and, on the other hand, distorting reality by creating a virtual scenario that does not obey the same phenomenological laws to which the user is accustomed on a daily basis, thus predicting the aforementioned need for accommodation (Keltner & Haidt 2003) - or dynamical sublime (Kant 1790).

This, in turn, can provoke significant emotional and epistemic shifts as users adjust to new, unfamiliar paradigms (Gaggioli 2016), thus opening up the possibility of fostering personal well- being and an aesthetic, reflective stimulation that can reverse the apathetic and uncritical paradigm previously mentioned.

2. Main explorations

Being based on the exploration of Transformative Experience Design and the consequent positive valences associated with it, this study aims to deepen possible ways of further developing this framework, having as a main goal the strengthening of a theoretical current that still has some gaps identified in different domains.

2.1. Somaesthetics

The first is directly related to a lack of consideration of the contributions of Burke's thought on the sublime. Burke (1767) elaborates his conceptualization based on ideas such as infinity, vastness, magnificence, or, more prevalently, obscurity, but always from an inherently somatic origin, where he argues that sensations such as terror, pain or danger in the face of something that exceeds us (either perceptually or cognitively) are presented as manifestations of the sublime through, in these cases, a

series of somatic sensations, such as muscle contraction, increased attention or increased heart rate (Shusterman 2012).

Still, none of the verified studies explored possible elements that could catalyse a feeling of powerlessness or inferiority on the part of the user in the face of what they were experiencing, especially from a somatic perspective. In this sense, it is hereby proposed to incorporate different interactive components into the technological corpus of the system presented so far that stimulate a more strongly somatic dimension of the experience and of the user.

These are thought to be mainly based on different types of sensors using Arduino boards (‘Arduino - Home’ 2025). Initially, this project aims to implement a heartbeat sensor in order to stimulate awareness of a basic somatic aspect of the human being: their heartbeat. In this way, the experience envisages the incorporation of elements that interact according to the user's heartbeat, forcing them to become aware of their somatic dimension (which is so often relegated) in order to be able to manipulate that particular element (for example, controlling the wind speed in the environment according to their heartbeat), thus fostering a self-transcendence, a transformation of their current somatic perceptions. In addition, other sensors that make up a more somatic interactive aspect, such as muscle contraction, should also be considered in this work.

This somaesthetic aspect refers to a type of interaction that is undoubtedly more direct and active. However, it is also considered a form of passive somatic interaction, i.e. one that relegates any kind of intentionality on the part of the user: a subversion of the user's conscious somatic reality, which involves fostering a feeling of powerlessness through actuators and EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) modules, which aim to paralyze the voluntary movements of the user's body. This implementation thus fulfils a dimension of the sublime proposed by Burke - a subjugation of the individual to a force that surpasses them and that they cannot overcome, consequently creating the aforementioned feeling of impotence in the face of something that is superior to them.

2.2. Spatial Design

Moreover, and concerning environment design within the research scope of TED, it was noted that environments that present an almost exaggeratedly extensive structure (E. Han et al. 2024; Rauhoeft et al. 2015) and where greater horizontality prevails (Chirico et al. 2018) are those that, according to this data, appear to have the best chance of fostering awe (although vertical spatial elements, like those found in cathedrals, can also foment this type of sensations (E. Han et al. 2024)).

But, and rather more interestingly, Chirico et al. (2018) and Otsubo et al. (2024) revealed that the design of spaces and paths that present a dynamic and dramatic structure, that guides the user in a progressive opening up to the revelation of an incredibly extensive environment, is where the sensations of awe are most prevalent within a sense of perceptual vastness (or mathematical sublime of Kant (1790)), based above all on a feeling of surprise (Chirico et al. 2018; Otsubo et al. 2024).

Nevertheless, the types of virtual scenarios explored in TED studies are limited to, for example, representations of nature or a view of planet Earth from space (in order to trigger an Overview Effect), thus existing a lack of exploration of areas such as architecture and spatial phenomenology in order to concretely define how virtual space can be designed to foster sensations of the sublime.

In order to explore the first valence of mathematical sublime, this project proposes the creation of magnanimous and monumental architectural elements, whose shape far exceeds the size of a structure commonly experienced in the real world and which create a feeling of immense vastness in the user's perceptual capacities. This, in fact, is one of the main advantages of this type of virtual approach that the real paradigm of architecture cannot replicate: since it is not restricted to financial or technical constraints, in the virtual field the development of a tiny or giant structure presents no difference between them, and therefore there is no practical impact or impediment, thus making it

possible to develop any type of architectural element without there being a financial or geographical consequence (as so often happens in the real world of architecture).

This approach allows not only a perceptual stimulation related to the first domain of the Kantian mathematical sublime, but also an elaboration of the dynamical sublime, since the presence of an architectural element that cannot be created in the real world and which, for this reason, the user has never experienced, forces a need for accommodation as predicted by Keltner & Haidt (2003): an epistemic expansion in the user's cognition when faced with an unknown, unreal, hyperbolic element, which somehow goes beyond their current understanding and forces them to reflect on it.

In formal terms, this development of the scenario would follow architectural principles of spatial design, environment design and ecological psychology, which can be found, for example, in the phenomenological treatment of the architectural works of Ando Tadao (Shusterman 2012), Peter Eisenman and, above all, Étienne-Louis Boullée (Nesbitt 1995), not only because of the monumental manipulation of scale that their forms take on, but mainly because of their unrealistic and superlative character.

2.3. Symbolic Dimension

Finally, and with regard to the last dimension that is considered essential to explore, this works plans to insert a valence that has not been properly considered in this research context, and which predominantly concerns the dynamical dimension of Kant's sublime (1790) (or Keltner & Haidt's need for accommodation (2003)): the weighting of symbolic elements.

The symbol, in its various conceptual variations, is proposed in this work as an inherently evocative element with an undoubted spiritual and poetic property, predominantly based on the thought of thinkers such as Carl Jung (1971), Gaston Bachelard (1996) or, in particular, Gilbert Durand (1964; 1989). All of these authors consider, jointly, the symbol as a basic element of the psyche and of the imaginative exercise (so vital in the sublime thinking of Kant (1790)), which encourages the recurring expansion of consciousness in a permanent search for the multiple meanings it evokes, urging constant epiphany and transcendence, thus resulting in an endless discovery of the unknown nourished on by mystery.

In fact, the consideration of mysterious elements, which stimulate a dimension of the unknown and, ultimately, of obscurity mentioned by Burke (1767) and Keltner & Haidt (2003) have been superficially addressed in some studies not directly framed within the Transformative Experience Design framework.

For example, the work of Miller et al. (2023) presents us with various mystical moments, as the shape-shifting clouds that are present in that studies’ experience and that, although familiar to us, manifest an unusual and odd behaviour of transforming into animals which, in a bizarre way, appear right next to us. This creates a sense of obscurity and mysticism also verified in Quesnel and Riecke (2018) through the use of a so called “mystical character” named “Sprite”, and in as well Liu et al. (2022), in the manifestation of what is named as an “extraordinary light”, an evocative sensorial element of light that manifests a numinous quality.

In fact, the use of symbols, metaphors and ritualistic elements seem to show special potential in encapsulating this dimension of obscurity and spirituality (Collar and Eve 2020; Hwang et al. 2024; Ito et al. 2024). Thus, symbols and archetypes (Durand 1964; 1989; Jung 1971) are elements that seem to point to something more: to something not entirely known, to mystery, and therefore require a need for accommodation of our current mental schematization. In addition, this type of symbol is clearly poetic, as Bachelard (1996) points out, and the poetic exercise (almost inherently) presupposes not only a certain hermeneutic ambiguity (and therefore a layer of obscurity), but also, at the same time, a reflection on those same adjacent meanings, on the poetic character itself. This

also results in cognitive stimulation that restructures our knowledge, corresponding to epistemic expansion and a need for accommodation.

Furthermore, and as Gaggioli (2016) points out, VR, as a medium, envisages the possibility of reversing the laws of reality. In fact, in Chirico et al. (2024), it was denoted that the more the VR scenario resembled an equivalent real one, the less participants experienced awe, suggesting that participants' awe experience was mainly driven by the paradoxicality of the VR scenarios.

Since these events refer to impossible phenomena, they disrupt our current mental schemata. In Lin et al. (2024), the participants found the supernatural awe content to be more enjoyable, arousing, and suspenseful, when compared with the natural awe stimulus. Here, the conception of gods or otherworldly manifestations, for example, are presented as a prototypical way to elicit a feeling of the uncanny.

In this way, elements of the fantastic, the unreal, and magic emerge before us, almost as a theophany, in order to create precisely this type of cognitive disruption. Seeing a dark sphere encircled by planets metaphorical of a black hole in outer space, viewing spirit animals, and observing the ability to write words in mid-air are some of these surreal elements found in Adam and Frewen (2024) that successfully fostered awe provocative, mystical experiences in participants.

Consequently, this study also aims to exponentiate surreal, paradoxical and fantastic factors as a way of forcing a cognitive restructuring on the part of the individual: an experience of Kant's dynamical sublime through the liberation of magic.

4. Reflections and Future Work

Having presented the development proposals in the specific context of Transformative Experience Design, I believe it is appropriate to reflect more deeply on the underlying purposes of this work.

As a developer and teacher in the field of Virtual Reality, the collective disappointment of its potential as a medium has led me to embark on this theoretical and practical proposal in order to explore the sublime possibilities that this technology has yet to reveal. However, this work also has its shortcomings and dangers in terms of the feasibility of both its execution and its basic conceptualisation.

Firstly, I begin by treating Virtual Reality in itself. As already argued by Gaggioli, VR emerges as a medium that brings together phenomenological particularities which, when worked together, highlight it as a technology of relevance in fostering transformative experiences. Framing it within Boltner and Grusin's phenomenon of remediation, VR is idealised as the ultimate exponent of “immediacy” in the contemporary media spectrum: once again, it is a technology that aims to be as transparent as possible to the user, that is, it attempts to reliably map the individual's corporeal reality to their digital reality, highlighting, once again, a sense of presence.

However, given the recognised technical limitations that still affect VR (which vary depending on the headsets used), mediation is still a fairly prevalent phenomenon in the use of most VR equipment: the weight of the headset, the (sometimes unintuitive) use of controllers, the ‘fresnel’ effect of the lenses, movement tracking problems, and ubiquitous glitches are some elements currently present in common VR usage. Nevertheless, these properties are clearly insufficient to argue for a long lasting kind of hypermediation of VR. In addition to being occasional in time and variable in the context in which they occur, these current technical restrictions do not undermine the basic proposal of VR as a transparent medium: the natural passage of time will gradually mitigate these same constraints.

In addition, this document also served to appeal for a certain detachment from the fascination (often commercially implanted) found in VR. As argued in relation to some experiences representative of the conventional state of the art of VR, it must be viewed in a way that holistically aggregates its

affordances: it is not enough to address the form of VR (largely based on the corporeal and presence capabilities it manifests), but also its content, lest we develop experiences that are, once again, superficial in their treatment of VR's potential.

The same applies to the concept of the sublime itself: the existence of Kant's two dimensions of the sublime does not imply that the relationship between them is independent and watertight. On the contrary: a phenomenological dialectic between sublime experiences of a mathematical nature and experiences of a dynamical nature is implied and expected, thus underlying that it is in the dialectic itself between subliminal properties and in the resulting holistic treatment of them that their transformative capacity lies.

This is exemplified in Boulée's aforementioned architectural proposals, where the magnitude of his spatial structures is directly associated with an impossibility inherent in that very magnitude, as well as a certain obscurity that veils a symbolic meaning to this architectural work. One complements and depends on the other in order to exponentially increase a true transformative potential.

However, it is also important to reflect on the very leitmotif underlying the desire to develop transformative experiences in the individual. Namely, whether it is possible for these experiences to be entirely “designed”.

In this regard, Gaggioli (2016) offers an interesting perspective: “transformative experiences cannot be constructed, but only invited,” since “authentic transformation requires the active involvement of the individual in the generation of new meanings”. Thus, given the evident subjectivity of the experience, the TED structure is limited to following “theoretically based design guidelines to invite, elicit or facilitate a transformative experience”.

And perhaps it is this evocative factor that distinguishes this transformative proposal from other approaches to self-transcendence in the individual. Historical cases such as those seen, for example, in the Catholic Church, were characterised by the use of certain methods and affordances which, although similar to those seen in TED (such as the construction of magnificent Gothic cathedrals, bodily and collectively structured ritualistic participation, or the implementation of mysterious aspects in the genesis of the belief itself), are necessarily distinguished along two axes: the intention and the nature of the evocation.

As for its purposes, the church (as well as, in a way, the contemporary technological paradigm, where VR is also included) has established the application of these transformative guidelines with the primary objective of manipulating and homogenising the behaviour and thoughts of the believing masses, while TED proposes the development of experiences that stimulate emotional and epistemic transformation in the individual, with the ultimate goal of increasing their personal well-being.

Not only that, but the ontological core of the evocation here proposed is directed not only towards reflection on phenomena that surpass us (such as the idea of God), but also on the existential condition of the individuals themselves, sustained as it is in a self-reflective exercise which, for the church (and for today's media), should not be carried out in such a way as to effect complete submission to the imposed narrative itself.

Finally, it is necessary to address what I consider to be one of the main issues raised in this project, which is related to the novelty effect. Since the feeling of the sublime is directly rooted in confrontation with something we rarely experience (especially with regard to Kant's dynamical sublime or Keltner and Haidt's need for accommodation), the successive experience of the same experience in VR can seriously affect the novelty effect in the individual and, consequently, compromise the transformative capacity of the sublime in that subject.

Thus, this work recognises the need to undergo an iterative metamorphosis: to present the individual with an ever-new experience, with renewed facets of the sublime to contemplate and interact with. It therefore proposes an experience that is also in constant transformation. To this end, it will have to

make use of the generative and procedural capabilities of the VR development tools to be implemented, such as Unreal Engine or Unity.

This capability will have to be governed, however, by respect for the general schematisations and contents that underpin the different elements of the sublime, and not so much by the form in which they manifest themselves: the creation of structures with disproportionate scales can be seen both in architectural constructions and in a mountain range, since the principles of spatial design that govern both are, for this purpose, similar.

Even the symbolic aspect respects this same structure, especially when considering Durand's (1964) thinking on the concepts of schema and archetypes: while the latter refers to the formal manifestation of the former, schemas relate to the basic structure of the meaning evoked. For the “shelter” schema, the archetypes of the house or the cave, despite manifesting distinct formal representations, both respect the same schematic meaning of “shelter”. This highlights a patterning of meaning, which makes it conceivable that it can be programmed.

On the other hand, the presence of different symbols, inherently obscure and multivocal in their genesis, introduces the opportunity to constantly evoke in the individual the multiple meanings to which the symbol seems to point, thus catalysing permanent reflection in the subject and, in the same way, an epistemic expansion. Thus, the novelty lies in the symbol's ability to stimulate new paths in the user's imagination, reinforced not only by its contemplation but also by the possibility of interacting with it. This sparks a kind of dialectic of the imagination or, according to Bachelard, a material imagination: the dynamic creation of the imagination of symbolic images arising from the dialectic of the body with matter (in this case, virtual matter).

Although seemingly herculean, this experiment begs to be initiated, at least, in the doctoral programme in which I am enrolled, and where I propose to study, through the application and development of different VR prototypes, the various properties and potentialities here outlined. To rigorously assess the transformative impact of VR experiences, this project proposes the adoption of a mixed-methods approach that combines different methodological tools retrieved from the literature on TED, mainly based on self-report, observational, and physiological data.

Thus, this project has as its overreaching objective the creation of an experience that implies a structural change on the individual, in order to contest the apathetic, uncritical paradigm that is daily prevalent and, fundamentally, to ensure the promotion of self-transcendence, self-actualization, and, ultimately, personal well-being within the subject.