Beyond Video: Using Practice-based VolCap Analysis to Understand Analytical Practices Volumetrically

In this chapter, we propose a general approach we call practice-based volumetric capture analysis (PBVCA) that uses Virtual Reality (VR) technology to better understand and support the practices by which scholars collaborate over time to develop an analysis of a complex event recorded with multiple cameras. What is novel in this approach is the virtualisation of two sets of practices, namely (a) the viewing and manipulation of mediated representations of complex time-based audio-visual data, and (b) the ethno-scenography of analytical performances of observation, demonstration and analysis. To virtualise both, we combine a powerful digital tool (AVA360VR) for immersion within a virtual spatial environment and another tool (VolCap) to capture and re-enact live actions volumetrically. This chapter explores the practices in which these digital tools and virtualisations come to make sense for the participants (for us as analysts) as they work towards an analysis of socio-interactional phenomena. We also consider if the ‘heuristic handicap’ of collaboratively working with the digital tools entails a methodological bonus or are these tools mere supplements, conveniences or distractions, from the perspective of ethnomethodology (EM) and ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA).