Purpose: This study explores collaborative creativity in Immersive Digitally Mediated Interactions (IDMI) using a novel virtual reality (VR) setup. The central question is how IDMI tools can promote collaborative creativity and to what extent they offer new avenues for creative agency. We introduce the YUMI model which proposes that shared control over a single avatar enhances creative interaction by blurring the self and other agency, and the prototype of an VR installation that holds the potential to investigate this hypothesis.

To provide a proof-of-concept of our model, we developed a Shared Diminished Reality (SDR) installation called "The Median," where two participants control a single avatar composed of three spheres. The avatar's movement is determined by the combined movements of the participants' heads and hands. Participants engage in unscripted movement improvisations while wearing VR headsets, with varying degrees of control over the avatar across trials. After the experiment, participants completed a questionnaire assessing different aspects of their experience and in particular their ability to distinguish their own contributions to the avatar's movement. Movement data was also collected and analyzed.

Results: Results showed a correlation between self-other agency confusion and an extended sense of self. Movement analysis indicated that participants with higher agency confusion exhibited less predictable head movements than their partner, and followed that partner's hand movement more.

This study supports the YUMI model, showing that blended agency enhances certain aspects of creative behavior. The Median setup is well suited to induce such states of confused agency, opening new avenues in VR research and design.