TY - GEN
T1 - Behind the Curtain of the 'Ultimate Empathy Machine':
T2 - On the Composition of Virtual Reality Nonfiction Experiences
AU - Bevan, Chris
AU - Green, David Phillip
AU - Farmer, Harry
AU - Rose, Mandy
AU - Cater, Kirsten
AU - Stanton Fraser, Danae
AU - Brown, Helen
PY - 2019/5/4
Y1 - 2019/5/4
N2 - Virtual Reality nonfiction (VRNF) is an emerging form of immersive media experience created for consumption using panoramic “Virtual Reality" headsets. VRNF promises nonfiction content producers the potential to create new ways for audiences to experience “the real"; allowing viewers to transition from passive spectators to active participants. Our current project is exploring VRNF through a series of ethnographic and experimental studies. In order to document the content available, we embarked on an analysis of VR documentaries produced to date. In this paper, we present an analysis of a representative sample of 150 VRNF titles released between 2012-2018. We identify and quantify 64 characteristics of the medium over this period, discuss how producers are exploiting the affordances of VR, and shed light on new audience roles. Our findings provide insight into the current state of the art in VRNF and provide a digital resource for other researchers in this area.
AB - Virtual Reality nonfiction (VRNF) is an emerging form of immersive media experience created for consumption using panoramic “Virtual Reality" headsets. VRNF promises nonfiction content producers the potential to create new ways for audiences to experience “the real"; allowing viewers to transition from passive spectators to active participants. Our current project is exploring VRNF through a series of ethnographic and experimental studies. In order to document the content available, we embarked on an analysis of VR documentaries produced to date. In this paper, we present an analysis of a representative sample of 150 VRNF titles released between 2012-2018. We identify and quantify 64 characteristics of the medium over this period, discuss how producers are exploiting the affordances of VR, and shed light on new audience roles. Our findings provide insight into the current state of the art in VRNF and provide a digital resource for other researchers in this area.
KW - Immersive media
KW - Interaction
KW - Nonfiction
KW - Virtual reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067606192&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3290605.3300736
DO - 10.1145/3290605.3300736
M3 - Chapter in a published conference proceeding
T3 - CHI Conference Proceedings
SP - 1
EP - 12
BT - CHI '19: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
CY - Glasgow, United Kingdom
ER -