In\Formation: An immersive documentary about the emerging power of Virtual Reality to inspire empathy in its audience.
In\Formation is a two part (25 min) immersive documentary investigating the medium of Virtual Reality and creative use of the technology to build empathy and new forms of storytelling.
Explored through 3D 360-degree video, the live-action virtual reality experience documents VR pioneers during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival through a deep dive into their projects, motivations and speculations.
Part One features interviews with VR pioneers Nonny De La Peña, James George, Jacquelyn Ford Morie, Brian Chirls and Vincent Morisset along with Ingrid Kopp, Clint Beharry and Nick Fortugno. Part Two focuses on VR projects selected for Tribeca Storyscapes - The Enemy by Karim Ben Khelifa and The Machine To Be Another by BeAnotherLab.
Directed by Debra Anderson and produced by Hugh McGrory, In\Formation is a Datavized production. The experience is available for Cardboard as well as available for download and streaming via the In\Formation App on Google Play for Android, distributed by EEVO, and Datavized's YouTube360 Channel. A future release is being planned for Facebook 360 and Gear VR.
Directors Statement:
Pioneering storytellers are creating new forms of documentary to pull at our heartstrings, change our minds and visualize our actions, in real time. Experimental non-linear forms of immersive storytelling point to a future where qualitative data and quantitative data intertwine. Storytellers, driven by humanist motivations, aim to build and measure empathy through virtual worlds and create plausible social impact, their ambitions are aspirational, the projects are complex and research-driven, designed to frame a myriad of questions exploring the human condition: What are the implications of working in this new medium and to what capacity are these technologies truly transformative? How are emotions measured in such environments, can bias be removed, how are these investigations planning to address social issues in a broad sense, from conflict resolution, identity and mutual respect? How is empathy stimulated and exploited, in the most positive sense? How are storytellers crafting experiences, new realities for the viewer, to contextualize social issues, to better understand the human experience?
Through a focus on The Enemy and Machine to Be Another, two pioneering virtual reality prototype projects debuting immersive, interactive installations at the Tribeca Storyscapes exhibition at the crossroads of experimental research, journalism, neuroscience, and interactive performance installation, In\Formation captures these projects, the methodology and motives of the artists and makers, and explores insights about building empathy among individuals through social, cultural and ideological ways to audiences around the world. As an experiment and prototype of its own, it aims to connect as many people as possible to the most important art being made, art that reveals our individual connection to a most complex system, humanity.
