ChrisBevan › Project_

Jul 17–Jun 20 | Documentary • Nonfiction • Virtual Reality

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Exploring the production, audience and experience of nonfiction virtual reality media content.

Funding body: EPSRC. Grant reference: EP/P025595/1. Partners: Jongsma and O'Neill, Aardman Animations Ltd, BBC, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Guardian, University of Bath, University of Bristol, University of the West of England, VR City, VRTOV & Watershed.

Project Website: http://vrdocumentaryencounters.co.uk.

Photo: Chris at the Venice Film Festival's 'VR Island', August 2019

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Chris at the Venice Film Festival's 'VR Island', August 2019

Our commissioned piece 'The Waiting Room' saw a showing at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. Of course, we had to go and show our support. Here's Chris enjoying some of the festival's many VR offerings. Full programme: https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2019/venice-virtual-reality.

Photo: L-R: David Green, Danae Stanton Fraser, Ki Cater and Chris Bevan. Venice Film Festival, 2019.

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

L-R: David Green, Danae Stanton Fraser, Ki Cater and Chris Bevan. Venice Film Festival, 2019.

Photo: VR Nonfiction: A Mediography

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

VR Nonfiction: A Mediography

VR Nonfiction - A Mediography is a database of virtual reality nonfiction content covering the period 2012–2018. Beginning with Nonny de la Peña's initial explorations of immersive journalism in 2012, the VR Mediography project is the first attempt to comprehensively map the emergence and development of VR as a new medium for experiencing nonfiction content. http://vrdocumentaryencounters.co.uk/vrmediography/

Photo: Jo Gildersleve and Ki Cater, Venice Film Festival, 2019

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Jo Gildersleve and Ki Cater, Venice Film Festival, 2019

Photo: Exploring the themes of nonfiction VR: 2012-2018

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Exploring the themes of nonfiction VR: 2012-2018

Photo: Nonny De la Pena and VRTOV @ VR Docs Commissions Showcase

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Nonny De la Pena and VRTOV @ VR Docs Commissions Showcase

Photo: Victoria Mapplebeck and Shehani Fernando discuss 'The Waiting Room VR'

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Victoria Mapplebeck and Shehani Fernando discuss 'The Waiting Room VR'

Photo: Looking behind the curtain of the 'Ultimate Empathy Machine': Dr Harry Farmer

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Looking behind the curtain of the 'Ultimate Empathy Machine': Dr Harry Farmer

Photo: Nonny De La Pena presents 'Reach' @ VR Docs project showcase

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

Nonny De La Pena presents 'Reach' @ VR Docs project showcase

Photo: The Waiting Room: VR

Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters

The Waiting Room: VR

"The Waiting Room: VR" (Dir. Victoria Mapplebeck) was one of three new pieces of VR nonfiction that were commissioned by the VR Docs Project. The Waiting Room went on to be premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, and later won the Doclab digital storytelling award at IDFA. Read more: https://eastcityfilms.com/the-waiting-room-vr

>Publications_

Behind The Curtain Of The "Ultimate Empathy Machine": On The Composition Of Virtual Reality Nonfiction Experiences: Chris Bevan, David Phillip Green, Harry Farmer, Mandy Rose, Kirsten Cater, Danaë Stanton Fraser and Helen Brown. 2019. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300736.

A Mediography Of Virtual Reality Non-Fiction: Insights And Future Directions: Chris Bevan and David Green. 2018. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video (TVX '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 161-166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3210825.3213557.

Did You See What I Saw?: Comparing User Synchrony When Watching 360 Video In HMD Vs Flat Screen: Harry Farmer, Chris Bevan, David Philip Green, Mandy Rose, Kirsten Cater and Danaë Stanton Fraser. 2019. Poster session presented at IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, Osaka, Japan. IEEE.

Using Design Fiction to Explore the Ethics of VR 'In the Wild': David Philip Green, Guy Peter Schofield, James Hodge, Mandy Rose, Kirsten Cater, Chris Bevan and Stuart Iain Gray. 2019. Proceedings of the 2019 ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video (TVX19). ACM. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3317697.3323346.

What can the first years of VR nonfiction tell us about its future? Looking back on Virtual Reality nonfiction: 2012-2018: Chris Bevan. 2019. Immerse.

>Press_

Immersive VR Documentary showcases at the Venice Film Festival: University of Bath. Sept. 12, 2019.

Experience immersive VR documentaries: University of Bristol. June 18, 2019.

>Awards_

Honorary Mention Award: Behind the Curtain of the “Ultimate Empathy Machine": on the Composition of Virtual Reality Nonfiction Experiences. ACM CHI International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019).