Project | Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters (VRDocs)
- Jul 2017–Jun 2020
- Documentary • Virtual Reality
Exploring the production, audience and experience of nonfiction virtual reality media
On the VR Docs project I worked across three work packages to deliver a series of experimental interventions and public engagement activities to explore audience response to nonfiction virtual reality. I created the virtual reality nonfiction mediography, for which I received an honorary mention award at ACM CHI2019. I also created a series of software tools to capture and visualise multivariate time series-based audience behaviour (using Unity and Python), along with the project website.
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
- Funding Body
- EPSRC
- Grant Reference
- EP/P025595/1
- Role
- Research Associate
Gallery
Screenshot: Transplant
Screenshot: Love and Seawater
Kirsten Cater at IDFA 2019
At FUTURES - European Researchers' Night, 2019
Chris at IDFA 2019
Chris experiencing the latest in nonfiction VR at the 2019 International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.
Transplant (Oscar Raby / VRTOV, 2019)
Transplant was a nonfiction VR experience created by Oscar Raby and Katy Morrison of the VRTOV studio - one of three prototype VR experiences created on the VR Docs project. Transplant is set in Chile under the dictatorship of General Pinochet. Centring on the ideas of biologist and philosopher Francisco Varela as he undergoes a liver transplant, the experience invited audiences to consider, through interactive VR, the relationship between body and mind.
Love and Seawater
Love and Seawater (Lisa Harewood & Ewan Cass-Cavanagh) addresses the legacy of the separations between parents and children that have been a feature of Caribbean economic migration.
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
Nonny De La Pena presents 'Reach' @ VR Docs project showcase
Looking behind the curtain of the 'Ultimate Empathy Machine': Dr Harry Farmer
Victoria Mapplebeck and Shehani Fernando discuss 'The Waiting Room VR'
Nonny De la Pena and VRTOV @ VR Docs Commissions Showcase
Exploring the themes of nonfiction VR: 2012-2018
Jo Gildersleve and Ki Cater, Venice Film Festival, 2019
L-R: David Green, Danae Stanton Fraser, Ki Cater and Chris Bevan. Venice Film Festival, 2019.
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.
Publications
- Using Narrative 360° Video as a Tool to Promote Breast Self-examination
- Harry Farmer, Eleanna Skoulikari, Chris Bevan, Stuart Gray, Kirsten Cater & Danaë Stanton Fraser. 2024. Virtual Reality. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-023-00918-5.
- 'You wouldn't get that from watching TV!': Exploring audience responses to virtual reality non-fiction in the home
- David Green, Mandy Rose, Chris Bevan, Harry Farmer, Kirsten Cater, Danaë Stanton Fraser. 2020. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Sage. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856520979966.
- Did you see what I saw?: Comparing attentional synchrony during 360 degree video viewing in head mounted display and tablets
- Harry Farmer, Chris Bevan, David Green, Mandy Rose, Kirsten Cater and Danaë Stanton Fraser. 2020. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. APA. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000332.
- 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. Dot Connector Studio.
- 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. https://doi.org/10.1145/3317697.3323346.
- 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. 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/VR.2019.8797968.
- 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. 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. https://doi.org/10.1145/3210825.3213557.
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).