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, 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

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.

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.

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).