The MA Virtual Reality Manifesto for Immersive Storytelling
We have just wrapped up the first semester of our brand new masters in Virtual Reality at UWE Bristol, and it has been quite a ride! We have been experimenting with storytelling techniques using a range of emerging technologies in our home space, Bristol VR Lab. From building environments that signify ‘comfort’ to us in VR, to roaming the plains with dinosaurs in a hololens, to carrying chirping, silver orbs through the streets of Bristol, we’ve covered a lot of ground in a short space of time.
Arguably more importantly, however, we have been hearing from an incredible range of guest speakers (above), drawn from across the immersive storytelling community and beyond. With them, we have been hotly debating what we think is important, interesting, worrying, amazing and (often) ridiculous about this whole ‘XR’ thing.
It led us to wonder — what do we, as a group, believe in?
Before we dive right in to making more ambitious practical projects in the weeks and months ahead, we wanted to take a moment to collect our thoughts. This manifesto is our best attempt to capure this moment, and share it with you , our wider community. We hope it has sparked something interesting for you, and would love to hear your thoughts. Talk to us @UWEBristolVR.
Vive la révolution ✊
Note: If this sort of thing is your jam, we cannot recommend Virtual Futures: A Manifesto for Immersive Experiences by Julia Scott-Stevenson highly enough. Julia is a great friend of the course, and has been a huge inspiration to all of us.
