[ISEA2019] Paper: Sojung Bahng, Toby Gifford & Jon McCormack — Anonymous: VR Storytelling through alienation and reflexivity

Abstract

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Cinematic VR, Empathy, Reflexivity, Alienation, Immersive Storytelling.

This paper describes practice-based research in the reflexive dimensions of cinematic VR, using alienation and disembodiment as rhetorical devices. Cinematic VR currently focuses on immersive illusion rather than inducing self-awareness, but VR can also create reflexive contexts for eliciting self and social reflection. Anonymous is an interactive cinematic VR that explores solitude and mortality, specifically people living and dying alone. The work plays on the technical limitations of VR technology as a narrative medium to create a sense of disembodiment and alienation, eliciting embodied reflexivity.

  • Sojung Bahng, Toby Gifford & Jon McCormack, SensiLab, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University Melbourne, Australia

Full text (PDF) p. 120-127

This project was supported by SensiLab at Monash univer- sity and the artist collective Artengine. We gratefully acknowledge the creative support of our colleagues and friends.