A new way of experiencing stories is being born from the hand of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality. In this stuttering medium, creators are still enjoying the experimentation that comes hand in hand with the creation of a new narrative language.
Through this subject we will immerse ourselves in the different ways of living these types of experiences and how they manipulate our senses (beyond sight and hearing). We will navigate the different genres or currents that are already beginning to be identified by visiting various immersive narratives that have made their way into the sections of festivals such as Venice, IDFA, Sundance, Tribeca or Cannes.
The student is expected to understand the different existing immersive technologies in all their narratological variety and learn about the narrative language of this medium. They are also expected to be able to deduce what kind of story takes advantage of the immersive potential and for which ones it is better to stay in the “frame” world.
UNIT 1. Introduction to the different types of immersive technologies (VR, AR, 360,…) and how they experiment with different ways of putting our senses in check.
UNIT 2. Brief historical context of the formation of this new medium and the current state of the industry and language.
UNIT 3. Different “use-cases” of VR and the most successful cases of immersive application.
UNIT 4. Narratives in VR and AR and the different currents:
UNIT 5. Analysis of “flat” versus “immersive” experiences
The active participation and involvement of the students in the sessions of the course will be taken into account for the evaluation (up to 20% of the final grade). On the other hand, the bulk of the assessment will consist of the delivery of a final project, which may be a written text, or even a dossier or prototype of an XR project (80% of the final mark).
Possible formats are:
Experience on demand: What Virtual Reality is, how it Works and what it can do. – Jeremy Bailenson
Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives – John Bucher
The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution – Irena Cronin and Robert Scoble
Metaverse – Charlie Fink
The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook and the Revolution that swept Virtual Reality – Blake J. Harris
Fiction with VR usecases:
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
Complementary resources:
Podcast by the “oral historian of VR” Kent Bye: Voices of VR: (https://voicesofvr.com/)