Calling all conscious content makers who want to make the real world a better place through Virtual Reality

VRTogether is a recently launched non-profit initiative hoping to make a difference by bringing together a community of people to leverage Virtual Reality technology to effect change. Rather than financing projects, the platform encourages people to connect and engage with each other around VR projects that aim for the greater good.

VRTogether wants to bring producers of immersive content together for good causes
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Organisations and individuals looking for production studios, research partners, ideas or advice will be able to post their work and those with the expertise needed can offer help. By working together, these important projects can become a reality.

“The infrastructure has been built, now it needs to be populated,” explains VRTogether Founder Daryl Atkins from creative agency REWIND. “We’re asking people to invest a little time to create content which has the power to make a difference. Virtual Reality technology provides a compelling new way of telling stories and engaging people. The stories that need telling the most are often the most difficult to get off the ground, and we felt that amongst the day-to-day commercial projects that helped create the industry, we had a social responsibility to give something back to the wider community.”

The platform launched with a project from Whales.org to create an immersive experience showing the reality for whales and dolphins held in captivity to inspire positive action.

One of the first projects on the platform is a partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation
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“By using virtual reality, we can create an experience that enables people to see life from a whale or dolphin’s eyes, and can educate them about the sad contrast between life in a concrete tank and life in the ocean. VR is a great tool to get the public involved with the issue and brings us a step closer to stopping whale and dolphin captivity for good. By signing up to VRTogether you can help us to make a real change through technology,” says Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC).

Virtual reality can change what a person sees, how they think, what they feel and even how someone behaves, in part because we believe it to be ‘reality’. This is why VR has already been used to treat conditions including autism, PTSD, depression, anxiety and even promote recovery in paraplegics and even tackle phobias.

“The way VR Together is wedding the inspired community of conscious VR makers together is unparalleled,” believes Catherine Day, Head of AR/VR at Missing Pieces and board advisor to VRTogether. “We all recognize VR has the potential to do what many hoped the first film camera would do – make it impossible to turn a blind eye to suffering, injustice, and ignorance.  There’s no way to turn a blind eye in VR, and because it is consumed digitally, and mostly via mobile, we can immediately take action before the transient moment of inspiration to do so has expired. Cause-based VR was the first genre to prove the power of the medium to the masses, the first to win awards, and if we continue to believe in one another’s dreams and help each other to realize them… pro-social and environmental VR will continue to sustain and advance immersive storytelling.”

VRTogether’s Board of Advisors also includes the “Godmother of VR” Nonny de la Peña, CEO of the Emblematic Group which has produced many experiences exploring the power of VR to create empathy as well as the Director of VR and New Media at the Raindance Film Festival Mária Rakušanová. Find out more about it at vrtogether.org

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post VR For the Greater Good appeared first on Tech Trends.

Virtual reality has the potential to be a game-changer when it comes to empathetic storytelling by challenging stigma and shifting the conversation about abortion access in America, according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The organisation’s Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer Dawn Laguens says that by sharing their virtual reality film Across the Line with more people around the country they hope to create opportunities for more people to talk openly and honestly about abortion.

Planned Parenthood hopes the film creates constructive conversations around abortion
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Across the Line places viewers in the shoes of a patient who encounters protesters while entering a health centre for a safe and legal abortion. Co-created by Nonny de la Peña of Emblematic Group and Brad Lichtenstein and Jeff Fitzsimmons from 371 Productions/Custom Reality Services, the film uses real audio gathered at protests along with scripted scenes and documentary footage.

There is a growing body of research around VR and empathy
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The film is part of on-going efforts by Planned Parenthood and other sexual and reproductive health organizations to reduce stigma and change the conversation around safe and legal abortion. By putting the audience in the virtual shoes of someone who is trying to access a safe and legal abortion, it tries to provide a better understanding of the upset that thousands of women face every day as they seek health care in America.

Virtual Reality is a powerful medium that inspires a deeper level of empathy
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There is a growing body of research around the fact that such virtual experiences can engender feelings of empathy by allowing the viewer to experience something from someone else’s perspective first-hand and this latest survey data adds further evidence to that argument.

From January through April 2016, researchers from the Sea Change Program, an organization dedicated to transforming the culture of stigma around abortion, surveyed 284 viewers and intended viewers of Across the Line on their attitudes toward abortion and toward clinic harassment and violence. The survey results indicated that VR can move people’s feelings on sensitive issues such as a abortion and the harassment that is commonplace at many abortion clinics, specially in the US where planned parenthood operates, as an extract from the report details:

Overall, Across the Line is an effective tool for increasing support for women who have abortions and decreasing support for protestors outside of reproductive health clinics — even among moderate and slightly conservative audiences. After viewing the film, most interview respondents become more sympathetic to women entering health clinics and become more critical of clinic harassment outside of abortion clinics. On surveys, film viewers expressed more disapproval of clinic harassment than a comparable group that hadn’t yet seen the film.

Planned Parenthood also worked with the strategic communications firm SKDKnickerbocker in close consultation with Sea Change to interview people in Kansas City and Atlanta with moderate and conservative views about abortion, and found that seeing the film led to decreased tolerance for clinic harassment and increased empathy toward women who decide to have an abortion. More than three-quarters of people interviewed said that they would support legislation that keeps protesters away from clinics and two-thirds said they would more likely support candidates who support access to safe and legal abortion.

“We have suspected for a long time that virtual reality is a powerful medium which can incite empathy at a deeper level and also potentially shift opposing attitudes,” said de la Peña. “This study breaks new ground by showing that this in fact does hold true in the real world. With so many women facing increased lack of access to health care, it is exciting to see that our VR piece can have an impact around this issue.”

According to Planned Parenthood, while an overwhelming majority of Americans believe abortion must remain safe and legal, in reality many women in the U.S. face barriers to sexual and reproductive health care. Since 2011, states have enacted over 300 abortion restrictions and more than half of American women of reproductive age now live in states where access to abortion is being restricted by their state legislatures.

Women in the U.S. face barriers to sexual and reproductive health care
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Across the Line premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and received the Future of Storytelling Prize People’s Choice Award at the 2016 Future of Storytelling Festival, a SIMA 2017 Award for Best Sound Experience in the Virtual Reality Category and was recognized at the annual Media Impact Festival. Tech Trends experienced the film first-hand at the Raindance Film Festival in London last year where it was part of its first-ever VR Showcase. It is currently available here on GearVR, Google Cardboard and desktop viewing.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post How Virtual Reality is Changing Minds appeared first on Tech Trends.