People often see immersive technology as a way of entering new worlds to experience things that they would never normally get to do in real life. While there is certainly much out there to delight and entertain, immersive stories can also enable a glimpse into someone else's world or provoke new perspectives on social or political issues. This week we look at the issue-based work of two XR makers: Francesca Panetta, who led the Guardian’s VR studio and more recently has been dabbling in deep fake technology; and Karen Palmer, whose body of recent immersive work deals with race, ethics and AI to challenge our own implicit biases.

With Francesca Panetta and Karen Palmer

Francesca Panetta, Artist & Journalist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-panetta-895b457/

Karen Palmer, Artist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/storytellerfromthefuture/

Credits:

Presenter: Shehani Fernando

Producers: Chris Hogg & Shehani Fernando 

Assistant Producer: Max Bower

Executive Producer: Will Saunders

Editing and sound design: John Wakefield & Matt McGuinness

The title track is ‘A Thousand Years’ by David A Molina

Other music: ‘Allston Night Owl’ by Blue Dot Sessions courtesy of Free Music Archive

Additional music by Neil Cullen

Clips from ‘In Event of Moon Disaster’, courtesy of MIT Centre for Advanced Virtuality 

Clips from ‘6x9’ and ‘Sea Prayer’, Copyright Guardian News & Media Ltd 2020

Clips from ‘Riot’ courtesy of Karen Palmer.

Resources: 

In Event of Moon Disaster - co-directed by Francesca Panetta & Halsey Bergund, an MIT Centre for Advanced Virtuality Production

https://moondisaster.org/

6x9: A virtual experience of solitary confinement

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2016/apr/27/6x9-a-virtual-experience-of-solitary-confinement

Experience all The Guardian’s 360 content

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa_1MA_DEorE_Qwa-4uURxeOvRxYfqA-6

Karen Palmer

http://karenpalmer.uk/

Thoughtworks Arts

https://thoughtworksarts.io/

Immerse News

Creative discussion of emerging non fiction storytelling (and great newsletter)

https://immerse.news/

MIT’s Docubase of new forms of documentary storytelling

https://docubase.mit.edu/

VR Non-fiction - A Mediography

http://vrdocumentaryencounters.co.uk/vrmediography/

Virtual Reality: Immersive Documentary Encounters research project

http://vrdocumentaryencounters.co.uk/

Canny AI

https://www.cannyai.com/

Respeecher - Voice cloning

https://www.respeecher.com/

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