Studio resident Catherine Allen is partway through producing a new Virtual Reality (VR) documentary, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, with BBC iWonder, VRTOV and Crossover Labs. In this Lunchtime Talk, Catherine drew a number of parallels with her experience in theatre as well as raising some interesting questions about the future of VR as a medium of storytelling versus a way to transfer experiences. Here are five things I learned:

1. Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel is a new VR documentary that transports its users back to 1916 Dublin, through the memory of 19 year old protagonist Willie McNieve. The story uses Willie’s first-person account of the events of the Easter Rising through a voice recording found in recent years by his grandson. 

2. Catherine identified a desire to create and explore a new method for people to engage with history. The use of source archive material and oral history is intended to give the users the sensation of being immersed in one person’s first-hand experience of the Easter Rising through VR. 

3. One of this project’s primary challenges is addressing spacial storytelling. When a user’s field of vision is 360 degrees, and they are not being directed to a specific focus, the content must build in space for any number of different journeys through the story. Catherine compared this to theatre in the round; the story must be adaptable to every possible viewing angle.

4. Giving the user a role in the story has been a key principle of this project’s development. The user is transported into a memory; they are hearing a first-person account of real events, which is combined with illustrative representations of those events rather than life-like visuals. It’s akin to stepping into a painting.

5. Catherine ended her talk with a fascinating provocation about VR’s potential as a whole: great non-fiction VR doesn’t have to revolve around stories. Human experiences can be transferred through VR, which could release content makers from being bound to the medium of storytelling. For example VR, unlike “rectangle media”, has the capability to give the user the sensation of standing atop a tall building, peering into the void. 

Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel will be available from late Spring 2016; there will also be an online version.