Immersive journalism
11 Feb
Remember my wish to have more immersive installations of photography instead of static 2D work? Well, the other day I read about the “immersive journalism” of Nonny de la Pena, who addresses hunger in Los Angeles with a virtual recreation of the experience of witnessing a chaotic scene in front of a food bank overwhelmed by a long line and of a man going into diabetic coma because of it.
Viewers put on a pair of 3D glasses and hear audio she recorded at the scene. The immersive aspect of the experience is mostly carried by the audio, and it is the feel of an experience rather than a viewing. According to de la Pena, experience is salient for its uniqueness, yet of course this technology does seek to make experience replicable.
An excerpt from the interview:
The number one reasons why it works is that the audio is so compelling. We spent hours recording audio and did good boots-on-the-ground journalism first. But I do think that people feel a sense of presence that they’re there. And that trick on the mind comes from the goggles covering your eyes with images that refresh according to when you move your head and therefore feels really natural. So the second reason it works is I’m building with this incredibly powerful technology.
There’s a whole gamut of educational applications. You have museum installations. We’ve been working in our lab on an iPhone viewer, which is actually surprisingly effective. Then you start to think about distribution of news in a larger way. I argue, people don’t like to hear it, but I argue that content is so copy-able but experience remains unique.
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