Join us at UCL East - Marshgate to explore How to tell difficult stories in Virtual Reality. Dive into the world of immersive storytelling and learn how to convey challenging narratives through the power of VR. Whether you're a seasoned creator or just starting out, this event will inspire you to push the boundaries of storytelling.

VR tends to make stories more intense and emotionally primed while also putting the audience right at the centre of events, all of which is challenging when telling a sad, bleak or potentially traumatic story.

Along with the ethical challenge of putting users in the middle of potentially difficult stories, how do we manage content so audiences continue to choose to put on a headset to experience first hand something tjhat could be deeply upsetting. If VR is in its awkward teenage years, it might not make it to adulthood if audiences aren’t willing participants in the stories they’re offered. Should we only be making joyful stories? If, as the research seems to indicate, this medium is powerful enough to change behaviours, values and understanding of the world, then how can we develop it, responsibly and ambitiously, to mean it can cover a wide breadth of topics.

Creator Dee Harvey and writer, Rob Morgan join academics and creators to discuss what we as makers and consumers can do to manage these challenges and produce compelling VR work that affects and connects with audiences.

(Dee Harvey is the creator of Heartbeat VR, which takes users into the world of miscarriage. Rob Morgan has recently published Storytelling for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality.)