The Showcase launches three new VR nonfiction prototypes, commissioned within the EPSRC Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters research project. Experience the work, browse exhibition materials, and hear from the artists in panel discussions with special guest Nonny de la Peña CEO & Founder of award-winning innovation company Emblematic Group.

Panels 5:30pm - 7:30pm

These discussions will focus on themes reflected in research case studies on the three commissions - Translation, Co-creation and Operation.

5.30 - 6pm Transplant

Operation

Oscar Raby, Katy Morrison in conversation with special guest Nonny de la Peña chaired by Dr Kirsten Cater, Principal Investigator Virtual Realities, Reader in Computer Science at the University of Bristol.

Transplant is set in Chile under the dictatorship of General Pinochet. Centring on the ideas of biologist and philosopher Francisco Varela, as he undergoes a liver transplant, it asks; how do we repair a damaged organism? how do we reorganise a damaged society? Transplant asks us to consider, through interactive VR, the relationship between body and mind.

6.15pm - 6:45pm Love & Seawater

Co-Creation

Lisa Harewood and Ewan Cass-Kavanagh in conversation chaired by Mandy Rose, Co-Investigator Virtual Realities, Director of the Digital Cultures Research Centre, UWE Bristol.

Love and Seawater is the first VR work created by Filmmaker Lisa Harewood and creative technologist Ewan Cass-Kavanagh. This work addresses the legacy of the separations between parents and children that have been a feature of Caribbean economic migration and takes a participatory approach to production, involving those affected by this theme in developing a VR treatment of this previously invisible aspect of global migrant culture.

7pm - 7:30pm The Waiting Room:VR

Translation

Victoria Mapplebeck and Shehani Fernando and special guest, chaired by Professor Danaë Stanton Fraser, Co-Investigator Virtual Realities, Director of the CREATE laboratory at the University of Bath.

The Waiting Room: VR, from Bafta Award winner Victoria Mapplebeck tells the story of her own breast cancer from diagnosis through treatment to recovery. Through her first exploration of VR this project explores the cultural myths and language of chronic illness, asking us to confront what we can and what we can’t control when our bodies fail us.

We hope to provide the opportunity for each guest to experience at least one of the prototypes but due to strict space limitations we cannot guarantee this. Guests who confirm their attendance by completing this eventbrite registration will be emailed in the forthcoming weeks with more details and how to book.

The Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters Showcase