XR and the future of communication
Last month, Eva Fischer (founder and art director of Vienna’s most renowned festival and a beacon for audiovisual and immersive arts sound:frame) hosted a panel discussion titled “Virtual and Augmented Reality as an artistic medium and a tool for communication.” The panel's main goal was to examine the use of virtual reality (VR) as a new tool for digital artistic approaches and the creation of immersive experiences, thus also seeing it as a brand new medium of communication.
vrisch co-founder and CCO Gabriella Chihan Stanley was honoured to be one of the panelists. Gabriella is vrisch’s communications manager, founder and organizer of the XRVienna community. The other two experts in the field of virtual and augmented reality (XR) were Dr. Franziska Bruckner (Head of Research Group Media Creation at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences) and immersive artist Gregor Ladenhauf from the prestigious Viennese artistic duo DEPART.
The panel questions gave us all a lot of food for thought. The richness and variety of knowledge that was shared during these 45 minutes encouraged the panelists to dive deeper into some of the questions. In order to share the info with fellow XR creators as well as anyone interested in developing a VR experience, Gabriella decided to put her answers together and post them here as well. We hope we can inspire readers to use XR to its full potential and lay the foundation for strong, meaningful, and unforgettable XR experiences to come.
As a communication manager in the XR field, why is this medium so interesting for you?
Gabriella: XR in the context of communication is exciting for me because of 2 reasons: Firstly, because of its versatility. For instance, when we’re using XR to connect many people at once, we’re talking about it as a communication medium. However, when we use it in the context of a single user, we’re dealing with communication as an interface. In both cases, we’re talking about a new way of communication, whether with one another or with ourselves. That’s very exciting for me because we’re dealing with a new tool to perceive reality on a different level. Which brings me to my second point, its opportunities.
Immersive technologies, especially VR, offer us a new way to share a space with someone else. It enables us to build memories of experiences using a new sense of presence. In a nutshell, we can use them to enhance our capabilities as humans beyond the need of our physical bodies. These are all things I personally find fascinating and interesting enough to build a career around it.
You once said that you do not like the term “empathy machine” very much. Why?
I personally have mixed feelings when it comes to calling VR the “ultimate empathy machine,” as so many people refer to it. For me, the “ultimate empathy machine” will always be good storytelling and the creator’s ability to guide viewers to a series of key intimate moments. Combining these two elements leads spectators to create a personal bond with the content they’re experiencing. Different media offer unique possibilities. VR most definitely opens up a new chapter in how we consume, assimilate, and remember stories because of its immersive qualities. It brings us a lot closer to understanding certain situations from a much higher level through its high level of immersion.
However, in my opinion, VR alone, although a powerful tool, can’t (yet, at least) give the whole picture of a situation enough to create empathy on its own. Empathy is the process of understanding other people’s situations as if they were our own. Will spending 9 minutes inside a solitary confinement cell make us fully understand what a prisoner felt for 5 years? Or will experience being homeless for a day make us understand the lack of safety and anxiety of being homeless for 365 days a year? We can, of course, imagine how it must have felt like and create our own version of it. But it will still fail to reflect the complete picture. Perhaps my answer to that question is not a “no,” but a “not yet.”
Empathy is a process. And for me, VR is more of a potential gateway to empathy and not an empathy machine on its own. It can make us more interested in relating to others enough to think about them after the experience, and it makes us want to learn more about their situation. It makes us curious to learn more. It starts a process of discovery. It offers us a tool of understanding.
During the XR Vienna meetups, you are often using a 360° camera to capture the events in a very special way. Would you tell us a little bit more about your strategies?
This strategy comes from my wish to experiment with 360 videos as a medium. Specifically finding ways to narrate a story while trying to discover a new part of its potential as a new communication tool. For example, think of eye contact. This is one of the key ingredients for meaningful connections. During the events, I try to interact with the camera as if it were one more attendee. I talk to it, eat in front of it, point at the speaker, and nod my head in approval. In a way, this initiative is a small experiment to see how close we can get to the audience on the other side of the streaming and make it a meaningful event. I’m not aiming to precisely reproduce what it might have been to be an attendee of the event. Instead, I try to see how we can make it unique and, at the same time, useful for the person on the other side of the streaming.
I’ve recently read a book about how Silicon Valley was created. One of the things that struck me the most is that so many technologies fail because they somehow forget there’s a human on the other side of the receiver. Suppose we forget about the people on the other side, their feelings, needs, and reactions. We’re only creating a display of technology. And technology tends to become obsolete quickly, so we’re doomed to create content with a much shorter expiration date. Want an example? Think of how many 3D films you went to see trying to throw some kind of object to your face to scare you. Once, it’s funny. Twice is ok. The third time you’re already screaming, “let me out of here.”
What would you recommend somebody who wants to start producing content in VR?
- Think if the project makes sense in VR. Can it be done any other way? If so, perhaps you might have to consider your options a bit more. If you fail to find the significant added value to transport people to a virtual world, stick to what you know or get ready to innovate.
- Consider that a VR piece is much more than the experience itself. Think of how you’re going to prepare people to experience it, of the surroundings, of how to guide people into it, of a plan B in case they get sick or hate it, of the emotions after the experience.
- Make it safe. This can mean a lot of things, but let’s just name a few. Have a great VR facilitator looking after the people experiencing your VR piece. Make your audience feel that they’re in a safe, friendly atmosphere. VR is an intimate medium, and many people are afraid of isolating themselves from the world to try it out. Be aware of that, and offer comfort when needed.
- My personal golden rule: don’t produce mediocre content. Quality is crucial for mainstream audiences to adopt and embrace VR and protect the future of this technology and see it fulfill its potential. Never choose profit over value. This client or person who came to you asking for the killer VR experience needs to know upfront the limitations of the technology and assess if their expectations align with reality. Never promise something you can’t deliver. By all means, experiment with VR, but be sure to always give your 200% on each of your experiences.
How will the future look like? How will XR change our communication – as artists, as entrepreneurs, as people?
Whenever I think of XR's future when it comes to communication, I think of how mobile technology changed the way we interact with one another today. How many of us nowadays prefer to receive a text message rather than a phone call when the communication is unexpected? Or when was the last time we memorized a phone number? Mobile technology (and social media, for that matter) has altered how we exchange information amongst each other, giving birth to a whole new way of perceiving one another. Some might argue that communication has become more straightforward but not necessarily better.
When it comes to the potential effects of VR as a communication technology, I believe it will shift towards a more social use of XR. Think of not only its visual aspect, but also haptics, mobility, and even smells. Think of how these features can add new dimensions to human relationships, our relationship with nature, and even objects. The sense of presence we're gaining with using VR will fine-tune itself in the future. It will influence how we create memories or how we perceive our limitations as humans when we start thinking outside the boundaries of our physical bodies. I can think of a not so distant future where VR combined with 5G tech, could finally provide the data processing power needed to make VR truly mainstream.
Last but not least, I imagine XR to keep evolving into a more human-centered interface. Right now, we communicate with a computer system using a keyboard, a mouse, and a frontal screen or screens. XR has the potential of revolutionizing the way we interact with technology and data. The hardware will definitely shrink or no longer be necessary. And it will be more and more about the experience itself than what we need to make it happen.
Final words
As creators of a technology designed to transport audiences to new realities, we must make sure we’re using it responsibly and meaningfully. We must regularly set time aside to update ourselves on how to improve the quality and delivery of our experiences. We continuously need to remind ourselves that the best way to deliver unforgettable stories is to experience the world ourselves in memorable ways.
Live life. Dream beyond yourself. Build better realities. Share them with the world.
If you're interested in expanding your knowledge about this or any other topic in the field of XR, or have some examples of augmented and virtual reality applications, my team at vrisch and I would be thrilled to hear from you. We can advise you on many exciting ways in which you can incorporate immersive technologies in your upcoming projects. The step into a whole new reality is only a message away. Contact us!