VR – digitalclay

UNVISIBLE

an immersive story by Pratima Pal

The project titled “unvisible” explores the theme of invisibility in society, highlighting the experiences of marginalized individuals who feel unseen or unheard. The term “Unvisible” refers to what is visible but hiding in plain sight due to the over-familiarity of the subject.

Concept:

Unvisible is a pioneering 6DOF PCVR storytelling project designed to explore the use of MetaHumans in the Virtual Reality pipeline. This project is the author’s debut VR installation. Its exploratory nature is meant for learning and investigating the affordances of VR technology in creating a spatial world with spatial audio and figuring out how the sense of presence could help this extremely demanding emotional narrative.

Through virtual reality storytelling, it aims to immerse viewers in the perspectives of marginalised individuals, fostering empathy and understanding. This project delves into the emotional impact of invisibility and challenges viewers to confront their own biases and assumptions.

Unvisible represents a significant advancement in VR storytelling, merging cutting-edge technology with a compelling narrative to create a transformative experience for viewers.

Despite having extensive experience in series and commercial work, this creator aimed to shift focus toward narratives with a profound societal impact. However, based on surveys conducted, the goal of provoking social change was not fully realized.

Nevertheless, the project provided valuable insights and learnings that contributed to the understanding of effective storytelling techniques for achieving social impact within the virtual reality medium. She comes away from this experience having gained newer affordances of the technology and new pathways that can be taken all over again.

VR installation of unvisible

Team:

The project pulled people across Germany, India, UK, USA, Poland, and Canada working in multiple time zones. Experts from their respective fields of VR and interactive, motion capture technology, Unreal TDs, stage actors, graffiti artists, graphic designers, and even members of the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra found themselves drawn to the story and the characters.

Tom Owen (composer)