VR ‘homelessness experience’ that zips you into a tent and asks: ‘Are you a good person?’
THIS week’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, featured a host of new technologies, including an interactive film experience about homelessness.
The short film is called The Tent and is experienced via a tablet.
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Viewers spend the second half of the film alone and are zipped into a real tent.
One of the most unusual aspects of this form of entertainment is that virtual and augmented reality are often associated with experiencing a life that is better or more expansive than your own.
The Tent offers a different kind of experience that will make you question your own morality.
Director of The Tent Rory Mitchell spoke to The US Sun about why he thinks experiencing VR in this way is important.
“Experiencing the second part of the story in the tent has generated a lot of interesting reactions from the audience.
“I think people find that even sitting on the ground in a tent for ten minutes is too much for them and it causes claustrophobia, cramps and the uncomfortable feeling of being in the tent, giving them a physical sensation that makes them immerses himself in the story further,” he told us.
“At one point we even thought about having people dress up as police officers so they could take you outside afterwards.”
The Tent is a 21-minute mixed-reality cinematic experience that follows the story of a woman in Los Angeles who wakes up to find a homeless person in her front yard.
It is told like a fairy tale and asks the questions, “What does it take to live a life that is in alignment with your deepest values?” and “Why is it so complicated to be a good person?”
The experience begins outside the tent, with viewers looking into a tablet and seeing something that resembles Snow White’s mirror.
You’re told you’re a good person and then you fly to a virtual city and focus on one house in particular.
Viewers can move around while holding the tablet and watch the movie from different angles.
One thing you never see is inside the virtual tent or the person in it.
At first, the woman who owns the house wants to let the homeless man live in her garden and even prepare meals for him regularly.
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The second part of the experience is viewed from the tent and shows the two main characters having various disputes.
By the end, the main character wonders if she should call the police and remove this person from her property.
“I think VR, AR, XR really give us a new way to explore the world and tell stories,” Mitchell told us.
“We can tell distractions. We can tell fun soap operas in this style and we can also, like all great art, tell stories that are about what it means to be human and how we can live better together.”
When asked what he hoped people would get out of this experience, Mitchell responded, “That it’s just a twist of fate whether you’re the woman of the house or the woman in the tent and that we can look at ourselves and make a conversation about ethical activism and how we can best help each other.”
The director also revealed plans to make the film accessible through the App Store.
“The reason we built it for mobile is so we can distribute it through the App Store so people can get a taste of spatial entertainment at home on their kitchen table and it’s still going to be an incredible experience,” he told us.