A Conversation about Virtual Reality at South by Southwest
Hey there everybody and welcome to Android Authority, I'm Josh Vagar here with the four of us who are here at South by Southwest in Austin Texas for an incredible event that is all about virtual reality and VR. We're having a great time exploring the different panels and demos that are available here, not just talking about virtual reality but also experiencing it firsthand.
The panel I attended today was particularly interesting, titled "Using Virtual Reality to Create Compassion". The idea behind this panel is to explore how virtual reality can be used to create stories and raise awareness about various issues happening in the world. The panel was led by Natalie Eel, director of marketing for Pencils of Promise, Cliff Palmer, president of John Studios, and Gabo Aurora, a filmmaker for the UN.
Gabo Aurora shared some fascinating examples of how virtual reality is being used to create a public mindset about certain issues. He showed us a quick clip from one of his projects, which gave us a glimpse into what it's like to put cameras in place and experience the area firsthand. Gabo emphasized the importance of having a sense of reality even in virtual reality, as it can motivate people to take action rather than just escaping from problems.
Cliff Palmer also shared some insights on how VR can be used for educational purposes, raising awareness about issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. He highlighted the potential of VR to change our perspective and create empathy for those who are fighting for a cause. Gabo's presentation was particularly poignant, as it showcased the struggles faced by people in solitary confinement in prisons and jails.
The panel also discussed the importance of accessibility and the need to educate people about the capabilities of virtual reality. Gabo mentioned that the VR experience he showed us was designed to be shared widely, with a call-to-action for everyone who watched to sign a petition to ban youth solitary confinement. The panel concluded by emphasizing the potential of VR as an incredibly powerful tool and platform that can be used to educate people about important causes.
The conversation around virtual reality is not just limited to entertainment purposes, but also extends to education and social change. We believe that these extra-mile applications of virtual reality are going to become more prevalent and important as technology continues to evolve.
As we explore the world of virtual reality here at South by Southwest, we want to share our experiences with you and provide insights into what's possible when it comes to this platform. From live music venues to tourist attractions, VR is already being used in a variety of ways that might not be immediately apparent. However, as Darcy noted in another video about his panel experience, VR is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to become an incredibly powerful tool for good.
As we continue to explore the world of virtual reality, we want to encourage you to think outside the box and consider new applications for this technology. We're excited to share our coverage of South by Southwest with you, including more about virtual reality, and everything else from our colleagues in Android Authority. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like our videos, and join us as we explore the next platform of content creation and consumption.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's Josh vagar from Android authority what's going on everybody and us here at Android authority the four of us that are here are having a great time here in Austin Texas for South by Southwest but of course we are here to talk about virtual reality and VR and they have a great uh a number of panels and also demos here at Austin Texas for uh the ability to not only talk about VR but also experience it but a number of the panels that we did go to today were all about how to create stories with virtual reality and the one that I went to in particular is called using virtual reality to create compassion now there's no doubt that virtual reality is essentially a way for you to step into a moment in time and be able to experience everything about it through sound through an immersive look around the uh area in a 360 View using 360 video or a photo of course uh and what they're talking about in this particular panel which was head by Natalie eel who was a director of marketing for pencils of Promise uh Cliff Palmer who's the president of John Studios we'll have links for all these people at the in the description below but also gabo Aurora who is a filmmaker for the UN and um this was a very interesting panel because gabo in particular was showing and uh sort of explaining a couple of main examples of how virtual reality was used in order to create sort of a public mindset about various issues that are happening in the world right now now what you saw there was a quick clip that he showed uh just sort of showing what it's like from the filmmaker's perspective of actually putting all of these VR cameras out there and also getting a small glimpse into what it's like to Traverse that area and what kind of what what the people were like at uh in Syria there always has to be a sense of reality even in virtual reality that hopefully motivates people to do things not just escape from a problem now there's times where it's helpful we've had a lot of conversations with folks and just wellness and people might just be going through you know whether it's cancer treatment or something that you know while they're inog just put on a pair of doggos and just Escape for the moment but um I think as this emerges we do have to be thinking about um you know especially young people as they start getting more and more in virtuity that you know it's ultimately something that we're doing again we're motivate people to get out there not just Escape yeah but the other example and this was one that really spoke to the idea of creating compassion was a VR presentation that delved into the problem s and the somewhat torturous uh conditions of solitary confinement in prisons and jails the content of it is what so drives it you know it's narrated by a man who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for over 20 years and large majority of which she spent in solitary confinement and at the end of the pie he says you know in these next moments take off your headset and in these next moments you get to take off your headset and return return to your daily life but for over 880,000 Americans that's not the case sign the aclu's petition to ban youth solit find it and every single person did it everyone took off their headset and signed a petition so it's easy to think of virtual reality headsets and experiences as new ways of experiencing content and we usually think about that from the entertainment sense we have live music venues that show it we have uh tourist uh applications then we have gaming of course and also movies of course um so these are all different ways of viewing the same platform but really VR can also be a way for us to educate the people and this was a panel that was very much about that not only educating people about certain causes and issues but also to have them experience what it is that they might actually be fighting for or fighting against and I think that's a really profound way of looking at virtual reality outside of the scope of let's say what you guys might view VR as at the moment and I think it's those extra mile and those extra applications of virtual reality that are going to become more and more prevalent and also more important as it's um as its life continues as Darcy says in another video um about his panel that he what he reacted to here at Android authority uh VR is still in its infancy but it's already an incredibly powerful tool and an incredibly powerful platform and we only have to just think of it in a number of different ways and a number of different applications in order to make it better than what it is right now and if we're going to be able to change the world via VR I think that's uh that's a pretty interesting and also very let's say profound way of looking at at what might be the next big thing in technology so keep it tuned to Android Authority for even more about virtual reality here at South by Southwest in Austin Texas Android authority of course is here taking a look at VR which is the next platform of content creation and content consumption so we wanted to get our feet wet and actually see virtual reality for all it can be here in Austin Texas keep it tuned here for even more for that and everything else from our colleagues in Android and you can always subscribe to the channel here and also drop us some likes on these videos because we love to see those thumbs up we hope you guys are enjoy joing our coverage of South by Southwest and we have even more for you because we are your source for all things Android\n"
