The United Nations Raises Awareness with a Virtual Reality Exploration
Rebecca Byers — October 9, 2015 — Pop Culture
References: adweek
The United Nations recently created a VR refugee camp experience in order to better communicate the harsh realities of a current global crisis to world leaders. The pop-up took place at the United Nations' New York Headquarters and utilized the Samsung Gear VR headset. The leaders first experienced the virtual reality film, while they were the audience to a talk afterwards.
The VR refugee camp experience transports users to the Za'atari refugee camp close to the Jordan-Syria border and follows the story of Sidra, a 12-year-old girl currently living there with her family and 80,000 other displaced Syrians.
The unique educational use of virtual reality in this sense is a intriguing take on its power as a modern storytelling tool. Specifically, this use of virtual reality is aimed at inspiring empathy from world leaders who have a stake in whether or not their nation will support crisis aid efforts.
The VR refugee camp experience transports users to the Za'atari refugee camp close to the Jordan-Syria border and follows the story of Sidra, a 12-year-old girl currently living there with her family and 80,000 other displaced Syrians.
The unique educational use of virtual reality in this sense is a intriguing take on its power as a modern storytelling tool. Specifically, this use of virtual reality is aimed at inspiring empathy from world leaders who have a stake in whether or not their nation will support crisis aid efforts.
Trend Themes
1. Virtual-reality Empathy Building - Using VR technology to inspire empathy for world crisis and conflicts in a unique and immersive way.
2. Education VR Tours - Creating VR experiences to provide an educational and immersive learning experience.
3. VR as Modern Storytelling Tool - Leveraging VR to create a more immersive, engaging, and impactful storytelling medium.
Industry Implications
1. Virtual Reality - Exploring opportunities for VR technology to be utilized for educational and storytelling purposes to solve social problems.
2. Humanitarian Aid - Utilizing new and emerging technologies to create innovative solutions for humanitarian crises.
3. Entertainment - Exploring how VR can become a more engaging storytelling medium that brings audiences to new, immersive experiences.
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