Science Fiction and Virtual Reality

 

The growing popularity of virtual reality provides a new way to reimagine the science fiction genre through immersive experience. Both are stretching the imagination of the audience to explore places that are unfamiliar and different from reality. Science Fiction has been successful as a genre whether as a book, graphic novel, film, animation, or game.

This project explores how virtual reality can tap into a new dimension of adventure, storytelling, and a sense of awe.

Figure 1

Source Courtesy of Freepik. (Night Sky Glows with Galaxy Mystical Silhouette Generative AI)

“VR is shared and objectively present like the physical world, composable like a work of art, and as unlimited and harmless as a dream. When VR becomes widely available, around the turn of the century, it will not be seen as a medium used within physical reality, but rather as an additional reality. VR opens up a new continent of ideas and possibilities. At Texpo 89 we set foot on the shore of this continent for the first time. --VPL Research at Texpo 89” ¹

In other words, virtual reality opens a new world which has the potential to become an additional reality. This will inevitably affect our way of thinking, perceiving and ultimately, the way we create. We can build a dream or a work of art that can be shared for others to experience inside a 3-Dimensional (3D) environment. Or, in the words of “Hollywood watch out, soon VR will let us into our fantasies.”³

Virtual reality companies target science fiction as their subject for their projects.² Science fiction has always been a genre where designers and developers can be creative without boundaries.

Fantasy and Discovery

The immersive presence that virtual reality can provide us and takes us to virtual places in a way that it feels like we are a part of that place. It can be an enchanting world full of magical things like we can only see in films. In virtual reality, this fantasy world can be experienced through realistic visuals, sound effects and interactivity that gives us a sense of being in it as if it is real.

Unlike other mediums, virtual reality can take us inside a world where we can explore and have the sense of adventure. Therefore, enhancing the narrative experience through virtual reality can evoke feelings such as excitement, wonder, joy, and amazement.

While successful media for presenting fantasy world are novels, television, and film, ³ we are exploring if virtual reality can accomplish the same. Would a fluorescent tree, floating orbs of light, or a magical creature be sufficient to experience and conclude that we are in a fantasy virtual world? Or does it need something more? One possible way to make a world feel like a new world, specifically a fantasy world, no matter in which medium it is presented, is the story and the way it is told.

Pixar Animation cofounder Ed Catmull said to a reporter with ‘The Guardian’ that virtual reality is not storytelling. People have been trying to do it for 40 years, but they haven’t succeeded according to Ed Catmull.⁴ Storytelling in virtual reality is different compared to traditional media like cinema. However, comparing virtual reality with film is somewhat like comparing a book to a film. Telling the story in different mediums is different. Books and cinema take us to the story and show us the perspective of the character of the story, while virtual reality is inviting the audience to step in, be part of the story and influence it. Even the style of being just present inside the world like ‘The Swayze Effect’ is like being the camera hovering around the world watching over the character of the story. ⁵ One successful virtual reality storytelling is ‘Allumette’ by Penrose⁶ where the audience become the camera in the story and get absorbed inside the story, surrounding and the characters.

Whether virtual reality has the capacity to tell a story or not, perhaps we are to examine the idea of storytelling. If the audience has the power to change the plot or the outcome, we must anticipate and account different possibilities in developing the story. It seems this way of storytelling would require extensive knowledge of behavioral psychology as well as the art of storytelling. Perhaps, what we really should be thinking is how to apply what fantasy is to a new medium? How do we make the audience experience the unexpected?

“Storytelling in virtual reality is less about telling the viewer a story and more about letting the viewer discover the story”. ⁷ Virtual Reality gives us different lenses to view the world, to discover new things, and immerse ourselves in the experience.

Virtual Reality, Art, and Creativity

Virtual Reality technology can successful audience to various virtual environments where they can experience an imaginary world. The participants can experience the point of view of the protagonist in the story where they can potentially control the body of the protagonist. The participant can hear, see, and move the virtual body according to their liking that creates the feeling of connection to the virtual world. The narrative in an enchanted environment and alternate realities is a creative genre of science fiction which can give us a glimpse of the future or imaginary world where it can inspire new ideas and provoke the mind of the audience. Science fiction ignites the creativity of the audience and transforms the perspective.

This is why science fiction is loved by many. Besides the artistic and creative approach through storytelling, science fiction is often predictive, or extrapolative.⁸ It gives us an alternative world where we can experience good or bad and gives us a glimpse of the future where we have technologies that haven’t been invented yet, even living in an alien world where everything is different compared to our world.

Conclusion

Virtual reality (VR) technology indulges the participants in a virtual world to experience fantasy, fictional and unknown places through immersive experience. While traditional media such as books, films, animations, games, and graphic novels are great medium for storytelling, virtual reality has its uniqueness of presenting the story through virtual world. Virtual reality enables the audience to become part of the story. Head Mounted Displays (HMD) delivers the visual, sound and the connection with the virtual body, creating the feeling from the point of view of the character. The audience has control in real-time and can make choices based on their preferences. This ultimately creates a different perspective of being part of the story and empathise with the characters and the circumstances.

With this technology, we have a new creative medium for designers, artists, and storytellers to use to be closer to the audience that gives a new level of experience and perspective. Books, graphic novels, animation, and films are our go-to mediums when we want to be entertained or just escape from our daily lives. Science Fiction has taken us to different places through the art of storytelling and creative visuals. Imagine exploring a unique virtual world that we can experience and immerse ourselves in, where we can be fully absorbed by the fantasy world and be a part of the story.

There are numerous possibilities of virtual reality for science fiction genre and many different methodologies and techniques for storytelling. While storytelling in virtual reality is a new territory that needs more research and analysis, we can conclude that immersive experience is not all about seeing new out-of-this-world creatures and worlds, it is about discovering it. Thus, the line between the story and the audience is blurred. It is challenging the creators, as well as the audience.

 

List of Illustrations:

Figure 1: Freepik, (Night Sky Glows with Galaxy Mystical Silhouette Generative AI) (https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/night-sky-glows-with-galaxy-mystical-silhouette-generative-ai_41040734.htm#query=fantasy%20world&position=5&from_view=search&track=ais#position=5&query=fantasy%20world )

 

 

References:

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