Embodiment

Spatial storytelling in VR allows audiences to embody different viewpoints and explore perspectives beyond their own.

Story potential in a nutshell

  1. Metamorphosis: Embodiment allows the audience to transform into someone or something else in the virtual world.
  2. New perspectives: Through transformation, embodiment allows the audience to develop new perspectives on the world.
  3. Empathy: Embodiment increases understanding and empathy for underrepresented and marginalised characters and issues.
  4. Intimacy: Embodiment allows momentary and intimate glimpses into the perspectives of others.

Spatial storytelling in VR has the potential to change not only where you are in the world, but also who or what you are. Embodiment is a key benefit of impactful spatial storytelling as it allows the audience to visit the virtual experience as who they are in the physical world or to transform into someone or something else, such as being in a different body or gender, becoming another species or even a black hole.

«VR has the unique ability to allow participants to explore what it’s like to be someone or something else.»

This ability of VR to allow the audience to develop new ways of looking at the world and to see things that are outside their capabilities and biases makes spatial storytelling in VR a compelling form for increasing understanding and empathy for underrepresented, inaccessible or marginalised characters, societies or points of view. Embodiment therefore enhances the ability to address issues such as racial injustice, gender identity, disability, mental illness or inequality, to name but a few.

Regardless of the degree of embodiment in the virtual universe, spatial storytelling invites the audience to inhabit the intimate worlds of others and undergo a momentary metamorphosis. By being exposed to different personas or entities, either by virtually embodying them or engaging with their simulated realities, the audience can vicariously explore new dimensions of existence and develop a deeper understanding of worlds beyond their own.

Sensational Embodiment

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