Events & Announcements
Upcoming events
Currently there are no upcoming events. Please stay posted.
Past events
- Master class & Public Lecture w/ Prof. Mandy Rose – Virtual Reality and the Immersive Turn, May 15, 2025
This event was organized in collaboration with RMeS (Research School of Media Studies) & NOG (Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies)
In this master class, we critically analyzed immersive technologies through, amongst others, media, postcolonial, and gender studies lenses, reflecting on their ethical implications. We explored the potential of decolonial storytelling to enable new ways of engaging with social realities (Rose 2018). Prof. Rose explored the challenges and potentials for social critique and new forms of knowledge as documentary makers engage with immersive Virtual Reality.
During the master class we also showed the VR production ‘All I know about Teacher Li‘, which was generously made available to us by the director Zhuzmo, through the support of IDFA.
During the public lecture, Prof. Mandy Rose discussed the following:
Focusing on immersive media, and the unexpected take-up of Virtual Reality (VR) for nonfiction in the last decade, this lecture considers issues arising for documentary as producers engage the platforms, technologies and types of audience experience enabled by digital. Through case studies of award-winning nonfiction works, I’ll discuss the epistemological ramifications of the frameless media experience of VR and the feelings of embodiment and what’s known as presence which are regarded as VR’s defining characteristics. I’ll discuss tensions between the affordances of immersion and the work of social critique that has been central to documentary’s mission. In these VR projects audiences become immersants – with touch, walking, vibration, even smell and heat becoming part of media experience. I’ll consider these multisensory registers being introduced into VR experiences as an alternative to the visuality that has dominated media since its inception. Might the tactile epistemologies of VR offer an alternative to what Donna Haraway has called the “God trick” of seeing everything from nowhere? Might multisensory registers encourage an attitude that Michael Taussig has called “yielding knowing” in relation to our fellow humans and the more-than-human, providing a new direction for documentary in our age of polycrisis?
This event was organized in collaboration with Stichting Movies that Matter The Phoenix of Gaza XR [Naim A.– Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb] and the NWO project VR as Empathy Machine.
Phoenix of Gaza XR is an interactive VR experience, capturing the untold stories of Gaza’s people and its transformation. Dive deep into the lives of those who endured and rebuilt. It’s more than VR — it’s a testament to resilience. The project includes hundreds of videos and images using 360-degree camera of daily activities in Gaza and the majority of historical places in the Gaza Strip before it was destroyed (about 80% of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed since October 7, 2023). The material includes images and videos of historical monuments, cultural sites, public squares, universities, schools, cafes, streets, agricultural areas, parks, beach, markets, and amusement places. This is in addition to capturing Palestinian culture through weddings, stitching workshops, dabke (traditional dance), palm harvesting, clay and pottery making, and other hand-made professions
- Immserive Tech Week Rotterdam – December 5, 2024
On December 5, 2024 we hosted a panel at Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam on “10 years of the empathy machine: Where are we headed?”
Since the mid-2010s, humanitarian organisations and Big Tech have embraced Virtual Reality for immersive storytelling. Chris Milk’s 2015 TED talk popularised VR as the “ultimate Empathy Machine”, which for humanitarians became a promise to re-engage audiences. However, scholars also criticised this techno-utopian vision, arguing it offers a superficial solution to complex issues and fosters self-centred empathy.
This panel analysed a decade of Empathy Machine VR, its criticisms, post-pandemic evolution, and potential ways forward.
On April 19th, 2024, Utrecht University hosted the seminar “VR for Good,” bringing together VR researchers, practitioners, and industry leaders in the Netherlands. The event aimed to map the current VR landscape, discuss ongoing projects, and build a community of practice focused on using VR for societal benefit. Participants critically examined the potentials and pitfalls of addressing societal issues through immersive technologies, sharing challenges and approaches to foster interdisciplinary perspectives on using VR for good. This blog provides a brief recap of the speakers’ talks and the conversations that ensued.
Speakers
Sandra Ponzanesi
Wouter Oomen
Lisa Burghardt
Laurence Herfs
Martijn Kors
Benjamin de Wit
Marijke de Valck
Bregje Beneck
Robert Belleman
Mirjam Vosmeer
Mathijs Leenderts
Jiaxin Liu
Layla Farmahini Farahani
Joost Raessens
Lindy Damen