• by Steven Rosenbaum , Featured Contributor, April 9, 2018

Photo Credit: Steven Rosenbaum @MagnifyMedia

There’s lots of talk about cool new hardware these days. Oculus GO is soon to hit the market with a price point of $199 that’s sure to accelerate the virtual reality space.  The ultra-secretive Magic Leap, with funding at a staggering 1.9 billion, also sounds like a company with a product that may come out from behind the curtain.

But the big question for users isn’t what hardware will they buy, but rather: What exactly will virtual reality software do to change the way we experience storytelling?

The answer became just a big clearer last week when Columbia University presented its third annual Breakthroughs In Storytelling Awards. Juried by staff and associates of the school’s Digital Storytelling Lab, the awards celebrate the year’s most innovative examples of digitally enabled narrative.

This year’s 12 winners didn’t disappoint.

Lance Weiler, lab co-founder and director, and Frank Rose, lab member and author of “The Art of Immersion,” acted as masters of ceremonies. Award presenters included  Karen Palmer, creator of the emotionally responsive video “RIOT,” Kevin Slavin, chief science and technology office of The Shed,  Ellen Lupton, author of “Design Is Storytelling,” and Noah Brier, co-founder of Percolate.

All twelve projects were remarkable and are worth checking out here.

Experiencing them, I was reminded just far virtual reality is from mass media.  Most of the winners were a mix of VR and physical places, things you had to touch and watch

Two projects deserve specific mention.

The Breakthrough Award went to “The Oracles,” produced by Punchdrunk, which also produces immersive theater piece “Sleep No More.” Inspired by the myth of Hercules and his 12 labors, the project was designed to engage pupils of a primary school in North London with Greek mythology and mathematics and to improve digital literacy. One look at this video, and you can see this kind of immersive education works. 

The Special Jury Prize went to “Zero Days VR,” based on a documentary directed by Alex Gibney. The documentary was about the malware worm Stuxnet, famously used against Iranian centrifuges. Who created Stuxnet? The rumor is, it was a joint effort between American and Israeli intelligence. But now with VR, viewers are placed inside the invisible world of computer viruses to experience the high stakes of cyber warfare at a human scale.

Directed by Yasmin Elayat, and written by Elayat and Alexander Porter, it brings audiences into the story in a way that is absolutely incredible.

The Digital Storytelling Lab is building 21st-century storytelling. Yes, the tech and the tools matter — but in the end, it comes down to the power of a good story, well-told.