VR Diaries: ‘6x9’ Was Powerful, but the Use of Text Was Distracting

The Guardian produced virtual reality story “6x9” is very different from the others that I have watched. It is more experiential. The strongest part was definitely the sense of confinement. Unlike other VR videos, viewers don’t get to “travel” to different places. But the movements, such as the floating, within the prison cell, still give viewers a sense of mobility. Not being able to go out of the cell and explore the other parts of the environment, as is supposed to be one purpose of virtual reality, in fact strengthened my feeling to being trapped and confined in a very tiny space. The sense grew stronger as there were more voices and I felt pressured. I felt helpless.

The weakest part for me was the text appearing on the walls. I assumed those texts are used as a visual aid for viewers, but they were a distraction to me. I was listening to what the prisoner was saying and then I got distracted because I wanted to read what was appearing on the wall. The texts stayed for a very short while and one came up after another. I ended up not getting a lot of information out of the piece because I was so distracted the entire time.

The parts I remembered the most were floating around the cell and seeing the pool of blood. The floating was very unusual and made me feel like I was flying in the air.

Overall, I felt confined and disturbed. There were times where the shot got close to the tiny window of the cell door. I wanted to look outside and see what was it like in the other parts of the prison.

The technical experience was fine. As for storytelling techniques, I like having the prisoner as the main character and using his voice to narrate in the 6x9 cell.

After watching this piece, I think virtual reality can also be a good way to make people have a very intense experience of one place.

I would avoid having too many distractions, such as excessive use of text. There are already a lot the viewers can experience in a virtual reality video and it is not necessary to burden viewers with too many features.

Overall, I feel a little scared and I do understand more a prisoner’s life in a 6x9 cell alone. I guess one of the reasons is that I have visited abandoned prisons in the U.S. and I connected both experience. I didn’t really feel a change after watching this video, but I gained more understanding about being jailed and a more intimate feeling of being inside a prison cell.