Linda Rath-Wiggins: “VR was Love at First Sight”
Innovation and technology can be much more than cold sensors and automation, Linda Rath-Wiggins has realized. They can provide new ways to tell a powerful and inspiring story.
Rath-Wiggins is an innovation journalist and a tech-savvy professional. Born and raised in Germany, she worked at Deutsche Welle as part of the Innovation Team and now she is focused on her startup Vragments.
When she started working as an innovation journalist, she soon realized how technology can change readers’ and publishers’ lives, especially as a journalist looking at new ways and channels to deliver the message. That’s why a year ago she decided to start a project on her own, focussing on virtual reality.
What motivates you to start with your own project?
The first time I used a VR headset was a mind blowing experience for me, because that day I discovered I could travel to other worlds and that I had a powerful tool to communicate and tell stories with. That’s why I decided to start my VR company and work on VR projects and a VR tool called Fader that allows newsrooms and journalists to create their own VR stories easily and fast.
What is the heart of Vragments?
It is definitely the tool Fader. We are building Fader to empower journalists to create their own VR experiences. We want to help journalists and newsrooms to tell their VR stories in a more efficient way. We are creating that platform so they are able to publish something visually profound and, most importantly, to generate an impact. Besides the tool, we also produce various VR experiences in collaboration with newsrooms. Currently, we are creating a VR experience about interrogation methods. So, as a user, you are inside an interrogation room, listening to original audio from a Stasi interrogation from the past. The immersion is powerful.
Why did you decide to be a journalist?
Journalism to me means freedom of expression and informing others about relevant topics. To me, VR is a great way to allow users to experience different perspectives and that’s what I’d like to do as a journalist.
