FROM HYPE TO HOPE
The Future of XR is empathy and sustainability
For decades now, we’ve been told that VR is the next big thing; patiently waiting for the killer app or device that makes it essential to our daily lives. Last year, we watched companies go all in on the “metaverse,” before taking one of the biggest nosedives in history. All this adds up, igniting the skeptic in all of us. I watched Apple’s Vision Pro launch this summer with great anticipation, and although there are impressive design advancements, I couldn’t help but return back to my state of waiting, hoping, and knowing there is still work to be done.
What is it that keeps us coming back?
VR hits its stride when it acts like the Magic School Bus: a novel, educational experience that bends reality. Like shrinking a viewer to the atomic level. Or launching into outer space. Walking with dinosaurs; witnessing the future; climbing Everest; and experiencing time at different speeds.
Most compelling is when VR and MR (mixed reality) achieves choice, empathy, and presence. It’s much more difficult to accomplish this in a 2D moving image. We’re no longer locked into the film director’s POV; there’s an ability to choose our own narrative and a new emotional perspective with it, allowing us to see through someone else’s eyes. This tech allows us to create spatial relationships with people and objects who aren’t really there.
The tech isn’t perfect, but we have work to do
Here at the creative agency, Droga5 Dublin, we’ve held a firm focus on our sustainability efforts, and we know these are reflected in how we produce work and the stories we choose to tell. With this mindset and our love of technology, we considered how best to put the two together, and started thinking about how we could use VR to tell more engaging stories that matter.
Our Creative Build team was drawn to our oceans (after all, here in Ireland we’re surrounded by water) and after going down a rabbit hole on plastic pollution, we’d landed on a TED Talk given by Captain Charles Moore, who famously first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997. We gave him a cold call, and were delighted to learn that he was just as excited about working in new media as all of us. As a man who’s dedicated his life to studying the oceans and the dangers of pollution, he was surprisingly passionate about the importance of finding new ways to tell stories that inspire people to change. With him on board, we got building Tidal Waste…
“We need to make changes that affect reality. But, to do so, we need to visualize the future as it could be — proof of concepts that show change is doable.”
-Captain Charles Moore
Get on board
Tidal Waste is a VR experience that dumps the viewer in the middle of the ocean surrounded by your calculated annual amount of personal plastic waste — your own personal Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
On a small rowboat guided by a marine talkback radio, Captain Moore himself talks you through the reality of the problem plastic waste is creating in our oceans. Seafarers reach overboard to observe microplastic, save marine life and to fish out trash in a 5-minute interactive experience. Boldly going where few have been before, visitors confront challenging facts and in the end are encouraged to take action.
Getting the experience right
We started building Tidal Waste for the Oculus, and as the images above indicate, we’re excited to see how it might come to life in the Vision Pro as well. To build this experience, there were lots of iterations, tests and research. At first, we tried to faithfully recreate the real patch, but the visual isn’t as impactful as you would imagine. It’s not this endless sea of garbage; in reality, it’s made up of sporadic, smaller patches.
The real problem is the amount of micro-plastic under the surface. Shockingly, we know less about the surface of our oceans than we do the moon. Less than 1% of plastic is actually floating on the surface. This means that… yes… the water below is 99% more disgusting.
Take it personally
We realized that this experience could be more compelling if we made it more personal, tapping into those components that make VR special. We thought, what if the VR garbage patch visualized the user’s personal consumption habits? What if all the plastic they use in a year fell from the sky, into the endless ocean around them? A visual, slapping reminder that this is YOUR problem. To enhance the issue, we built the experience to make people feel lost at sea — perpetually lapping waves, eerie music and seagulls circling above.
Clean up, stand up
The plastic solution is often thought of as recycling. But with only 9 percent being recycled worldwide, you can quickly see the flaws in that argument. The best way to take on plastic pollution is preventing it from being created in the first place. With this in mind, we wrap up our Tidal Waste experience with a call to action aimed at policymakers. Already knowing where the user is located via the questions in the opening, we direct users to their local representative with contact info and an email template ready to be sent. Additionally, we calculate a donation to The Ocean Clean Up, based on how much plastic garbage the user personally generates in a year.
Good things come
Although it feels painfully slow and full of hype, the technology does continue to improve and eventually it will be worth the wait. Let’s continue to hope and explore this emerging technology as a place to play, learn, and most importantly, feel. Let’s aim to build experiences that offer real value to not just humans, but to humanity, and try to avoid adding to the noise… and the plastic.
Creative Build — Droga5 Dublin part of Accenture Song
We shift how brands interact with people and technology. An agile team of creatives, product designers and technologists taking innovative ideas into prototypes, products and experiences.
