For this project, I wanted to focus on the trend of immersive experiences, and find a way to incorporate participatory service. Most immersive experience focus on consumption of some specific content. In my report, I mention my own experience at the Vincent van Gogh immersive exhibit as an inspiration for this initiative. While I loved visiting the exhibit and was deeply moved by the experience, it would not qualify as a participatory service. I was also drawing on our coursework around the power of stories and wanted to experiment with bringing community stories to the fore of an immersive exhibit.
The In Your Room exhibit is a single room immersive experience, hosted by the library, which tells the stories of anonymous community members. I created this initiative with my local community college library in mind, but it’s applicable to any space which serves a small community.
Students and staff are invited to respond to the prompt “What’s your story?” in 20 words or less. Stories are screened by library staff, and given to the IYR team. This is a student-led team, organized by the school’s visual and performing arts department. The team integrates the text of stories into moving, ambient images, accompanied by similarly ambient music. The final display is projected onto all four exhibit walls.
Specific details are outlined in my report HERE.
I also created a two-minute sample projection of anonymous stories submitted by my own acquaintances which can be viewed HERE.