Better Together Webinar Series presents XR and the Species Divide: The Peril and Potential of Immersive Storytelling for Environmental Communication

Despite increased media coverage and awareness of environmental threats, persuading individuals to take actions to mitigate those threats remains a challenge, in part because they are not always “in our backyard”. Cross-reality (XR) media platforms, such as virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), are promising storytelling vehicles granting us the ability to connect in meaningful ways with nature and the plight of wildlife, placing audiences face-to-face with the issues. In this webinar, Daniel Pimentel, Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology, details how his XR storytelling projects with Facebook’s Oculus and Snapchat demonstrate XR’s potential to spur pro-environmental outcomes, and how such mediated interactions with nature may prove problematic in the long-run.

Pimentel's Project SHELL is award-winning research. It is an interactive VR project exploring South Florida’s stunning land, surf, and undersea environments as well as environmental threats and hazards to wildlife from the unique perspective of sea turtles.