Soma VR | Designing Inclusive VR Experiences | Watershed
Channel: Watershed
Date: 18/11/2022

This talk will be held in the building and online!

Soma is an hour-long participatory multi-sensory experience, which draws from a dance-based approach to using VR technology. The project has been developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, choreographers, artists, and technologists, including visually impaired collaborators. In this talk, we discuss participants’ experiences over a 3-day run of Soma performances at the Bloomsbury Theatre in May 2022. We address themes of sensorial awareness and participatory agency, the practices of care undertaken by the Soma dancer-guides, and the residual, often transformative effects of the experience for participants.
 
A weakness of VR is the marginalisation of certain senses, and its exclusivity towards normative bodies. We ask, can Soma be developed as a model for VR experience design, which responds to these issues? We are also interested in the wider use of Soma beyond a performative context and outline some possible approaches for next steps in the project’s development.

Join us online on YouTube Live, or in the building on Friday 18th November 2022 at 1pm for the talk and to take part in the Q and A discussion afterwards. 

The lunchtime talks are partly supported by MyWorld, a project led by the University of Bristol to support creative industries in the region.