Mindshow VR’s Collaborative Storytelling Platform & Celebrating VoVR’s 500th Episode

There are a number of immersive storytelling innovations Sundance 2017 in a number of experiences including Dear Angelica, Zero Day VR, Miyubi, and Life of Us, but Mindshow VR’s collaborative storytelling platform was the most significant long-term contribution to the future of storytelling in VR. I first saw Mindshow at it’s public launch at VRLA, and it’s still a really compelling experience to record myself playing multiple characters within a virtual space. It starts to leverage some of virtual reality’s unique affordances when it comes to adding a more spatial and embodied dimension to collaboratively telling stories.

I had a chance to catch up with Visionary VR’s CEO Gil Baron and Chief Creative Officer Jonnie Ross where we talk about how Mindshow is unlocking collaborative creative expression that allows you to explore a shared imagination space within their platform. We talk about character embodiment, and the magic of watching recordings of yourself within VR, how they’re working towards enabling more multiplayer and real-time improv interactions, and they announced at Sundance that they’re launching Mindshow as a closed alpha.

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

This is also episode #500 of the Voices of VR podcast, and Jonnie and Gil turn the tables on me for what I think the ultimate potential of VR is. My full answer to this question that I’ve asked over 500 people will be fully covered in my forthcoming book The Ultimate Potential of VR. But briefly, I think that VR has the power to connect us more to ourselves, to other people, and to the larger cosmos. Mindshow VR is starting to live into that potential today of providing a way to expressing your inner life through the embodiment of virtual characters that you can then witness, reflect upon, and share with others, and Google Earth VR shows power of using VR to connect more to the earth as well as the wider cosmos.

If you’d like to help celebrate The Voices of VR podcast’s 500th episode, then I’d invite you to leave a review on iTunes to help spread the word, and become a donor to my Voices of VR Patreon to help support this type of independent journalism. Thanks for listening!

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Music: Fatality & Summer Trip