StoryFutures Xperience Research Report
Funded by the BFI Audience Projects Fund/National Lottery, StoryFutures led the Xperience Programme with a network of venues across the UK to understand how cinema and arts hub venues might be part of a network that can improve audience access to wider forms of screen culture. StoryFutures provided these venues with Meta Quest 2 VR headsets, made available through Meta’s donation to us for education and research purposes. We also provided supporting kit, a programme of training, a catalogue of VR experiences, and suggestions for programming and exhibition. The VR content provided freely to cinemas from our catalogue featured local, untold stories, and all were short and accessible for novice audiences, with a variety of themes suitable for different programming opportunities.
This report is in two parts. Part One focuses on what we learned from cinemas about serving these audiences – in terms of building skills to exhibit and support VR; and what kinds of exhibition formats and partnerships were trialled. We also examine how audiences responded to different kinds of content and what audience journey was required for a good VR experience, out of a general survey administered to all audiences.
Part Two focuses on the impact of the space and sound setup on the audience experience. This study examines the specific setting of the cinema for VR exhibition, considering the unique opportunities and characteristics of a cinema environment for VR viewing – what makes it different from a location-based or museum-based experience, for example? The study shows that there is both audience appetite and opportunity for a more scalable type of VR experience using the cinema infrastructure of the theatre, which has enhanced social potential and presents interesting creative possibilities for developers.
The Xperience programme was not only an opportunity for venues to experiment with immersive content and to reach new audiences, it was also an opportunity to support the proliferation of this new technology to a wider audience. While in financial terms the benefit to venues of including VR in their programming remains unclear, a well-supported network of venues could provide a valuable service to the sector that is worthy of further funding and investment.
Authors
Dr Laryssa Whittaker, Lecturer in Anthropology of Audiences & StoryFutures User Research Lead
Kylie Bryant, Senior Producer
Dr Maruša Levstek, Research Fellow in Technology and Culture & StoryFutures User Researcher
Dr Andy Woods, Senior Research Engineer Psychologist
© The Authors, StoryFutures copyright 2024
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey
Acknowledgements
StoryFutures thanks Nina Brown, Kylie Bryant, Renae Moore, and Michelle Rumney for leadership and management of the Xperience programme across various stages. Thanks also to Neil Smith for technical expertise and Destiny Lawrence for the invaluable technical assistance and training support she has provided to the StoryFutures VR network of libraries and cinemas. We are also grateful to the dedicated staff in the Xperience network of cinemas and arts hubs for their efforts supporting the research, as well as their experimentation with the medium of VR. We extend our thanks as well to the content creators of the VR experiences that make up the StoryFutures catalogue.