BIG Launches XR/VR Project on Immigration at HUBweek

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) and its project, the Public VR Lab, are proudly announcing that they will be presenting the Boston-only release of their immersive stories from their Arrival: Immigration in Full Frame project in a container at HUBweek as part of The HUB, HUBweek’s centralized festival site, from Wednesday, October 10th through Sunday, October 14th, 2018.

Arrival: Immigration in Full Frame, a co-created immersive storytelling project is the first national virtual reality (VR) filmmaking collaborative project curating immigration stories of Americans from pre-1620 through 2018 and incorporating them into a visual XR/VR timeline.

While focused on Boston-area stories at this year’s HUBweek, the final VR/XR project has fifteen partners across the U.S., and will be shared online, in VR/XR, at film festivals, and at arts and cultural organizations nationwide with a curriculum for engaging community dialogue about immigration and migration. The project ponders a shared experience and visual timeline of the commonalities, policies, and complexities of American immigration throughout history using VR/XR as a media platform and public education tool.
In addition to watching these compelling stories in 360 video and VR format, visitors will also have the opportunity to record their own families’ immigration and migration stories onsite at BIG’s container as part of an interactive component of BIG’s exhibit in a mobile studio. These new stories will be included in a broader national project that features a VR/XR visual timeline, scheduled to launch as a separate immersive project in late 2019-early 2020.

“Throughout our history, our ancestors have migrated and immigrated to the United States, and we all have stories that have been passed down through our families about the challenges in our old countries and about arriving here," shared Kathy Bisbee, executive director of BIG and co-founder of the Public VR Lab.

“I think these co-created stories are extremely relevant to our community and to the world, timely and important to be documented and shared now with each other. Like HUBweek’s We the People theme this year, it is important that we are reminded of our collective arrival and migrations to this region, and note that the timing of our family’s arrival matters.”

The Boston version of the Lab’s Arrival project will view individual immigration stories through the lens of history, the stories of local residents, and in the context present day U.S. experiences of immigration and migration.

This immersive storytelling project demonstrates the broad diversity and beauty of American immigration, the ways we might re-imagine migration, and outlines a visual narrative of where and how Americans came together. Thus, everyone, whether they just immigrated to the United States, have family roots in this country that go back for centuries, or whose family arrived some time in between, is welcome to participate in this project by sharing their family’s immigration story.

Founded in December 2014 by The Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration and weeklong festival that brings together the most creative and inventive minds making an impact in art, science and technology. In addition to featuring several speakers, sessions, and even a hackathon, “The HUB,” in which City Hall Plaza is transformed for five days, is a pivotal component of HUBweek. Dubbed the “fairground for the future” by The Boston Globe, it will feature shipping containers, geodesic domes, large-scale pavilions, and live art.

Learn more about HUBweek 2018 here, https://2018.hubweek.org/ and find BIG/the Lab’s installation in the container village, Wednesday-Sunday October 10-14th, 2018.

To learn more, please visit http://immigrationvr.com.

About Brookline Interactive Group (BIG):
Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) is an integrated media and technology education center and a community media hub for Brookline, MA and the region. BIG facilitates diverse community dialogue, incubates and funds hyperlocal storytelling, arts, journalism and technology projects, and serves over 500 youth and adults annually through innovative classes and partnerships. BIG offers extensive multimedia training, Virtual Reality (VR) and 360-video cameras and training, access to high quality filmmaking equipment, production grants, and provides low-cost professional media services to non-profit organizations, education partners, businesses, and to local government.

About the Public VR Lab
The Public VR Lab is growing a field for Community XR that promotes accessibility, digital inclusion, and diversity. The Lab is disrupting traditional media communications in community-based civic media, journalism and arts, cultural and educational organizations by providing XR Toolkits, equipment, training, cohorts, artists residencies, fellowships and content in the public interest. The Lab is a project of Brookline Interactive Group, a next-generation public access community media arts center.

Contact Person: Erin Kinney

Company Name: Brookline Interactive Group

Telephone Number: 617-731-8566

Email Address: erin@brooklineinteractive.org

Website address: brooklineinteractive.org