Sheffield VeRSe - Directional Techniques in 360 video for poetry performance

Sheffield VeRse – a 360 VR (Virtual Reality) experience The concept of the project is an immersive hyperlocal VR experience, which takes you on a journey through iconic Sheffield landscapes through poetry. Sitting at the intersection between literature, film and technology the experience places the user inside the frame of the story world. Whilst exploring the individual places within the city landscape the user will experience an empathy with Sheffield’s rich cultural and social heritage. Users are given freedom to decide which parts of this world they will experience. Local poets are a guide throughout the journey and were commissioned to write new work inspired by particular stories from Sheffield’s past. This research project initially came about from a common interest between Ben Carlin of Epiphany VR (a Sheffield based art collective working in the intersection between virtual reality and immersive performance) and myself with an interest in VR 360 video technology. Along with a desire to experiment with using this technology within a performative environment, we developed the idea of Sheffield VeRse. As well as the collaboration with Epiphany VR on the project, other people contributing were: Martin Jones a Senior Lecturer specialising in Concept Art; Jake Missing, 3rd year Games Design student specialising in Asset Creation; Wordlife, a literature organisation who host poetry events and workshops in Sheffield. The project was filmed and edited by myself using 360 degree video technology with performative elements, which served as the main elements of ‘Sheffield VeRse’. Since completion the project has been showcased at two main events in Sheffield. First event was ‘Off the Shelf’ in October 2016, where we showcased the first version of the project. The second version, which was funded by the ‘Year of Making’, was showcased at the Wordlife 10th Anniversary event in November 2016.