VR STORYTELLING WITH NYU ABU DHABI
I was recently invited to deliver an education session on Virtual Reality storytelling, which provided an in-depth discussion of immersive storytelling through virtual reality with an internal map student audience.
The NYU Abu Dhabi was created with “NYU's agreement with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi” with a “shared understanding of the essential roles and challenges of higher education in the 21st century” with “a common belief in the value of a liberal arts education, concurrence on the benefits a research university brings to the society that sustains it, a conviction that interaction with new ideas and people who are different is valuable and necessary, and a commitment to educating students who are true citizens of the world.”
NYU Abu Dhabi students are given the opportunity to study away at least once during their four years at NYUAD in one or more of the NYU global academic centers all with their own unique advantages of curricular and technological offerings.
The course was conducted by Jonathan Tustain, an expert on immersive technology and how it can positively impact industry and education, boosting skills and productivity. Co Founder of Freely VR, Jonathan has been involved in high end virtual reality production since joining Inition in 2012 and also recently completed a commission by Hachette Publishing to write The Complete Guide to Virtual Reality, out in most main book stores this year and a must read and must own resource for any storyteller, film creative or extended reality enthusiast.
A writer for Upload VR, he also ran the recent London VR Developer Sessions and project managed the GLA climate change VR app, built and delivered in 5 days.
His immersive technology workshops provided expert learning on all aspects of Virtual Reality, as well as access to visionary speakers from the immersive industries.
The basis of my talk was to provide a brief overview of my journey into VR and my current projects, as well as provide my thoughts on Virtual Reality storytelling. It was incredibly useful to also connect with an international audience who had a massive interest in extended reality and speak about my creative pursuits as a Producer, Writer, Director, Actor and Company Founder, especially from being from a diverse background. In addition, the ability to deliver sessions on VR education has been a growing passion of mine and i would like to thank Jonathan Tustain, the students in attendance and NYU Abu Dhabi for its invite to discuss my work. It was truly remarkable to see how many students had chosen London to learn in their semester abroad, and truly emphasised NYU Abu Dhabi as a leader in providing cross cultural learning and knowledge exchanged.