The creative idea behind this piece was to produce an immersive journalism piece using VR, encouraging users to physically experience some of the effects of long term solitary confinement. The idea was to place a viewer inside a prison solitary confinement unit with little more than a cot and a toilet. While actual inmates speak to you directly, the film begins to emulate the kind of psychological effects — blurred vision, hallucinations, a sense of floating — that may occur after long-term sensory deprivation. The journey is designed to build empathy through a physical experience.

There is no interface within the experience, reinforcing the belief that the space is real. Instead, the attention is directed through sound and lighting. Information is projected against the walls as if in a real space. This forces the viewer to look up, physically moving their body into a position of wonder, making them empatheic to prisoners stories. Users are made to invest in the story by interacting with visual hotspots. Control is removed by forcing the user to float above the room in a disorientated state. Hallucinations in the room mimic prisoners reports of detrimental psychological effects of long term sensory deprivation. “Negative” VR is used, including subtle blurring of vision and out of control vision to bring on a sense of motion sickness. The viewer is eventually returned to the cell in its original state, this displays that the events are in fact psychological.

Guardian 6x9 was initially pre-launched at Sundance Film Festival on the Samsung Gear VR, with the public release taking place at last week’s Tribeca Film Festival for Google cardboard. Tribeca festival alone had queues of up to 3 hours making it a drawcard amongst an influential audience. It has gained press coverage from The New York Times, the Verge, News Week, The Week and has even been a hot topic on Jimmy Fallon’s well known evening show. It has been viewed by some of the key thought leaders of our time, including those in the film and music industries including Robert De Niro, and was even viewed upon invitation at The Whitehouse. The reaction to 6x9 has been emotional and physical from tears to disbelief. These results are based purely on exhibition at both Sundance and Tribeca film festivals.

The Guardian’s credibility as a news broadcaster brings authenticity to the experience as a non biased piece of immersive journalism. 6x9 has been created to engage with a wide an audience as possible so as to raise a global awareness around the issue of solitary confinement. The project ensures that the journalistic approach provides ample audience engagement with both the experience and the cultural relevance of the story. It was made for Google Cardboard, making it both accessible and cheap for the audiences that engage with it. Upon release, readers of The Guardian were given the opportunity to receive a free Google Cardboard headset upon which to view the project. The film is available across additional platforms including 360 videos, linear videos, an app and podcasts with extended interviews with former inmates along with writing and reporting investigations.

With approximately 100,000 people in solitary confinement in the US, and with some spending 22-24 hours a day in a cell with little to no human contact for days or even decades, the Guardian’s latest project looks to raise awareness and generate discussion around the prevalence of extended solitary confinement, in the form of a unique immersive virtual reality experience. Designed to raise awareness and generate discussion around the prevalence of extended solitary confinement (which the UN Rapporteur Juan Mendez has deemed a form of torture), the resulting experience is a compelling case for the use of virtual reality as a tool for empathy, emotionally connecting the viewer to the cause. The objective was to further spread the concern about the ongoing psychological effects caused by solitary confinement. Created over seven months, the project broke boundaries, bringing documentary style viewing and interaction and blending it with the VR world.