XR Stories Funding for Storyland!

Since launching Spaceteam VR, as well as working on updates and new features we have been busy working on several exciting new projects one of which has the working title of Storyland.

We were delighted to receive funding from XR Stories. Based at The University of York, XR Stories is a partnership between the university, Screen Yorkshire and the BFI and has been funded by AHRC as part of the Creative Clusters programme.

Storytelling using XR has been something we’ve been excited about as a company since we were established in 2016. We also know that children are excited by the opportunity to put on a VR headset and the experience it offers – to step into a completely new world is incredible. We also know that they do not passively read stories, watch TV and film. They absorb story worlds and characters, mixing them into their own play and stories. We wondered how exciting it might be to step into a world surrounded by the characters you love and characters you’ve made yourself?

The project will enable us to work with researchers at The University of Sheffield to explore what happens when we put XR technologies in the hands of children. Leading the project from their side is Becky Parry  who is a lecturer in Digital Literacies. When looking for a researcher to work with on this project it became apparent that Becky has very much the right experience and we loved the fact that she presented  her doctoral research as an animation.

 

We’re interested by how the performance and storytelling abilities of children could be unlocked. We want to use our existing technologies and further R&D to build a tool to help them develop the knowledge of narrative and creative thinking skills that will enable them to overcome barriers to self-expression. Ultimately we want to help them tell their own stories.

What is Storyland?

Storyland is a place that exists in the digital world which children can access using either smart devices or VR headsets. It’s a place they can make their own using their drawings as well as props and characters from books, television stories or movies they love.

Groups of children can work together to create a ‘Storyland’ and then perform a story in it. In the VR headset children get an immersive experience of the world they are creating and can embody characters. The tablet app offers a window into what’s happening inside the headset and a way to transfer their creativity from the physical world into the virtual world.

Our aim is to encourage collaboration and to play to everyone’s strengths, passions, and skills.

More information will be available on the XR Stories webpage for the project. We’ll be excited to share our research and a demo in the coming months.