The worlds of gaming and journalism are about to merge as the cost of creating 3D experiential environments plummets and a flood of new motion- and gesture-based interfaces readies to enter the marketplace. Journalist Nonny de la Peña is on the forefront of this trend, and will visit the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications on Monday, March 4, bringing stereoscopic “virtual reality goggles” that allow people to literally step into a 3D news story.
“Nonny is a true pioneer in an exciting new frontier for digital journalism and documentary film,” says Peter A. Horvitz Chair of Journalism Innovation Dan Pacheco, who is bringing de la Peña to the Newhouse School as the third speaker in the Digital Edge Journalism seminar series. “When you enter her immersive experiences, you feel as if you’ve been transported to another place and another time. In the future, will some stories not be so much told as experienced?”
De la Peña will speak at 7 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. Follow on Twitter at #immersj. Registration is available at journovation.syr.edu/?page_id=534.
She will also provide interactive visual reality demonstrations that afternoon, beginning at 1 p.m., in Room 494, Newhouse 2. Personal tours can be reserved by signing up at bit.ly/1353xAf. Priority will be given to SU students.
De la Peña is the pioneer of immersive journalism, a groundbreaking brand of nonfiction that offers fully immersive experiences of the news using virtual reality gaming platforms. Her most recent project, “Hunger in Los Angeles,” creates the feeling of “being there” as a real crisis unfolds on a food bank line at the First Unitarian Church in LA. It was “one of the most talked-about” pieces at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. A preview is available on Pacheco’s “Journovation Central” website.
Her other projects include the MacArthur Foundation-funded “Gone Gitmo,” a virtual Guantanamo Bay Prison; “Cap & Trade,” an interactive exploration of the carbon markets built with Frontline World and the Center for Investigative Reporting; “Ipsress,” which investigates detainees held in stress positions; and “Three Generations,” a newsgame on the California eugenics movement that premiered at 2011 Games For Change. De la Peña also co-founded the Knight News Challenge winner Stroome.com, an online collaborative video editing platform that hosted users from 126 different countries.
A graduate of Harvard University, she is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with 20 years of journalism experience, including as a correspondent for Newsweek and as a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Premiere Magazine and others. Her films have screened on national television and at theaters in more than 50 cities, garnering praise from critics like A.O. Scott, who called her work “a brave and necessary act of truth-telling.”
Fast Company’s Co.CREATE called de la Peña one of “13 people who made the world more creative” in 2012.
For more information, contact Pacheco at 315-443-9811 or drpachec@syr.edu.
