Virtuality, narrative, and the avatar dream

The MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality (MIT Virtuality for short) pioneers innovative experiences using technologies of virtuality — computing systems that construct imaginative experiences atop our physical world. This talk by MIT Professor Fox Harrell, director of MIT Virtuality, focuses on key aspects of such experiences: narratives and virtual selves. Given the widespread and growing use of technologies of virtuality for storytelling, it is important to better understand their impacts and to establish innovative and best practices.

In this talk, Harrell particularly explores how our social identities are complicated by their intersection with extended reality technologies and related digital media forms. Ultimately, Harrell argues that new forms of computational narratives can be used for positive impacts on the social issues of our time ranging from unjust bias to global conflict.