David Oppenheim
ABSTRACT
The Book of Distance investigates the language of personal storytelling in virtual reality (VR), borrowing from interactive narrative practice of the past few decades, the language of performative installation, Japanese theatre and creative non-fiction filmmaking. Beyond a simple retelling of historic events—the internment of Japanese Canadians by their own government, a history shared with the U.S.—the work uses a linear storytelling model with local user agency and an embodied central protagonist who occasionally breaks the “fourth wall” to engage with the user. This paper introduces the creative foundation for the storytelling used in The Book of Distance, an approximately 25-minute single-user, room-scale interactive VR experience intended for general audiences, including those who have not experienced VR before.
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