The Guardian is pleased to announce the launch of Limbo, the publishers latest virtual reality (VR) experience.

Available on Daydream View and as a 360 YouTube video, Limbo enables viewers to experience what life is like for many asylum seekers in the UK who are waiting to hear whether they will be permitted to stay in the country and build a new life. The project is the Guardians fourth virtual reality experience and is constructed from interviews with asylum seekers from 12 countries as well as immigration lawyers and barristers working in the UK.

Placing viewers in the shoes of a newly arrived asylum seeker, Limbo uses the voices of real asylum seekers to guide the viewer through the experience - from arriving in an unfamiliar city, fear for loved ones left behind, worry about not being allowed to work, to the Home Office interview which will decide their fate.

Limbo allows viewers to better understand the potential psychological impact of asylum seekers experiences so far, which can be compounded by the subsequent isolation and asylum process. They are caught between two lives, that of the place they left - the piece features flashbacks to a war torn city reduced to rubble, and their family trying to escape - and the new life they hope to build for themselves. For many, claiming asylum in the UK is also the first step towards bringing their dependents to safety.

The project has been created by the publications in-house VR team alongside ScanLAB Projects, a creative practice that specialises in digital replicas of environments for broadcast, exhibition and animation. Innovative 3D scanning technology has been used to capture urban streets, interiors and live action to create Limbos 360 world. The resulting monochrome sketch-like aesthetic has the quality of a dream or nightmare where worlds are transparent and fragmented.

Francesca Panetta, executive editor, virtual reality, Guardian News & Media, said:

The Guardian has covered the issue of asylum extensively for many years. We know that it can be a very disorientating, isolating and confusing process and have aimed to capture a sense of this through the fragmented quality of Limbos design. Through harnessing the visual capabilities of VR we have been able to bring this to the fore for viewers and hope this enables them to better understand the asylum experience.

Will Trossell, co-founder of ScanLAB Projects, said:

Like dreaming with your eyes open, 360 video and VR can be incredibly transformative experiences. In Limbo we have created a digital world which is both familiar and strange, where the line between dreams and reality are blurred and where walls are diaphanous yet impenetrable. Our ambition for this project is to use this digital world to put the viewer at the centre of the story, enabling them to better understand the obstacles that asylum seekers can encounter.

Limbo is available on Daydream View and 360 video. It will also be available soon on Samsung VR.

Step inside the story - view Limbo and read more about Guardian VR.

-Ends-

For more information please contact:

media.enquiries@theguardian.com or 020 3353 3696

Note to Editors

The Guardian and virtual reality

Further information can be found on the Guardians Virtual Reality hub. The Guardian has won multiple awards for its virtual reality projects including a European Digital Media Award for best use of online video, International Digital Innovation of the Year at the newsawards 2017 and Digital Innovation at the British Journalism Awards 2016 for 6x9: a virtual experience of solitary confinement.

About Guardian News & Media

Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the worlds leading English-language newspaper websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardians total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the worlds oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.

The Guardian is renowned for its agenda-setting journalism including, most recently, the Panama Papers investigation as well as the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning NSA revelations.

Read the original here:

Guardian launches new virtual reality experience Limbo focused on experiences of asylum seekers - The Guardian