InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies

This spherical video project expands on visual themes and materials from the author’s dissertation project, In Camera: a Video Practice of Living, Learning and Connecting, that took the form of a feature length essay film composed specifically for exhibition in IMAX. That project mined and externalized a personal and professional video archive spanning 19-years and explored the relationship between mediation, body and memory. The architectural scale and nature of the giant screen IMAX experience lent itself to a visual composition marked by multichannel simultaneity and multi layered collage and nesting. The goal of this project is an experimental translation of that visual experience into the intimate yet expansive space of spherical, or VR, video. As immersive video authoring practices become more accessible, they present interesting opportunities for organizing, exploring, narrativizing and sharing personal media collections. The author aims to explore these new opportunities as they relate to mediated experiences of identity formation and the negotiation of personal and professional practices of knowledge creation. Immersive video experiences offer novel opportunities for personal reflection and processing. This piece includes audio recorded at UCLA in January 2018 as well as new material depicting experiences of a recent surgery, diagnosis and treatment.