“Origen”: A poetic VR-journey through the Amazon Rainforest, using redirected walking

New Realities: Der XR-Podcast

Director and producer Emilia Sánchez Chiquetti talks about co-creating an award-winning XR experience with local communities

In this episode, we’ll take an immersive, fantastical journey into the Amazon rainforest, where we can discover stories of local communities that have been passed on for generations. These will open new perspectives on us, and our coexistence with nature. Apart from its great look and sound the experience that we’ll learn about from its director and producer Emilia Sánchez Chiquetti is particularly immersive because it can be controlled entirely without a controller, as it relies on an innovative technology called redirected walking.

The Experience: Origen Origen is a narrative, interactive, and poetic journey through the Amazon Rainforest. In our voyage, first-person interactions weave the tapestry of encounters and teachings endowed with transcendence. During the journey, we are guided by a mythological boa through memories, teachings and stories of Shipibo origins. As the journey unfolds, it unveils the changes that the territory has undergone and the environmental consequences endured by these lands. Inspired by Mokán Rono’s reflections, the journey revolves around the connection between how we perceive our own lives and how we coexist with nature. Journey to the Heart of the Amazon is the first chapter of a VR series co-created with its narrators, uniting different territories and celebrating the dialogue held between the great diversity of life forms and Mother Earth. Origen has been recognized as of Cultural Interest by the Argentine Embassy in Colombia, has been awarded the Unity for Humanity Environment and Sustainability Grant and has participated in the Biennale College of La Biennale di Venezia. See the trailer of Origen here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/A81DcEFajzY

Our Guest: Emilia Sánchez Chiquetti Born in 1989, Emilia Sánchez Chiquetti is an Argentine-Brazilian director and producer who graduated from the University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. She specializes in creating audiovisual, theatrical, and extended reality (XR) works that explore the synergies between bodies, spaces, and narratives. Her most recent project, "Origen," had its world premiere at the 80th Venice Biennale. Emilia has been invited to share her experience at important knowledge production venues, such as the Master's program in South American Cinema at the National University of the Arts in Argentina. She directed the 360-degree live broadcast of the Cosquin Rock Argentina festival for 170,000 viewers. Emilia has produced and directed over 360-degree commercials in South America, Central America, the United States, and Europe for recognized brands. In 2015, Emilia founded Presencias, a studio that produces interdisciplinary works, including the first immersive theater play in the largest dome in Latin America. Her debut film, "El próximo guardián," was awarded at the SHH International Mountain Film Festival. Emilia has written and directed theatrical plays in unconventional spaces and created immersive content for various museums and national parks, including the Ministry of Tourism of Argentina, Ministry of Culture of Argentina, Generación Dorada for Tecnópolis, Parques Nacionales Esteros del Iberá, Torres del Paine, and others. She established a workshop-laboratory for performance poetry research in immersive narratives at the National University of the Arts and served as a curator for the XRAR Festival in Buenos Aires, Argentina.