The Public VR Lab’s Partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Invited to attend and present at the December 2017 United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, BIG and the Public VR Lab , teamed up with a data developer, Datavized, Inc., to create immersive 3D visualizations of global air pollution data in ten countries with the worst particulate matter.
BIG & the Public VR Lab were the first ever to demo VR storytelling tools in volumetric VR around global air pollution, introducing over 2000 ministers and heads of state representing over 197 countries to VR.
Co-founder and director of the Public VR Lab, Kathy Bisbee was invited to present Community VR to two panels at UNEA on Art & Activism, and Can VR Change Actual Reality?
The Lab has c VR Toolkits and curriculum to be provided to communities and countries who wish to start a Public VR Lab in their community. The UNEP invitation came out of BIG’s educational initiative, the VR Ecohack, the first hackathon in VR focused on climate change education.
Community VR at United Nations in Nairobi, Africa
Hello from Nairobi, Kenya!
Yesterday I met and interviewed Sasha Bennett, a seven-year-old Kenyan environmentalist who has planted 320 trees! @SashaBennettKEso . She was a delight, an inspiration and so fun to spend time with, and hopefully tomorrow, she’ll get her dream of meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya! We’re hoping he’ll also stop by to try to virtual reality at our booth.
[photo: Co-founder/Director, Kathy Bisbee, with Sasha Bennett, age 7, Kenya]
We’ve been here in Kenya just 72 hours and we’ve learned so much! Like how fun it is to meet people from all over our planet who are committed to protecting our earth.
We’ve been reminded that VR is still so mystical and magical to people from all over the world, when trying it for the first time, and about how hungry people are to find ways to use technology for good, to tell stories, to educate and inspire for global change. We’ve watched as people try VR and find it so real they peel the headsets off, scream and laugh with delight, and in two cases, thought that it might even provide us all with X-ray vision!
We’re very pleased to be introducing VR to new users, to world environmental leaders, to youth, to students, to seniors, diplomats, and NGOs, and help them consider ways they could bring Community VR to their countries. More soon about our partnerships on this project, the collaborations we are forming, and ways to become part of the Public VR Lab!
In the meantime, if you’d like to become an affiliate of the Public VR Lab or learn more about how to work to bring Community VR to in your country or town, please email our co-founder and director, Kathy Bisbee at the Public VR Lab and Brookline Interactive Group (BIG): kathy@brooklineinteractive.org.
[photo below: Co-founder, Al Williams, demos VR experiences at UNEA to delegates.]
[photo: Nir Darom, Lead Creative Designer at the Public VR Lab with the Ibrahim Thiaw, Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), partner, Amy Kamarainen from EcoMOVE, and Lab Director, Kathy Bisbee.]
[photo: Four of our Lab team members Kathy, Andrew Doig, Nir and Amy after we finished showing VR to the wonderful Susie Kitchens – UK permanent representative to UN in Nairobi and Cheryl Case head of UK delegation to UNEA.] @susiekitchens