A veteran of nonprofit environmental journalism and a billionaire philanthropist are making a bet that virtual and augmented-reality technologies are on the cusp of a breakthrough — and poised to have real-world impact.
This week Chip Giller, founder of the digital climate media organization Grist, and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt launched Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, a nonprofit that aims to harness the experiential power of reality-shifting technologies for social change and help shape the rapidly developing field.
“We’re in this moment where facts are not always persuasive to everybody,” says Giller, Agog’s executive director. “What excites me about these new tools is that you can use them to create a sense of belonging to the planet, to create a sense of connection to each other, in ways that other forms of media can’t.”
Charities have experimented with AR and VR technologies for at least a decade to help connect people more viscerally with the causes they work on — visualizing in a cinematic style what it’s like to live with a disease like Alzheimer’s, for example, or to witness the steady melting of an Alaskan glacier.
Yet while wearable technology has taken off in corners of the gaming world, it hasn’t broken through in the mainstream. The often-bulky headsets range from hundreds to thousands of dollars each. Access to and distribution of immersive media remains limited.
Agog aims to be a part of the solution.
The organization will provide philanthropic and technical support to nonprofits, journalists, and other media creators who want to use the immersive technology for imagining ways to address social and environmental challenges. The idea is to walk in someone else’s shoes or feel transported to another place or time.
Agog, named for the feeling of awe and wonder, aims to be a connector in the burgeoning AR and VR industry, sometimes referred to as extended reality. Part of its mission is to support a diverse field of immersive media creators. The nonprofit will also partner with researchers who explore how immersive tech can foster empathy and drive behavioral change and support advocacy to promote the technology’s ethical and responsible use.
“Though it isn’t there yet, the technology to create immersive content, and to share and experience it, will become more accessible,” Schmidt wrote in an email. “We’ve seen this happen recently with mobile technology and streaming platforms. We believe we’re on that type of major shift in media.”
A spokeswoman for Schmidt said the nonprofit is fully funded but declined to share details on how much she gave to the new venture. In recent years Schmidt, with her husband, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has given billions to philanthropies that aim to protect the planet. A former journalist, she previously served as a board member at Grist.
Agog has already supported a range of efforts before its official launch.
It recently backed a pilot program that gave hands-on virtual and augmented reality and game design instruction to nine teens at the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club.
“As time went along, [the students] start saying, ‘Oh, wow, this is pretty cool. I’m having fun developing it,’” says Jason Garcia, who directs the Pinkerton Clubhouse in Harlem.
One student created an extended-reality game about homelessness, where the player tries to gather as many recyclable bottles as they can before sundown to be able to afford a new coat or blanket. Others explored topics like bullying and mental health.
“A lot of them feel really excited by making learning feel relevant to their own story in life,” says Gabo Arora, a filmmaker who leads the production studio LIGHTSHED.IO, which helped create the program. “It’s empowering them not to be passive consumers of the technology, but to be active creators.”
Agog also supported a mixed-reality experience that explores what it’s like to live with mental health conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, and is currently supporting a project overseen by Arizona State University’s Los Angeles-based Narrative and Emerging Media Program that will enable L.A. residents to use immersive media tools to redesign abandoned areas into community green spaces.
These efforts are representative of the kind of work Agog will support in the future, Giller says.
“We want to help ensure that the nonprofit sector really can take advantage of these tools as they become more relevant and powerful,” he says.
Over its first year, the group will assemble a team of technologists who can embed with nonprofits for weeks or months as they develop their own immersive media projects.
The group’s advisors include immersive media pioneer Nonny de la Peña, who’s been dubbed the “Godmother of Virtual Reality”; Amy Seidenwurm who led Meta’s VR for Good initiative; Loren Hammonds, head of documentary at TIME Studios; Courtney Cogburn, a Columbia University associate professor who studies racial inequities in health and how virtual reality experiences can lead to changes in attitudes; and the founders of Pluto VR, a virtual reality tech company.
An ‘Empathy Machine’?
While there is some empirical evidence that a VR experience can have positive effects, the emerging technologies aren’t silver bullets, says Tanja Aitamurto, an assistant professor in communications at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Putting a VR headset on and immersing in some cool experience won’t necessarily make the world a better place,” she says.
Lisa Messeri, an anthropologist of science and technology at Yale University, explores the promise of VR as an “empathy machine” in her new book In the Land of the Unreal. Her rule of thumb for using these technologies toward good ends? Consider whether a VR experience will strengthen existing social ties or be used to replace them. Some immersive experiences run the risk of removing the urgency for forging real-life connections between people in different social situations, she says.
“I have major reservations about these kinds of projects, as they often are premised on the idea that a technological solution can solve a social problem,” says Messeri. “We must be clear-eyed that technology alone will never be the answer.”
Is immersive tech on the verge of a tipping point?
“The future has been arriving for almost a decade,” says immersive filmmaker Arora. “I don’t know if it’s around the corner, but it’s only up, and up, and up.”
Screenings of a 2015 VR documentary he co-created, “Clouds over Sidra,” about a 12-year-old Syrian refugee, helped raise $3.8 billion for UNICEF and was an early example of how 360-video could be used for advocacy.
“With people like Wendy and Chip coming together,” he says of Agog, “they’re validating that thesis and saying, ‘Let’s double down, let’s pour more resources into this.’”
