Veiled Reality

Project partners: Carbon Imagineering, Asma Elbadawi, Pishdaad Modaressi, Leeds Studios

XR Stories is supporting Leeds-based digital innovation and R&D practice, Carbon Imagineering to develop their immersive, first-person VR experience about an imagined future design of hijabs and niqabs.

Veiled Reality is set in a future where emerging technologies, feminism and religion collide in the creation of wearable ‘shroud computing’ and ‘smart veils’.

The story follows the charismatic inventor of these semi-sentient veils as she is interviewed by the player who assumes the role of a reporter. The inventor guides the player/reporter through a series of tech demonstrators to reveal her mysterious motivations. 

The experience will take the form of a series of episodes, each covering an incident and a test of the veil’s capabilities. 

The project team will collaborate with Asma Elbadawi, poet, basketball player and advocate of inclusivity and diversity in women’s sports. 

Veiled Reality will explore the potential of virtual reality to explore contemporary attitudes and real and imagined situations faced by women who wear hijabs and niqabs, placing the player at the heart of the story to build knowledge and empathy within the immersive story world.

Veiled Reality is one of four projects awarded R&D funding and expertise from the OpenXR 2 funding call. 

Image credit to Kingsport Humor.

Categories: Research, Technology