Making Home: A Carleton-Made Virtual Reality Film

By Emily Putnam

Home, conceptualized by interdisciplinary scholar Dr. Manjeet Birk, is an immersive 360-degree virtual reality (VR) film that tells the story of an intergenerational journey of travelling to find one’s physical, spiritual and emotional home across diasporic lands.

Designed specifically for Birk’s CRST 4001 – Contemporary Critical Race Stories course, Home fills a gap in immersive learning by offering a fresh perspective – one that moves beyond trauma-based narratives to explore the universal experience of belonging. It immerses students into the often-complex relationship we have with “home,” wherever that may be.

“In the course, we talk about how stories are complicated and incomplete. We also talk about the revolutionary potential of radical vulnerability. Home illustrates and expands these concepts for my students. It allows them to share a moment with me that is vulnerable, real and complicated,” says Birk.

Members of the Carleton community looking to see the film and/or faculty interested in teaching with this resource can reach out to the team at the Experiential Learning Hub for a viewing and consultation.

Inspired by Students

She says her students inspired its creation.

“I’m really invested in my students using spaces around campus. I think it’s an important political act for my students to be able to access the varied resources available on campus, particularly as racialized and Indigenous students as well as students enrolled in Critical Race Studies classes.”

Birk became interested in pursuing the project after learning about Carleton’s investment in the Experiential Learning Hub (ELH) through the Transforming University Education report and academic plan.

“The technology in the ELH, as well as the Creation Suites are something I wanted my students to have access to.”

“When I started to view some of the videos that would overlap with my teaching content, I was struck by how many of them focused on damage centered narratives. They emphasized a ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ approach to teach comprehension over another’s experience.”

Compelled to reveal another narrative, Birk created her own short film to tell her story as a first-generation Canadian.

“It was incredibly powerful to be in India to shoot this film. There is something about my relationship with India as the child of Indian immigrants. As you may have noticed, this is a story about our intergenerational relationship to this place.  It’s not only my story but also deeply intertwined with my parents’ story and my child’s story.”

“Obviously, these stories are moving and changing pieces. They are not static but fluid and change as both our stories change and these places change, too. So, in many ways the setting is the film’s message.”

She hopes storytelling through VR can help students view course concepts through a lens of empathy and agency.

“When we try harder for each other, we are showing up for ourselves, too. I wanted students to be able to utilize the technology without there having to be a victim at the centre of the narrative. This is why I created Home.”

Innovation through Collaboration

The project was brought to life through extensive collaboration with the Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) Digital Learning – New Media team, who provided consulting, training, and production expertise to create the immersive six-and-a-half minute VR experience that was filmed by Birk on location in India.

Birk says she relied heavily on the team at TLS.

“I learnt so much from their technical expertise. I had the idea, and they provided all the tools I needed to actualize it. I feel incredibly lucky to have partners like TLS not only for a project like Home but in all my teaching and pedagogical queries at Carleton.”

Greg Allison, a jack-of-all-trades and self-described vid-musi-tographer from TLS, did most of the technical work of translating the story into the virtual reality format.

Allison says he was eager to collaborate when Birk brought the idea to their department.

“All the stars aligned on the project. She had a beautiful concept, a very clear vision of what she wanted, and she soaked in all our knowledge-sharing on filmmaking as it would apply to this project.”

“After that, my role as a filmmaker was to take her message and her intentions and amplify them to shape the story into a cohesive short film using a variety of production techniques.”

He says 360 filmmaking was uncharted territory for the New Media Team.

“That was a really interesting challenge, and it’s pretty exciting because as far as I know, this is the first fully in-house produced VR film at Carleton.”

Birk says this modern storytelling method offers a dynamic way to engage students and bring course content to life.

“VR storytelling is simply another tool in our pedagogical toolkit. We have many tools in there that we pull out in different scenarios, and I am thankful to have had the support to actualize this vision to create a new resource for my students.”

Classroom Reception

Since its release, Home has been widely embraced across disciplines, with four instructors already integrating it into their courses.

Dr. Alexandra Arraiz Matute, an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton, says the students in her fourth-year undergraduate course in Childhood & Youth Studies were equally captivated by the film.

“It gave students a visual to process some of the ideas we were talking about in class, and a way to think about some of the ideas we had discussed in the first couple of weeks that can’t be replicated with text.”

She says Birk’s film was recommended to her after she expressed interest in incorporating the VR lab into her courses.

“Once I viewed it, I knew it fit perfectly within the ideas that my course explores. The folks at the hub are very accommodating and work with you to bring these experiences into your course.”

Arraiz Matute says the 360-degree film experience incited a visceral reaction in her students.

“I think that feeling of empathy to others’ experiences is an important beginning step to learn about ideas or concepts in ways that engage not only their minds but their bodies and spirits. It’s a kind of learning that is hard to replicate through lecture or even discussions, in my opinion.“

“Students remarked on the way they felt ‘stared at’, which was one of Dr. Birk’s points in attempting to capture the diasporic experience of not belonging ‘here nor there’.”

Moving Forward

Birk says she’s grateful for the engagement with her film and hopes that her work continues to resonate with others.

“In many ways, belonging, community and home are universal stories. I’m glad Home has been able to create a pathway for us to have these conversations in our classrooms.”

And she’s not done.

“I’m already working on my next story – that I hope will garner similar kinds of learning opportunities.”