MrWill King

My PhD thesis titled 'Redesigning Cinematic Virtual Reality to Reimagine First Nations Presence and Futurity' focused on the design of a short cinematic virtual reality (CVR) film called 'The Crossing'. The film chronicled the early life of Uncle Rob Lowe, a Senior Elder of the Peek Wurrung people, who grew up on the Framlingham Reserve outside of Warrnambool during the assimilation period of the 1950s and 1960s. The thesis explored the cross-cultural collaboration between myself and Uncle Rob Lowe as we designed the CVR film to be a tool for truth-telling, transitional justice, and reconciliation. The thesis charted and mapped the design process, concluding that CVR designers working with First Nations people need to understand First Nations knowledges such as Relationality and the role of Country as a First Nations virtual palimpsest. The thesis further concluded that intergenerational trauma, truth-telling, reconciliation, allyship and embodiment were all negotiated by myself and Uncle Rob Lowe through the cultural interface, a space of entanglement and a constantly shifting site of collaborative knowledge production. 

I continue to research the role of immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality in mediating truth-telling practices. My other research interests are exploring the role of virtual reality simulations in preparing pre-service teachers for teaching placements. I am also investigating the teaching of 360-degree film-making in secondary media classrooms.