Anand Gandhi launches platform for virtual reality content

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi of "Ship of Theseus" fame has announced the launch of ElseVR Channel, a platform for stories told in Mixed Reality -- a mix of real and virtual worlds.

With three cutting-edge Visual Reality documentaries launching in the first issue, ElseVR channel is the latest venture by Memesys Culture Labs, founded by Gandhi.

Talking about the venture, Gandhi said in a statement: "The ability and the desire to transmit know-how, intention, and insight to others around us have co-evolved with humanity itself. Mixed Reality is a huge milestone in that human project of record keeping, perspective sharing, empathising, and merging with the 'other', a project that began with the first cave painting, or even earlier."

Khushboo Ranka, co-director of the acclaimed political drama, "An Insignificant Man", is the editor-in-chief and Shubhangi Swarup, a journalist, is the executive editor of ElseVR channel. A story is published online as a quarterly.

The first issue features stories by acclaimed filmmakers and writers Anand Patwardhan, Khushboo Ranka, Faiza Khan, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Shubhangi Swarup, and Nishtha Jain.

"VR presents an exciting opportunity and challenge in journalism. It expands the canvas to placing another world around you. But as practitioners and first movers, we are literally inventing the language with every shot, every cut, every choice we make in constructing these films. It's a new world and we're surprised by it every day," said Ranka.

The stories told confront and challenge the dominant paradigm of development, patriarchy, and caste, the statement read.

--IANS

rb/bg