[An enhanced version of the award-winning empathy-evoking presence experience Body of Mine that explores gender dysphoria and which was previously only available as an installation at festivals, is now available for Meta Quest VR headsets. The Forbes story below includes a first-person description of the experience (with a key spoiler). UploadVR adds these details:

“While the SteamVR version requires five HTC Vive Trackers and a high-spec PC, thanks to the development team at Agile Lens, Body of Mine uses ‘advanced in-headset motion capture’ that integrates Meta’s full-body synthesis on Quest. It also supports hand tracking and Quest Pro eye tracking.

Body of Mine will also adopt a strategy described as ‘radical localization’ that doesn’t use direct translation. ‘Because gender and dysphoria can be intrinsically linked with sociocultural context, we are crafting new narratives in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Mandarin,’ the studio confirms in a press release.”

XRMust adds this:

“The project has been a part of international research, exemplifying its ability to be applied to therapeutic practices, among others. Alongside its release on Meta Quest, BODY OF MINE is engaging in a multi-prong impact campaign fostering conversations between trans youth and their parents, encouraging understanding of the trans community and experience, and to combat anti-trans legislation.

[Creator Cameron] Kostopoulos is currently working on their second immersive project, A CURE FOR STRAIGHTNESS, an episodic series using haptics, AI characters, and mixed reality to ‘simulate conversion therapy for straight people.’ The first chapter, premiering soon, uses wearable haptic vests to tell the story of a transgender survivor of electroshock conversion therapy.”

For more information see Chicago’s ABC 7 website for a 1:44 minute video news report, the 54-minute April 2023 Voices of VR podcast episode #1203, a June 2023 ISPR Presence News post, and the Body of Mine VR website. –Matthew]

[Image: Screenshot from “Body of Mine VR Trailer – Now on Meta Quest” via YouTube]

Award-Winning ‘Body Of Mine’ VR Experience On Gender Identity Launches On Quest Store For Pride Month

By Charlie Fink, Contributor – A former tech executive covering AI, XR and The Metaverse for Forbes
June 13, 2024

[Note: links added by ML]

Body of Mine, winner of a Special Jury Award at SXSW 2023, is coming to the Quest store June 13. The full-body VR experience, which explores gender dysphoria, is one of the first openly queer projects available on the Quest, just in time for Pride month. Immersion in gender identity is the kind of experience that can only be had in VR. By transporting you to another body, Body of Mine invites you to inhabit the body of a different gender and discover stories of transgender individuals.

The VR experience was made by first-time creator Cameron Kostopoulos, a recent graduate of Arizona State University’s New Masters degree program in Narrative and Emerging Media. I experienced Body of Mine VR experience in a festival setting at SXSW. Kostopoulous attached body trackers to my arms, legs, and torso. Combined with an eye and face tracking headset, Body of Mine enabled an unparalleled level of presence.

Upon entering Body of Mine, you find yourself standing inside a body—literally. Artistically rendered ribs, lungs, and a giant, beating heart envelop you, symbolizing the universality of our bodies while creating a dysphoric effect. In the middle of the environment is a mirror, reflecting your new, digital body.

The sensation of seeing yourself as another gender in VR is both surreal and thought-provoking. You’re inside a cisgender male, who is experiencing the world as a woman. Looking down at myself, I saw breasts, tattoos, and long flowing hair where there is none. The character blinked with me, moved with me, and responded to movements as subtle as a shift in weight.

During the experience you are invited to interact with different parts of your new, digital body, and activate stories from trans individual. Touching my stomach played the story of a pregnant man, while touching my chest played the story of a woman’s top surgery. It is more than just walking in someone’s shoes. You inhabit them.

As the story progresses you inhabit not just one body, but body after body. One second I was plus-sized, the next I was skinny; one second Black, another second with surgery scars. I was inhabiting bodies of all genders, sizes, colors, and identities, all while the ribcage around me transformed into a beautiful garden—the heart morphs into a strawberry while the lungs blossom into trees. The climactic moment, where my body glowed triumphantly as an ephemeral spirit, argues that what makes us human transcends the labels we create for ourselves.

Adapted for Quest in collaboration with Agile Lens, Body of Mine will be among the first experiences take advantage of Meta’s experimental new VR legs, allowing users to have a fully embodied experience with just a standalone headset, including eye and face tracking for audiences with a Quest Pro.

The project’s impact and innovation have already been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. In addition to winning at SXSW, the team also took home the Producers Guild Innovation Award, Best XR at Games for Change, and a BAFTA Student Award, among others.

Body of Mine is available on the Meta Quest Store for $9.99 for Quest 3, Quest Pro, & Quest 2.