[Presence has a big role to play in the evolution of brick and mortar retail in the age of online shopping; this story is from Forbes, where it features more images. –Matthew] The Future Of Retail: Beyond Stories Told, To Stories Experienced By Rachel Arthur Jan 26, 2016 If you’d visited a mall housing a J.C. Penney store over the holidays, you may have been welcomed by a virtual reality experience that took shoppers on an immersive ride to the North Pole. Created with marketing and technology agency Narrative, the “Twas The Flight Before Christmas” initiative was in place in…

[To me this illustrates the true promise of effective presence illusions; the story is from MTV and features two more images; more information on the VR project is available on the Specular Theory website. –Matthew] This Virtual Reality Experience Shows Police Brutality From Both Sides “Perspective; Chapter 2: The Misdemeanor” is a harrowing VR project that lets you experience police brutality first hand. by Crystal Bell January 26, 2016 Most people think of video games when they think of virtual reality, but a burgeoning group of innovative filmmakers are producing narrative VR experiences with the unprecedented ability to affect us…

[The application of virtual reality and presence to the work of surrealist Salvador Dali (and presence experience creator Walt Disney) seems particularly appropriate; this story is from the AP via Business Insider; a 1:16 minute promotional video, a 5:09 minute 360 degree navigable version of the experience, and more information, are available from The Dali Museum. –Matthew] Virtual reality experience highlight of new Dali Museum show Beth J. Harpaz, Associated Press Jan. 22, 2016 Visitors to a new exhibition at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, won’t just be looking at art. Thanks to virtual reality, they’ll be exploring…

[As this and other articles on the artist’s work note (without using the term), it’s hard to suppress a presence response to these realistic dolls. The story is from the Huffington Post and features more pictures; for a recent update on research on the Uncanny Valley, see coverage in Slate. –Matthew] Don’t Blink! These Russian Dolls Are So Lifelike They Could Move Captivating videos show Michael Zajkov eerily whittling away blocks of clay into lifelike human beings. 01/21/2016 Nina Golgowski Trends reporter, The Huffington Post When it comes to dolls, Michael Zajkov is not playing around. The Russian artist’s collection…

[This discussion from The New Yorker is full of incomplete but provocative ideas about the nature of our experience of both reality and mediated/virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: Credit Sarah Lee / eyevine / Redux] Werner Herzog Talks Virtual Reality By Patrick House January 12, 2016 “I’m a skeptic of 3-D, but when I saw the paintings I knew I had to use it,” Werner Herzog told Judith Thurman in 2010, after the New York première of his documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” The film examines some of the world’s earliest known paintings, which cover the walls of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave,…

[Even inexpensive VR gear is becoming more realistic and likely to evoke presence; this is from Motherboard. –Matthew] [Image: Screenshot from Google’s sample app for audio spatialization.] 3D Sound Is Coming to Google Cardboard to Make Virtual Worlds More Real Michael Byrne, Editor January 14, 2016 Google’s goofy but cool Cardboard virtual-reality platform is getting an audio upgrade. On Wednesday, Cardboard project manager Nathan Martz announced via the Google Developer’s Blog that software development kits (SDKs) for both the Java-based (Android) and Unity-based (iOS) implementations of the VR headset API would be getting support for audio spatialization. Now, Cardboard apps…