The fourth step

Exploit Virtual Reality / for children

Here I am: I found my “4th step” – or more exactly the 4th way to exploit this strange and disturbing Virtual Reality technology.

I was in a story for the kids, and I found myself as a kid.
As I was talking about it for Altair, I was wondering about the virtual reality for this show.

Immediately I answered myself: NO.
No. No Virtual Reality for the little ones.

And since I’m a b*** from hell, I asked myself then: What’s the point?
Answer: Because.

Then, it was ruined.
My little head had gone to fight my NO.

Since I had gone back to “little girl” mode – I was a very, very, very scared little girl – I knew that the first reason for the NO was that I would probably have been very, very scared, so alone, with this big helmet on my head.

The “so alone” gave me the solution.

Obviously, that’s not acceptable.
But if I had been a little girl with a big helmet on my head that brought me into the magical world of The 3 Robbers, I would have been very scared – and I would have instinctively reached out.

If someone had been there to take my hand at that moment, and stay with me, then there, what happiness!

Do you get it ?

It takes not one but two places in virtual reality for children: the little one and mom (or daddy, cousin, sister…), the little one and the friendly hand that reassures him AND accompanies him on this extraordinary adventure.

So in real life, there will be both, the child and the adult, who will be able, together, to live the virtual adventure side by side.
The child will have the adult’s hand at all times to reassure him.

And both will find themselves propelled into the virtual world of the show.
No spectacular staging here – it’s not about frightening but about amplifying the magic of the show.

It should be possible to place the child in an escort/witness role that would not put the child at risk.
In the case of The 3 Robbers for example, an owl accompanying our 3 heroes allows us to see everything – without being too afraid.
And the adult would be an “ethereal”, “transparent” owl –

The accompanying animal is a bias that could easily be used, and which would allow the child to be with his heroes without having to get involved in the story.

Well, you know, this is just a rough idea: we’ll have to test it and see if there aren’t other places more suitable for a child.
The objective is to offer him to participate in the adventure on stage without him being afraid, so that he only takes the magic.
I insist on this point because, and I think you’ve all noticed that the little ones participate fully in the shows we put on for them. They really worry about the good guy, they warn him of the (sneaky) arrival of the bad guy, they shout, they laugh. So we have to be careful. The child, for him, will really be in the story, with just the hand of the beloved adult to reassure him.

Well done, for the child, what a marvel.

How I wish I could have “been” the owl, the mouse, the fish, the cat, the horse, the car that faithfully accompanied my heroes.
Because as a child, you didn’t need to draw me drawings: I was already “almost” there with them, and I only dreamed of being there a little more.

Worked in this “spirit”, the tools that virtual reality offers us are no longer harmful and detrimental to the child.
They make it possible to fulfill every child’s dream. On top of that, they don’t achieve that dream ” all alone “.

Children’s shows are now of very high quality: they are beautiful, scenically poetic, therefore gives us a beautiful material to work with in virtual reality – enough to create a totally magical universe.

We don’t always have to seduce with speed, heartbeats, terror experiences.
We can also seduce with magic, poetry & the heart.

This was my fourth step in exploiting virtual reality: allowing children to live an experience of pure magic and pure poetry, with the “one” they love.

Or the hand of the nice girl from Altair who will propose to “come with you, if you want”, in the adventure.

Yes, I know very well that there are children who feel very lonely – and precisely for them too, having for a few minutes the hand of a “big nice person” to accompany them, it does them good.

Well – I don’t think I’ll find step number five. I don’t see what that could be at all. I must have gone up the whole staircase. On the other hand, a whole world of incredible possibilities opens up beneath my feet in this step. The more I think about it, the bigger it gets.

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Featured Image : Stairs – Pointe du Grand Gouin.