APSA BUILDS A CIRCUIT A Project About Using 360-Degree Film As A Means to Recognize And Address Implicit Bias Recognizing and addressing one’s own implicit biases is much more difficult than recognizing bias in the behavior of other people. This project is an attempt to facilitate awareness of one's own biases and to encourage self-reflection.
The five-minute virtual reality experience offers two versions of the same scenario. In the first half, subtle biases play out that affect a young African American girl named Apsa. In the second half, viewers have an opportunity to look for differences that correct the bias that they may or may not have noticed the first time through. The title of the exhibit “Apsa Builds a Circuit,” intentionally does not allude to the underlying theme of bias. Instead, it simply seeks to provide a positive representation of something that is underrepresented in popular media – namely, a female character succeeding in a scientific field.
To film APSA BUILDS A CIRCUIT, I used a pair of wide-angle cameras mounted together. Footage from each camera needed to be stitched together in post-production to create a single scene. The circles below are what the footage looked like when it came from the two cameras to my computer. Each pair of circles represents half of one scene, so together the cameras created 360-degrees of coverage.
I do hope that my project inspires viewers to examine, and potentially modify, their own actions in a way that reduces implicit bias. At the very least, I believe that producing the project has done this for me.