A new project has been launched that delivers a virtual reality experience based around the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. Created alongside a TIME special project on the March’s impact on equality in America, an exhibition is open now at Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History.
Running until November, The March was co-created by Mia Tramz and Alton Glass with executive producer and narrator Viola Davis and features an incredibly realistic human performance in virtual reality that brings Martin Luther King Jr. to life through advanced technology and film production processes. Centred around the speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963, to over 250,000 people and the changes that followed afterwards, the exhibition starts with an audio experience that teaches visitors about the beginnings of the civil rights movement. They then travel back in time through VR to attend the march on Washington and witness first have the “I Have a Dream” speech. Over three years of work went into developing the technology used.
“Through thousands of hours of research, we have endeavoured to be true to the history of that August day. But we at TIME also see the project as a call to each of us for all that is yet to be done in the unfinished fight for equality, including in our own work. Our hope is that it will not only change the way we see history but also help awaken in all of us an understanding of the power of our own voice to have a positive impact on the world” TIME editor in chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal said.
The exhibition can accommodate four visitors at once, and time slots have to be booked in advance. TIME has also partnered with AI storytellers StoryFile to create an interactive video interview with a civil rights activist.
A special TIME Magazine issue was also created featuring a stunning cover image of Martin Luther King Jr. created from a historically precise 3-D rendering, realised by artist Hank Willis Thomas.
More information is available at the TIME website.
