( Please read Virtual Reality Heterotopias part 1 on my blog page)
Heterotopias are generally places that aren't open access and available to the public. Even though some may appear to be, there are still restrictions that need to be met before entering. This touches upon the fact that not everyone has access to virtual reality equipment. VR headsets are still very expensive and due to this most people have not yet experienced being immersed in a virtual world. It is not a widely used tool or form of entertainment due to this and other reasons. Virtual reality isn't new technology anymore, it has been around and available to the public to purchase for years, yet it has become popular and utilised on a large scale. This is thought to be partly down to cost, but also the fact that entertainment companies, such as Disney, aren't producing enough exciting content for VR because there simply isn't enough demand for it. A seemingly vicious circle. (Solsman, J)
Another factor that doesn't help the popularity of VR is the fact that manufacturers recommend not giving headsets to children under the age of 12/13. This is a big issue seen as this cuts out a large chunk of consumers that would have been the target audience for many VR entertainment applications. (Solsman, J). Having read an article on CNet about an upcoming VR project from Disney it is clear that virtual reality is not being embraced enough. Disney have created their second VR short story, in the form of a tale following on from Frozen 2. With such a massive following that the Frozen movies have, you'd expect that this project would be highly anticipated by all. However the short film is unlikely to ever be released on VR.
For Disney the recommended age limit seems to be the biggest issue. Children are after all their main target audience, so they won't be releasing any VR storytelling content any time soon. Jeff Gipson, the director of both of the short VR storys Disney have created, said"Maybe as the technology continues to progress, hopefully the age limits and restrictions will evolve and allow for audiences of all ages to enjoy both Myth: A Frozen Tale and Cycles in the format they were created in,". Cycles, being the other VR short that Disney have created, was also not released to the public for VR viewing, and instead turned into a 2D short film for their streaming site DisneyPlus. However this short film didn't have the usual crisp animations that Disney fans are used to, due to the story being animated for real time rendering it was made in a much lower animation quality. When then adapted for a 2D film the lower quality stayed.
It's exciting to hear about other projects which utilise VR in animation studios such as Disney Animations though. They have created virtual gaming experiences in based on films such as Coco, Ralph Breaks the Internet and the Marvel Universe. Disney also use virtual reality as a production tool more frequently as well, for example using it to help create characters such as Gale and the Nokk in Frozen 2. (Solsman, J)
Reading List:
M,Foucault (1984) Of other spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias,http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf
J, Solsman (2020) Disney fans will love Frozen VR. When can they see it? Maybe...never, https://www.cnet.com/news/disney-fans-will-love-frozen-2-vr-when-can-they-see-it-maybe-never/