0:00:01.354,0:00:03.850
Virtual reality started for me

0:00:03.850,0:00:06.976
in sort of an unusual place.

0:00:06.976,0:00:09.173
It was the 1970s,

0:00:09.173,0:00:10.773
I got into the field very young,

0:00:10.773,0:00:12.632
I was 7-years-old.

0:00:12.632,0:00:17.245
And the tool that I used [br]to access virtual reality

0:00:17.245,0:00:20.810
was an Evel Knievel stunt cycle.

0:00:20.810,0:00:23.431
This is a commercial for [br]that particular item:

0:00:23.431,0:00:24.776
Commercial: "What a jump!

0:00:24.776,0:00:26.767
Evel's riding the amazing stunt cycle.

0:00:26.767,0:00:29.536
That jiro-power sends him [br]over 100 feet at top speed."

0:00:29.536,0:00:31.628
Chris Milk: So this was my joy back then.

0:00:31.628,0:00:34.847
I rode this motorcycle everywhere,

0:00:34.847,0:00:36.568
and I was there with Evel Knievel:

0:00:36.568,0:00:39.057
we jumped the Snake River Canyon together.

0:00:39.057,0:00:40.012
I wanted the rocket,

0:00:40.012,0:00:41.188
I never got the rocket.

0:00:41.188,0:00:45.946
I only got the motorcycle.

0:00:45.946,0:00:47.586
I felt so connected to this world,

0:00:47.586,0:00:49.973
I didn't want to be [br]a storyteller when I grew up,

0:00:49.973,0:00:52.440
I wanted to be stuntman.

0:00:52.440,0:00:55.644
I was there, Evel Knievel was my friend,

0:00:55.644,0:00:58.747
I had so much empathy for him.

0:00:58.747,0:01:01.358
But, it didn't work out.

0:01:01.358,0:01:03.382
I went to art school.

0:01:03.382,0:01:05.792
I started making music videos.

0:01:05.792,0:01:08.866
And this is one of the early[br]music videos that I made:

0:01:08.866,0:01:14.756
Music: "Before the day you die,[br]you gon' touch the sky."

0:01:14.756,0:01:18.032
Chris Milk: You may notice [br]some slight similarities here.

0:01:18.032,0:01:19.818
(Laughter)

0:01:19.818,0:01:22.461
And I got that rocket.

0:01:22.461,0:01:25.104
(Laughter)

0:01:25.104,0:01:27.638
So, now I'm a filmmaker,

0:01:27.638,0:01:29.879
or, the beginning of a filmmaker,

0:01:29.879,0:01:33.243
and I started using the tools that are[br]available to me as a filmmaker

0:01:33.243,0:01:36.532
to try to tell the most compelling stories[br]

0:01:36.532,0:01:38.021
that I can to an audience.

0:01:38.021,0:01:41.150
And film is this incredible medium[br]that allows us to feel empathy

0:01:41.150,0:01:43.216
for people that are very different than us

0:01:43.216,0:01:45.838
and worlds completely foreign [br]from our own.

0:01:45.838,0:01:50.018
Unfortunately, Evel Knievel didn't feel[br]the same empathy for us

0:01:50.018,0:01:51.907
that we felt for him,

0:01:51.907,0:01:54.330
and he sued us for this video

0:01:54.330,0:01:56.061
(Laughter)

0:01:56.061,0:01:58.110
shortly thereafter.

0:01:58.110,0:02:00.716
On the upside,

0:02:00.716,0:02:03.430
the man that I worshiped as a child,

0:02:03.430,0:02:06.066
the man that I wanted [br]to become as an adult,

0:02:06.066,0:02:10.556
I was finally able to get his autograph.

0:02:10.556,0:02:13.902
(Applause)

0:02:17.832,0:02:22.849
Let's talk about film now.

0:02:22.849,0:02:25.745
Film, it's an incredible medium,

0:02:25.745,0:02:29.060
but essentially, it's the same[br]now as it was then.

0:02:29.060,0:02:32.529
It's a group of rectangles that are[br]played in a sequence.

0:02:32.529,0:02:36.362
And we've done incredible things[br]with those rectangles.

0:02:36.362,0:02:39.247
But, I started thinking about,

0:02:39.247,0:02:43.616
"Is there a way that I can use modern[br]and developing technologies

0:02:43.616,0:02:45.741
to tell stories in different ways

0:02:45.741,0:02:47.482
and tell different kinds of stories

0:02:47.482,0:02:51.793
that maybe I couldn't tell using[br]the traditional tools of filmmaking

0:02:51.793,0:02:54.154
that we've been using for 100 years?"

0:02:54.154,0:02:56.785
So, I started experiementing

0:02:56.785,0:02:58.344
and what I was trying to do was

0:02:58.344,0:03:03.054
to build the ultimate empathy machine.

0:03:03.054,0:03:05.277
And here's one of the early experiments:

0:03:07.984,0:03:10.656
Chris Milk: So this is called[br]"The Wilderness Downtown",

0:03:10.656,0:03:13.012
it was a collaboration with Arcade Fire.

0:03:13.012,0:03:16.502
It asked you to put in the address[br]where you grew up at the beginning of it.

0:03:16.502,0:03:17.969
It's a website.

0:03:17.969,0:03:20.715
And out of it starts growing [br]these little boxes

0:03:20.715,0:03:22.251
with different browser windows.

0:03:22.251,0:03:24.387
And you see this teenager [br]running down a street,

0:03:24.387,0:03:27.055
and then you see Google Street View[br]and Google Maps imagery

0:03:27.055,0:03:29.779
and you realize the street[br]he's running down is yours.

0:03:29.779,0:03:31.688
And when he stops in front of a house,

0:03:31.688,0:03:35.735
he's stops in front of your house.

0:03:35.735,0:03:39.417
And this was great, and I saw people [br]having an even deeper emotional reaction

0:03:39.417,0:03:43.241
to this than the things that [br]I had made in rectangles.

0:03:43.241,0:03:46.562
And I'm essentially taking [br]a piece of your history

0:03:46.562,0:03:49.981
and putting it inside [br]the framing of the story.

0:03:49.981,0:03:51.578
But then I started thinking,

0:03:51.578,0:03:53.430
"Okay, well that's a part of you.

0:03:53.430,0:03:58.731
But, how do I put all of you[br]inside of the frame?"

0:03:58.731,0:04:01.834
So to do that, I started[br]making art installations.

0:04:01.834,0:04:04.374
And this is one called [br]"The Treachery of Sanctuary."

0:04:04.374,0:04:07.858
It's a triptych, I'm going to show[br]you the third panel.

0:04:30.662,0:04:35.108
So now I've got you inside of the frame,

0:04:35.108,0:04:39.403
and I saw people having even more[br]visceral emotional reactions

0:04:39.403,0:04:42.080
to this work than the previous one.

0:04:42.080,0:04:44.230
But then I started thinking about frames,

0:04:44.230,0:04:46.245
and what do they represent.

0:04:46.245,0:04:48.087
And a frame is just a window.

0:04:48.087,0:04:50.384
I mean, all the media that we watch[br]

0:04:50.384,0:04:51.536
-- television, cinema --

0:04:51.536,0:04:53.859
they're these windows into [br]these other worlds.

0:04:53.859,0:04:56.217
And I thought, "Well, great. [br]I got you in a frame.

0:04:56.217,0:04:57.824
But I don't want you in the frame,

0:04:57.824,0:04:58.820
I don't want you in a window,

0:04:58.820,0:05:00.236
I want you through the window,

0:05:00.236,0:05:02.663
I want you on the other side,

0:05:02.663,0:05:06.428
in the world, inhabiting the world."

0:05:06.428,0:05:09.123
So that leads me back to virtual reality.

0:05:09.123,0:05:11.344
Let's talk about virtual reality.

0:05:12.124,0:05:14.884
Unfortunately, "Talking about [br]virtual reality

0:05:14.884,0:05:18.423
is like dancing about architecture."

0:05:18.423,0:05:25.340
And this is actually someone dancing[br]about architecture in virtual reality.

0:05:25.340,0:05:27.823
(Laughter)

0:05:27.823,0:05:29.544
So, it's difficult to explain.

0:05:29.544,0:05:31.016
Why is difficult to explain?

0:05:31.016,0:05:34.782
It's because it's a very [br]experiential medium.

0:05:34.782,0:05:36.698
You feel your way inside of it.

0:05:36.698,0:05:38.496
It's a machine, but inside of it,

0:05:38.496,0:05:40.640
it feels like real-life,

0:05:40.640,0:05:42.215
it feels like truth.

0:05:42.215,0:05:44.646
And you feel present in the world[br]that you're inside

0:05:44.646,0:05:47.689
and you feel present with the people[br]that you're inside of it with.[br]

0:05:47.689,0:05:51.785
So, I'm going to show you a demo[br]of virtual reality film:

0:05:51.785,0:05:54.006
a full-screeen version of[br]all the information

0:05:54.006,0:05:56.209
that we capture when[br]we shoot virtual reality.

0:05:56.209,0:05:57.864
So we're shooting in every direction.

0:05:57.864,0:06:00.210
This is a camera system that we built

0:06:00.210,0:06:03.235
that has 3D cameras that look[br]at every direction

0:06:03.235,0:06:05.987
and binaural microphones[br]that face in very direction.

0:06:05.987,0:06:08.951
We take this and we build, basically,[br]

0:06:08.951,0:06:11.853
a sphere of a world that you inhabit.

0:06:11.853,0:06:14.736
So what I'm going to show you[br]is not a view into the world,

0:06:14.736,0:06:18.107
it's basically the whole world[br]stretched into a rectangle.

0:06:18.107,0:06:21.495
So this film is called [br]"Clouds over Sidra."

0:06:21.495,0:06:25.989
And it was made in conjunction with [br]our virtual reality company called VRSE

0:06:25.989,0:06:27.755
and the United Nations,

0:06:27.755,0:06:30.788
and a co-collaborator named Gabo Arora.

0:06:30.788,0:06:34.625
And we went to a Syrian refugee camp[br]in Jordan in December

0:06:34.625,0:06:39.142
and shot the story of a 12-year-old[br]girl there named Sidra.

0:06:39.142,0:06:42.473
And her and her family fled Syria[br]through the desert into Jordan

0:06:42.473,0:06:46.567
and she's been living in this[br]camp for the last year and a half.

0:06:46.567,0:06:50.720
Video: "My name is Sidra,[br]

0:06:50.720,0:06:52.616
I am 12-years-old.

0:06:52.616,0:06:54.418
I am in the fifth grade.

0:06:54.418,0:06:59.605
I am from Syria in the Daraa province[br]in (?).

0:06:59.605,0:07:02.283
I have lived here in [br]the Zaatari camp in Jordan

0:07:02.283,0:07:04.721
for the last year and a half.

0:07:04.721,0:07:08.931
I have a big family:

0:07:08.931,0:07:11.697
three brothers, one is a baby.

0:07:11.697,0:07:15.142
He cries a lot.

0:07:15.142,0:07:17.963
I asked my father if [br]I cried when I was a baby,

0:07:17.963,0:07:20.627
and he says I did not.

0:07:20.627,0:07:23.821
I think I was a stronger baby[br]than my brother."

0:07:23.821,0:07:26.281
Chris Milk: So, when you're inside[br]of the headset.

0:07:26.281,0:07:28.351
you're not seeing it like this.

0:07:28.351,0:07:30.423
You're looking around through this world.

0:07:30.423,0:07:35.711
You'll notice you see full[br]360 degrees in all directions.

0:07:35.711,0:07:38.662
And when you're sitting there[br]in her room, watching her,

0:07:38.662,0:07:41.115
you're not watching it through[br]a television screen,

0:07:41.115,0:07:43.033
you're not watching it through a window,

0:07:43.033,0:07:44.499
you're sitting there with her.

0:07:44.499,0:07:47.466
When you look down, you're sitting[br]on the same ground

0:07:47.466,0:07:48.915
that she's sitting on.

0:07:48.915,0:07:50.666
And because of that,

0:07:50.666,0:07:53.765
you feel her humanity in a deeper way.

0:07:53.765,0:07:59.590
You empathize with her in a deeper way.

0:07:59.590,0:08:05.917
And I think that we can change[br]minds with this machine.

0:08:05.917,0:08:09.690
And we've already started[br]to try to change a few.

0:08:09.690,0:08:12.175
So we took this film to the[br]World Economic Forum

0:08:12.175,0:08:14.916
in Davos in January.

0:08:14.916,0:08:17.022
And we showed it to a group of people

0:08:17.022,0:08:21.102
whose decisions affect the lives[br]of millions of people.

0:08:21.102,0:08:23.740
And these are people who might[br]not otherwise be sitting

0:08:23.740,0:08:29.624
in a tent in a refugee camp in Jordan.

0:08:29.624,0:08:35.973
But, in January, one afternoon[br]in Switzerland,

0:08:35.973,0:08:39.429
they suddenly all found themselves there.

0:08:40.309,0:08:44.489
(Applause)

0:08:46.999,0:08:49.058
And they were affected by it.

0:08:49.058,0:08:52.374
So we're going to make more of them.

0:08:52.374,0:08:55.460
We're working with the [br]United Nations right now

0:08:55.460,0:08:57.515
to shoot a whole series of these films.

0:08:57.515,0:09:00.187
We just finished shooting[br]a story in Liberia.

0:09:00.187,0:09:03.633
And now, we're going to shoot[br]a story in India.

0:09:03.633,0:09:05.511
And we're taking these films,

0:09:05.511,0:09:08.036
and we're showing them [br]at the United Nations

0:09:08.036,0:09:11.023
to people that work there and people[br]who are visiting there.

0:09:11.023,0:09:12.810
And we're showing [br]them to the people

0:09:12.810,0:09:17.274
that can actually change the lives[br]of the people inside the film.

0:09:17.274,0:09:20.955
And that's where I think we just[br]start to scratch the surface

0:09:20.955,0:09:24.614
of the true power of virtual reality.

0:09:24.614,0:09:26.835
It's not a video game peripheral.

0:09:26.835,0:09:31.408
It connects humans[br]to other humans in a profound way

0:09:31.408,0:09:34.873
that I've never seen before [br]in any other form of media.

0:09:34.873,0:09:38.763
And it can change people's[br]perception of each other.

0:09:38.763,0:09:41.952
And that's how I think [br]virtual reality has the potential

0:09:41.952,0:09:45.054
to actually change the world.

0:09:45.054,0:09:49.531
So, it's a machine.

0:09:49.531,0:09:51.113
But through this machine,

0:09:51.113,0:09:54.074
we become more compassionate,

0:09:54.074,0:09:56.727
we become more empathetic,

0:09:56.727,0:09:59.584
and we become more connected.

0:09:59.584,0:10:03.811
And ultimately, we become more human.

0:10:03.811,0:10:05.651
Thank you.

0:10:05.651,0:10:08.771
(Applause)