Co-directed by MIT ODL fellow Sandra Rodriguez and Karen Vanderborght, Big Picture VR is an immersive interactive, 360 documentary experience about digital data, human resilience and humanitarian work in NorthEast Nigeria.
More data is being collected and shared by humanitarian actors than at any other time. In North East Nigeria, data helps respond to a food security crisis affecting millions of households. Nigeria is the most populous and connected country in Africa. Yet, with the continent’s largest mobile market, the North-East region remains isolated. Insurgencies by Boko Haram have exacerbated problems in the Borno State. 5.8 million people face extreme malnutrition, food deficit and massive displacement of population. The lack of infrastructure and connectivity of affected regions make it difficult to reach people and assess their needs. To respond to the crisis, humanitarian workers use a vast array of digital data – GPS location, open data kits, market price trends and satellite imagery. The challenge is to get the Big Picture: making sure data is accessible, shared and analyzed to inform life-saving decisions. From data collection to community feedback, data becomes a crucial tool to inform humanitarian response.
Made in partnership with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Big Picture VR launched the United Nations new Centre for Humanitarian Data, in The Hague on December 2017. It was showcased in the presence of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and has been presented in the World Economic Forum in Davos 2018, as part of the “Leave no one behind” and the Sustainable Development Goals group, reuning GHL, HumanityX, UN OCHA, Unicef and the Red Cross. It has since toured the World Economic Forum VR exhibit, UNVR collection, and has been presented in multiple events including Data for Development Festival in Bristol, the Global Festival of Action in Bonn, World VR Forum, Switzerland, IOM and UN tenth year of conflict reflection event held in North-East Nigeria.
SANDRA RODRIGUEZ – DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
KAREN VANDERBORGHT – DIRECTOR & CREATIVE UX DIRECTOR
PRIAM GIVORD – DESIGN
ASTRO STUDIO – ANIMATION
DAVID DRURY – MUSIC
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNITED NATIONS CENTRE FOR HUMANITARIAN DATA AND THE PAUL G. ALLEN FAMILY FOUNDATION