Private Story
Chronicles of a post-Internet Cuba
Summary
Chronics of a Cuba post Internet, is a WebXR project, with Design, Soundtrack and Programming by NEWMENstudio.
Developed for Virtual Reality Glasses, Web and Smartphones.
Developed for Virtual Reality Glasses, Web and Smartphones.
The beginning of these protests has been closely linked to the beginning of Internet service through 3G and 4G mobile networks in Cuba. Months after having access to platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, Cubans have independently gained organizational capacity to openly claim their rights. This is evidenced in popular demonstrations mostly called from the Internet, such is the case of the march for an Animal Protection Law in 2019, the independent Gay Pride Parade of 2019, the sit down in front of the Ministry of Culture on November 27, 2020 (27N), and the National Demonstrations of July 11, 2021 (11J), which was only silenced with the national cutoff of mobile data and Internet services. Despite the constant escalation of physical and moral repression, repudiation rallies called by the government and public campaigns of defamation and dismantling of thought, the demonstrations have continued and have even taken on an unprecedented national scope through the use of the Internet and social media. Examples of that are San Isidro Movement, and Archipelago Group.
In Chronicles of a Cuba post-Internet, the viewer will participate in the previously mentioned four demonstrations using Virtual Reality, showing the existence of "minorities" raising their voices in today's Cuba, minorities that need a space to tell their experiences and organize themselves to change their reality. In a Cuba where jail, exile or social segregation awaits you for dissenting, people are in a position of vulnerability and helplessness that was normalized in the new Constitutional referendum of 2019. Through the VR environment, we will see how the imposition of force and media supremacy end up extinguishing voices that later suffer unfair persecution, harassment and even years in prision, so making these actions visible also helps communicating how awareness about civil rights in Cuba grows and with it, the conquest of more freedom and equal opportunities.
This Transmedia Immersive Chronicle evidences an escalation of violence by the government and the authorities and shows that the worst enemy of the Revolution was never the United States, as the official version has repeated throughout all these years, but rather its inability to manage dissent. The appearance with increasing force of open demonstrations of popular discontent merits the creation of channels of dialogue, beyond the Internet, something that seem distant today.
The grant for Freelance Visual Journalist will be able to provide resources for the development of a WebXR-supported piece that will be exhibited through a VR environment, as these four days of the aforementioned demonstrations take place. Through unpublished videos in VR and accredited foreign news media on the island and national TV news (NTV), the official and only news program in Cuba, we aim to show different points of view and create a more complete image of the Cuban context, while relying on technologies, we propose another way to create a chronicle. The funds will also be very useful for the creation of the original music, translate, design and programming for WebXR. All this with the intention that more people learn about other realities in Cuba, that now its connected, seems like it’s waking up from a dream.
Manifestations collected
The march for a Law of animal projection. VR 3DOF environment, Web references. NLT April 7, 2019
The independent LGBTI pride march. VR 3DOF Unpublished Images, Links to OnCuba and other sources. 12 May 2019
Sitting 27N. VR Unpublished Images, other sources. NLT Nov 27, 2020
Demonstration 11J. VR 180 3DOF and VR 360 Unpublished Images, NTV 11/Jul/2021 Web references.
Chronics of a Cuba post Internet, is a WebXR project, with Design, Soundtrack and Programming by NEWMENstudio.
Developed for Virtual Reality Glasses, Web and Smartphones.
