Housed in a mobile semi-truck, the World Vision Experience brings the sights and sounds of rural Africa to American audiences. The exhibit debuted at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.
“It’s like a 360-degree viewing experience,” says Shaun Kempston, a World Vision writer. “The experience leaves visitors feeling like, ‘Wow, there’s something really cool going on in the world’.”
View behind-the-scenes moments in recreating the life of a Tanzanian village.
Visitors first acquire a ticket at an authentic recreation of a Tanzanian bus station. They then board a virtual bus that takes them on an off-road adventure to the community of Kisongo, near Mount Kilimanjaro. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) A 13-year-old World Vision sponsored child, Babayetu, serves as the guide to Kisongo. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) Filming a scene in Tanzania, where villagers demonstrate how sponsorship money is helping improve things such as education for children, access to clean water, and healthcare in the community. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) Apart from the bus driver, all the people featured in the exhibit are real, and the accounts of their lives are accurate. None are trained actors, but they come across as remarkably spontaneous and natural on video. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) Villagers take a break during film shooting. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) Inside the exhibit, a display on economic empowerment showcases families developing livelihoods to increase their income. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) The experience was created using eight video cameras that were mounted on the front, rear, and sides of a four-wheel drive vehicle that traversed the actual route to Kisongo. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) The videos were synchronized and are played on screens that represent the windows of the virtual bus. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) The World Vision Experience provides a child’s eye view of education in a classroom in Kisongo, Tanzania, where this scene was recorded. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) “It’s like a 360-degree viewing experience,” says Shaun Kempston, a World Vision writer who worked on the experience truck. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado) The World Vision Experience follows the World Vision Experience: AIDS, a mobile exhibit, now retired, that focused on the needs created by the AIDS epidemic. The World Vision Experience will tour churches, college campuses, and public events nationwide. (©2012 World Vision/photo by Robert Coronado)
