Uprising, SAGE partner for virtual reality experience | Local News | thesheridanpress.com – The Sheridan Press

SHERIDAN There were unusual items on display at SAGE Community Arts Monday night. A teddy bear sat on one pedestal, a tube of red lipstick on another, a red dress on a third. On five tables throughout the room, Oculus virtual reality headsets awaited gallery goers.

The headsets and objects on display were part of In Her Shoes, a collaborative event from SAGE and Sheridan human trafficking awareness and prevention organization Uprising. During the event, attendees participated in a human trafficking VR experience, connected with physical representations of the experience and processed the experience with Uprising personnel and art therapy.

The VR experience, called Trapped: A VR Detective Story made by Radical Empathy Education Foundation, places participants in the mind of Lisa, a 14-year-old girl being trafficked in Anytown, U.S. Participants walk through Lisas childhood home and the apartment in which her trafficker imprisoned her and look at objects related to her trafficking experience the teddy bear, the tube of lipstick, the red dress and more.

Tonight really revolves around the VR experience, Uprising Executive Director Terri Markham said.

The VR experience is not graphic or violent but does discuss sex and sexual violence, Markham said. It is appropriate for ages 12 and older.

Markham explained the goal of the VR program is to inspire empathy and advance information retention for those learning about human trafficking. Research shows participants retain far more information when it is presented in a personal, experiential format, Markham said, and the VR format builds empathy among participants.

You cant teach someone to have empathy, Markham said.

Although Uprising only received the VR technology about a month ago, the organization has already implemented it in training exercises with youth and adults. For instance, Uprising added the VR technology to a presentation before 150 Sweetwater County youth. The students responses were very empathetic, Markham said, and they said they felt so uncomfortable, lonely, sick and forced in Lisas shoes.

It was perspective-changing, one student wrote in response to the VR experience.

Participants at SAGE Monday night responded similarly.

[Human trafficking] is a much bigger issue than people realizeI think people need to be more aware of it, participant Jake Hansen said in response to the technology.

Another participant, Linette Sutphin, called Lisas story heart-wrenching.

The gallery displays, meanwhile, supported the VR experience, SAGE Executive Director Jill Benson said. While the bear, lipstick and dress pulled items from the VR experience into reality, the existing gallery backdrop a series of black-and-white prints and monotypes by Koichi Yamamoto offered an immersive and meditative visual for participants to continue processing the VR experience, Benson said.

Art therapist and SAGE member Tena Twite also taught an art processing activity in SAGEs downstairs studio Monday, allowing participants to better understand their experiences in the virtual world through collage.

SAGE and Uprising will continue to work together, Markham said, organizing trafficking-survivor-led art therapy workshops the first week of May and a youth open mic night June 17.

After a nationwide call for artwork, SAGE and Uprising will present a survivor art show with artwork from trafficking survivors in summer 2023.

Over the next year, we want to bring out different survivor artists to our community, Markham said.

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Uprising, SAGE partner for virtual reality experience | Local News | thesheridanpress.com - The Sheridan Press