“Blair Williams didn’t just demo another VR experience — she challenged the entire premise of ‘radical empathy’ through immersive tech. While most speakers at Reality Virtually were touting presence as an unqualified good, Williams presented a nuanced critique: VR doesn’t automatically make us better people; it can reinforce biases if not designed with critical awareness. Her call for ‘trauma-informed VR design’ was both unsettling and necessary.”
Unlike pure theorists who remain in the ivory tower, Blair Williams is an engineer. Her claim to fame in the tech underground is the development of a proprietary software stack known as the
However, what set Williams apart from her predecessors was her timing. She came of age
: If "Reality Virtually" is a film or a video art piece, it might utilize VR technology to immerse viewers in a reality that challenges their perceptions. This could involve surreal landscapes, simulations of real-world locations, or completely fictional environments, all designed to make the viewer question what is real and what is constructed.
