MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

New Chicago Exhibit Offers MLK in Virtual Reality

The project has the rare full backing from King’s estate, which fiercely guards his likeness and speeches

NBCUniversal, Inc.

A new exhibit opening at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History Friday is recreating the 1963 march on Washington D.C. using virtual reality.

The experimental exhibit is coming to Chicago in hopes of placing participants right in the middle of all the action. 

“The messages that happened that day resonates today just as loudly as they did then,” said TIME Inc. Studios President Ian Orefice.

For the past three years, a team of digital experts at the studios, with support from the licensor of the estate of Martin Luther King, worked to create a digital likeness of Dr. King using actor Ty Brittingham. Although the team had to compress the timeline, all of the gestures Dr. King made, had to be based on truth-- and the result is a 9-minute-long immersive experience.

An immersive environment comes to life as soon as you put a headset on.

“When you experience virtual reality, you are taking your body inside of the frame,” explained march co-creator Alton Glass. “And when you come out, you say you talk about it as if you were there, as if you experienced it.”

It's set up so four people can go experience the virtual reality exhibit at a time.

Then the experience continues with more video and information about other important moments in history—the hope being a call for action.

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