Window to the Soul
Window to the Soul: Afghanistan is a VR storytelling experience that explores memory, identity, and resilience through the voices of Afghan women living in the UK. Led by artist Hannah Aria, we worked closely with a local refugee stakeholder group to shape an immersive story rooted in real lived experience, while carefully protecting those who shared their stories.
Rather than presenting individual testimonies directly, we developed a fictional Afghan family whose lives reflect the collective experiences shared with us. Stories gathered through workshops were strictly anonymised and stripped of all identifying detail before being woven into the backstories of four characters: Laila, Fatima, Sherin Gul, and Karim. This approach allowed us to tell truthful, emotionally rich stories while ensuring privacy, safety, and cultural sensitivity throughout.
We developed a bespoke, AI-assisted creative workflow to translate these narratives into a virtual world. This process helped us create realistic, expressive, and photorealistic animated characters, capturing subtle emotion through movement, voice, and atmosphere. AI tools supported the creative process, but storytelling, care, and human judgement remained central at every stage.
Collaboration was key. We held regular review sessions with community stakeholders to sense-check cultural detail, language, and representation, ensuring the final experience felt respectful and authentic.
The project premiered at DanceEast in February 2025. For us, Window to the Soul demonstrates how immersive storytelling can honour lived experience, protect anonymity, and build empathy through shared human stories.
