About
Enliven media has proven the impact of virtual reality with her first pilot, don’t forget me, domestic violence simulation. The user immerses herself in the perspective of a seven-year-old. See, hear and feel how an argument between your parents escalates and leads to violence. The ‘Don’t Forget Me’ virtual reality experience allows the user to understand what it feels like to witness such a traumatic event as a child. The main goal of this project is to raise more awareness for the effect of domestic violence on children in particular. Research from the dutch Probation Service has concluded that using the simulation during training of perpetrators of domestic violence, about the consequences of their actions was successful. Standing inside the shoes of a seven-year-old and feeling powerless about the violence that is happening right in front of your eyes hits a sore spot. The research suggested improvements to create an even higher success rate. One of the most important points of feedback was the realism of the simulation. In collaboration with the ministry of justice we are working on a remastered edition of Don’t forget me.
The pilot simulation is widely used in therapy, training, education, encourages perpetrators, professionals, students and bystanders to remember this often forgotten and utmost fragile victim. The simulation is also being used in the education of future professionals by the University of Arnhem & Nijmegen (Netherlands) and the Dutch Police Academy.
Several healthcare organizations implemented the simulation in treatment of perpetrators. The pilot won the ministry of justice innovation award of 2018 because of the successful impact it created.
A few quotes from professionals about the experience:
Andre van der Reest, municipality Goes.
Andre van der Reest, municipality Goes.
Ronald Christiaans, police academy
‘Don’t forget me’ has proven to be an excellent addition for own current education at the police academy.
Maurice Magnee University of applied sciences of Arnhem and Nijmegen
Inside the youth education from HAN ‘don’t forget me’ lead to new insights and extremely valuable discussions.
Jolanda Mooij, Dutch probation service
During the BORG training at the Dutch probation Service, perpetrators of domestic violence told they were able to stop arguing if the children were nearby after experiencing the virtual reality simulation.
My contributions
The project is currently still in production, but the narrative is already solid. The foundation of the narrative took around five months to develop. The pilot of “Don’t forget me” was a great success and set the base for the entire simulation. How could we not only improve the realism but also the narrative? As always, I start with research. What do couples argue about and how could the tension get so high that physical violence is involved? The answer is extremely complex. To impact a wider audience we used multiple themes so every user could recognize themselves in the experience. Iteration was essential. The dialogue had to be crafted carefully because we didn’t want the man to be the only instigator. We wanted to show the duality in partner violence. To make this happen we talked with a behavioural specialist in domestic violence to give us feedback about the script. Next we rewrote the plot to drastically change the scene of the user. We used environmental storytelling as a weapon to show the subject parents argue about. Show don’t tell is a must in virtual reality and gives the user a lot of information. Who is the user? What is going on? We used this to link the surroundings to the narrative.
A preview of the new edition of Don’t forget me:
