At Agog, we believe extended reality (XR) can do more than dazzle. It can open minds, bridge divides, and spark imagination about the futures we want to build. XR is powerful not because it’s high-tech, but because it’s deeply human, inviting us to see through new eyes, feel across distances, and imagine out loud.
This isn’t a ranked list or an awards show. It’s a collection of immersive experiences handpicked by Agog’s staff and friends. These are the stories that moved us, challenged us, and at times made us weak in the knees. Each left us more curious about what XR can do in the hands of thoughtful creators.
>Playing with Reality Series: Impulse & Goliath
>Traveling While Black
>On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)
>Notes on Blindness
>You Destroy. We Create. The War on Ukraine’s Culture
>Body of Mine VR
>We Live Here
>This is Not a Ceremony
>Home After War
>Where Thoughts Go
>The Overview Effect
>Agog House
As you read through, you’ll see reflections from those who recommended these experiences—because we believe the best way to understand XR’s potential is through the people it touches.
Playing with Reality Series: Impulse & Goliath
Anagram & Floréal
Narrated by Tilda Swinton, Impulse and Goliath, the first two episodes in the Playing with Reality series, stand out as explorations of delusion, power, and the limits of perception. Goliath immerses users in the story of a man navigating schizophrenia and social isolation through the lens of video games. Impulse unpacks the extreme side of ADHD that flips the logic of cause and effect.
The XR factor: These pieces use voice, space, and shifting visuals to simulate altered mental states in a way that only immersive media can. You don’t just hear the story—you inhabit its disorientation and beauty.
Impulse
Length: 40 mins
Media Types: Mixed Reality, Interactivity, Animation, Roomscale VR
More information | Get the experience
Goliath
Length: 25 mins
Media Types: VR Animation
More information | Get the experience
“The Playing with Reality series showed me how powerful interactivity can be in XR storytelling. In Impulse, the way the experience mapped onto my real-world environment blurred the line between my space and the story’s space—it felt like it was happening to me and around me. That fusion of story and presence created a level of emotional engagement I haven’t felt in other mediums.”
—Erika Croxton, Chief of Staff, Agog
Traveling While Black
Felix & Paul Studios
A seated VR documentary that explores the long history of restricted movement for Black Americans, told through conversations inside the historic Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant in Washington, D.C.
The XR factor: The fixed perspective creates a powerful sense of presence while real conversations unfold around you, highlighting the intergenerational impact of segregation and safety.
Length: 20 mins
Media Types: VR, 360 film, Animation
More information | Get the experience
“During its time at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, Traveling While Black revealed itself to be more than just an exhibit—it became a powerful catalyst for conversation. At a moment when racial profiling and discrimination are once again on the rise across our nation, this immersive experience offered a vital and necessary bridge to the past. Sitting face-to-face in Ben’s Chili Bowl, hearing firsthand accounts of the dangers Black families faced during legal segregation, and so much more, fostered a sense of embodied empathy that only this immersive media can offer.”
—Tafeni English-Relf, Director, Alabama State Office, Southern Poverty Law Center
On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)
Archer’s Mark, Atlas V & Novelab
A powerful VR documentary that recounts the moments following the 2018 false missile alert in Hawai‘i, capturing personal stories and collective reckoning in the face of potential nuclear catastrophe. A piece made all the more real through partnership with the Program on Science & Global Security at Princeton University.
The XR factor: Combines 3D motion capture and poetic narration to immerse you in the emotional arc of a real event. The stakes feel personal—and urgent.
Length: 38 mins
Media Types: VR, Interactivity, Animation, Volumetric capture
More information | Get the experience
“What makes this piece so brilliant is how it weaves complex ideas—nuclear proliferation, colonization, and personal memory—into the fabric of a single event. The false missile alert in Hawai‘i was terrifying on its own, but the piece places you right there, in the panic and uncertainty, using immersive media to make it visceral. What could’ve been just a story about a system glitch becomes a powerful cautionary tale for Western civilization—an ambitious message, masterfully delivered in VR.”
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—Bryan Malong, Senior Project Manager, Agog
Notes on Blindness
Archer’s Mark, Atlas V & Novelab
An eerily beautiful adaptation of the audio diaries of John Hull, who began losing his sight in midlife.
The XR factor: Uses sound spatialization and minimal visuals to shift how you perceive your own senses. A deeply affecting work of accessibility and empathy.
Length: 25 mins
Media Types: VR Animation
More information | Get the experience
“Notes on Blindness is a beautifully crafted story that invites you into the world of someone gradually losing their sight, shifting how you experience space in real time. It’s one of the first pieces I recommend to people new to XR because it’s simple to navigate, emotionally powerful, and shows how VR can turn something invisible into something deeply felt.”
—Amy Seidenwurm, Chief of Programs & Strategy, Agog
You Destroy. We Create. The War on Ukraine’s Culture
NowHere Media
This journalistic VR experience won a Peabody Award for documenting how Ukrainians have acted to preserve their culture and institutions early on in the war.
The XR factor: By walking through a gallery and hearing directly from artists, you witness resistance and creativity coexisting in the rubble. The intimacy is unforgettable.
Length: 25 mins
Media Types: VR, 360 & 180 film, Animation, Photogrammetry
More information | Get the experience
“You Destroy. We Create. moved me deeply. With care and solidarity, the film takes us into a Ukraine we don’t often see—where creation persists in the midst of destruction. From bombed-out museums to graffiti artists and open-air raves, this piece illuminates the power of culture and community at a time of war. Their use of XR is steady, nuanced, and transcendent. I was left in awe.”
—Kat Cizek, MIT Open Doc Lab
Body of Mine VR
Kost
This deeply personal experience allows users to inhabit a gender-diverse body, layered with real interviews and reflections from trans individuals around the world.
The XR factor: Using body, face, and eye tracking, the experience transforms self-perception, enabling participants to interact with their virtual skin. It’s a rare example of XR making the body a site of empathy.
Length: Variable
Media Types: VR, Animation, Interactivity, Body, Face & Eye Tracking
More information | Get the experience
“Body of Mine helped me move beyond empathy into embodied connection. What I thought I understood deepened through the experience, offering a fuller, more compassionate understanding of trans lives and identities—one that stays with me and reinforces the ongoing urgency to protect, affirm, and celebrate the community.”
—Jasmin Askew, Programs Manager, Agog
We Live Here
Rose Troche
This VR story explores the life of Rockey, an unhoused person in Los Angeles. It allows users to engage with her objects—flipping through a journal, listening to a music box, or opening a box of photos—each revealing an intimate glimpse into her past, dreams, and resilience.
The XR factor: Spatial storytelling brings you into her environment, encouraging presence over pity.
Length: 12 mins
Media Types: VR, Animation, Interactivity, Photogrammetry, 360 film
Get the experience
“We Live Here plunges us into the lived experience of what happens when the right to adequate housing is ignored. This powerful VR film doesn’t just narrate a human rights violation; it makes us feel the devastating impact of the cruel and ineffective criminalization of unhoused people in Los Angeles. It compels us to recognize that houselessness is a violation of dignity that could happen to any of us, and a stark reminder that securing housing for all is not charity, but a human imperative.”
—Sam Dubberly, Director, Technology, Rights & Investigations Division, Human Rights Watch
This Is Not a Ceremony
Colin Van Loon
A poetic and moving work by Niitsitapi filmmaker Ahnahktsipiitaa, this piece unpacks colonial legacies in Canada through surreal imagery, personal stories, and guided confrontation. The film cleverly balances cheeky narrative with very real calls to witness.
The XR factor: Uses surreal transitions, direct address, and conceptual imagery to resist linear storytelling, inviting viewers into an experience shaped by Indigenous ways of knowing.
Length: 22 mins
Media Types: VR, 360 film, Animation
More information | Get the experience
“I’d been following this project closely since its Sundance premiere, but it wasn’t until I experienced it firsthand in a headset that its full impact hit me. It was visceral and haunting, leaving me broken, inspired, and urgently aware of both the power of this medium and the critical importance of who gets to tell these stories.”
—Vanessa Lawand Pfeiffer, Community Strategy & Engagement Manager, Agog
Home After War
NowHere Media
Step inside the home of an Iraqi father returning after conflict, as he searches for hidden explosives and rebuilds a sense of safety for his family.
The XR factor: The tension of walking through a space filled with invisible danger becomes visceral. It’s a master class in using spatial narrative to evoke empathy and dread.
Length: 18 mins
Media Types: VR, 360 film, Animation, Photogrammetry, Volumetric capture
More information | Get the experience
“When ISIS retreated from Fallujah, Iraq, they booby-trapped homes with explosives as deadly reminders of their occupation. Home After War transports us into the lives of families beginning to return. We go not as voyeurs of a violent spectacle, but as guests in one Iraqi man’s home, witnessing how his life was irrevocably changed by these weapons. Six years after its release, Home After War remains a poignant, searing reminder of the toll of war and our duty to assist those affected.”
—Sandra Bialystok, Director of Communications and Partnerships, ALIPH
Where Thoughts Go
Lucas Rizzotto
An interactive dreamscape where you hear others’ anonymous answers to personal questions—and can contribute your own.
The XR factor: Blurs the line between audience and participant. It’s meditative, connective, and unexpectedly emotional.
Length: Variable
Media Types: Animation, Interactivity, Social VR
More information | Get the experience
“Where Thoughts Go drew me into an intimate world of dreams, fears, and reflections—other people’s and my own. It felt gentle, honest, and surprisingly emotional. Long after I took the headset off, I was still thinking about the voices I’d heard—and what I chose to leave behind.”
—Mary Matheson, Head of Production, Agog
The Overview Effect
ShuShuVR, Niko Lang & TRIPP
Go on a VR journey with friends or strangers through the atmosphere to simulate what astronauts often describe as a life-altering view of Earth.
The XR factor: What would feel abstract on a screen becomes emotional in headset. You are shot into awe and orbit.
Length: <5 mins
Media Types: VR, 360 film, animation
Get the experience
“The Overview Effect filled me with total awe. It reminds me how small—and how connected—we all are. Seeing Earth from space makes the planet’s fragility feel real, and it motivates me to protect our small blue dot. What makes the experience even more powerful is sharing it with others. We’re each having our own reaction, but we’re on the journey together. I know I sound painfully earnest, but honestly? It’s mind-blowing.”
—Chip Giller, Co-founder, Agog
Agog House (Bonus Pick)
ShuShuVR & Niko Lang
Our own social VR home, built in VRChat and open to anyone curious about immersive community and creative connection.
The XR factor: It’s not just a world—it’s a gathering place. A low-pressure, high-vibe space to meet, experiment, and dream together.
Length: Self-paced
Media Type: VR (VRChat)
Get the experience
Ready to explore more?
XR is evolving—and so is this list. We’ll continue to add new experiences as we discover them, and we’d love your help.
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📩 Know an XR-for-good piece we should feature? Email us at [hello@agog.org] or tag us @weareagog.