“The speech is so well known and the ways
people are used to seeing it is kind of archival,
grainy two-dimensional film,” said Mia Tramz, an
editorial director of immersive experiences at
TIME, which helped create the project. “By being
able to see it with your own two eyes and feel
like you’re standing there, you not only get the
message of the words, but the message of the
energy that he put behind those words.”
The project has the rare full backing from King’s
estate, which fiercely guards his likeness and
speeches. The high-tech effort took years of
research on King’s gestures and expressions, as
well as interviews with attendees.
Creators said it was inspired by an archive
image of King giving a different speech on the
National Mall, shot from his perspective looking
out. TIME, which features King in a March issue,
worked with companies including a production
studio run by actress Viola Davis and her
husband, Julius Tennon. Davis narrates part of
the project.
Visitors start in an dark empty room with audio
of people involved in key events leading up
to the march. One is Hank Thomas, who was
a Freedom Rider — activists who protested
segregation by sitting in bus seats reserved for
whites and who experienced violence and jail.
After that, attendees are outfitted with heavy
virtual reality headsets that block out the
outside world and replace it with three-
dimensional glimpses of Aug. 28, 1963, on the
National Mall. In what sometimes looks like a
video game, visitors march along Constitution
Avenue and then stand in the crowd of
some 250,000.