WhAT IS Immersion?
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Immersive media isn't content that's on a flat screen; it's a sensation.
Experiential Technologies, like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), produce what we call Immersive Media. Collectively, the field is often referred to as eXtended Reality (XR) or Spatial Computing.
Instead of just watching content at a distance, we get inside it. We feel the depth, scale, directionality, and movement of immersive experiences.
Our brains treat it less like content and more like a lived experience.
If media is how we communicate, then immersive media is digital communication through experience.
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Ok, but why? What's the big deal?
The big deal is that we feel presence (we’re here), embodiment (we’re the one doing it), and real emotion because our nervous system reacts to what it senses, not what’s true.
That’s why XR can feel so intense. It feels real. Two pivotal use cases of this technology are simulation and immersion.
WE ARE SIMULATING
Simulation is the objective recreation of a remote place or object, built so you can experience and test it without paying the full price of reality.
Done well, it’s safer than the real thing, more affordable, and more visceral than an abstract description. That makes simulation a training sandbox where people can practice rare, risky, or expensive scenarios until competence becomes reliable.
It’s also a scientific tool: a way to turn theories into experiences, so ideas can be tested, compared, and improved rather than merely argued about.
As David Deutsch puts it, “It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every physically possible environment.” WE ARE IMMERSING
Immersion is the sensation of being somewhere.
Text engages us cognitively, images engage us visually, video engages us temporally, and immersion engages us viscerally.
As the sensory simuls increases, so does our cognitive and emotional engagement. 
People who regularly visit the metaverse do so for many reasons. Artistic exploration, music performances, theatre, a sense of community, multiplayer gaming & adventures, learning with others. These are social and cultural adventures.
This highlights how the metaverse is about expressing humanity. It's about enjoying the moment. Both of these use cases have staggering potential, and it’s no secret that cutting-edge research is underway on facilitating even deeper immersion through brain-computer interfaces (BCI).
WE ARE VR is a collective of artists, engineers, and entrepreneurs advancing these technologies locally.
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Who are we ARE VR?
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WE ARE VR brings artists, hackers, and dealmakers together.
Our stack includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), smartglasses, spatial audio, projection mapping, FPV drones, mixed reality (MR), and more.
WE ARE IMMERSIVE
We work with experiential technologies; Tools that provide a sense of immersion, the visceral sensation of being somewhere, and feeling something. And we're not just consuming virtual worlds and experiences; we're shaping them while learning and experimenting together.
Experiential Media (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) turns information into experience.
In plain terms, it’s any designed experience where the “content” is a situation we participate in: interactive installations, immersive theater, location-based experiences, interactive documentaries, AR filters, VR simulations, mixed-reality games, and even some highly interactive web experiences.
Instead of just watching content at a distance, we get inside it. We feel the depth, scale, directionality, and movement of immersive experiences. Our brains treat it less like content and more like a place. A lived experience.
XR matters because it’s a new way for us to work with information: through space, motion, and action. It won’t replace screens for everything, but it works in a way flat media can’t match. For years, WE ARE VR members have developed world-class immersive media projects, but sometimes, that work can be hard to find. It's not in the public eye. We have the entrepreneurs, the artists, and the coders, but we need more visibility.
Many of us are artists or engineers, we're not salespeople. It’s time-consuming and costly to promote our own work. Our creators often don’t have the skills or inclination to showcase our own projects.
WE ARE GROWING
To many of us working in the metaverse, it’s a given that these technologies are a historic opportunity. Immersive, experiential technology is uncovering new avenues for science, philosophy, business, and culture. Artists are pioneering new realities. Engineers are building a new cutting-edge industry. We're shaping the future.
But the industry is woefully underresourced. The cost of hesitation is irrelevance. We can't afford to watch from the sidelines as yet another transformative technology reshapes the world without us.
The time to move is now. To adopt swiftly, to position ourselves at the front rather than scrambling to catch up, to embrace experimentation as a discipline rather than a risk. This demands real investment: of resources, of attention, of conviction.
A collective of artists, technologists, builders, thinkers, and explorers using immersive technology to shape new realities and explore new ways to grow and thrive. We're an artistic and technological collective with members in academia, business, government, finance, the arts, tourism, media, gaming, conservation, industry, and more. Since 2018, WE ARE VR has been on a mission to showcase Johannesburg's budding immersive industry and shape it into a world-class powerhouse.
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We're a diverse, inclusive, self-governing community, dedicated to immersive media, with industry-leading experts at the helm.
some of WE ARE VR's founding membersWE ARE ESTABLISHED
WE ARE VR was started in 2018 by a handful of South African VR/AR innovators, including Dale P. Deacon, Daliso Ngoma, Ulrico Grech-Cumbo, Ann Roberts, Brooklyn J. Pakathi, Thando Nomvalo, Sean Devonport, Jade Adair, Steve Pinto, Steven Tu, Matt Benic, Baso Mbangiso, Shmerah Paschier, Gary Steele, and Rick Treweek.
Since then, it has been supported and championed by visionaries such as Aluta Null, Malcolm Che, Buzwe Bam, Lebo Lietsch, Andre Hamman, Lex Neville, Tshireletso Tshwenyane, Mic Balkind, Gerald Ferreira, Kirstin Lee Gray, Electric South, Luke Draper, and many more. We've partnered with and been supported by the Keyes Art Mile, the TMRW gallery, the MIX bar, Tshimologong Innovation Precinct, Fak'ugesi Festival, Slayer Energy Drinks, Altspace (VR), VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, Afro Geek Fest, MakeGamesSA, and many others.
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What does WE ARE VR do?
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Many of us are building experiences in VR & AR, and most of us have been doing it alone.
We're the only ones at our companies who understand what a spatial anchor is. We've burned weekends debugging Unity projects with no one to call. We've spent thousands of rands on hardware that sits on shelves. We hammer ChatGPT & Claude for generating shaders that don't compile. We scroll Discord servers and Reddit threads looking for answers from strangers in different time zones. It can be isolating, expensive, and slow.
WE ARE BUILDING
We aren’t just sitting back and watching these technologies; we’re experimenting with hardware, building tools, sharing breakthroughs, and routing paid work and collaborations through each other.
Some of us are architecting businesses and shaping careers that serve as the bedrock for employment and high-tech skills development in our community.
Some of us create art that asks profound and sometimes uncomfortable questions about ourselves and the times we find ourselves in.
Some of us are passionate about fostering solidarity among workers, building this industry, and uniting for fair conditions and a prosperous future for all of us.
Some of us explore the science & engineering of immersive technologies. We shape the solutions required to simulate experience itself.
The WE ARE VR community is a place where we ask, "What do we want these technologies to do for our society?”
If you're building in XR and tired of figuring it out alone, you're one of us. We're a community of XR creators—developers, designers, artists, and founders actively working in immersive tech who want collaborations, shared resources, and other people who actually understand the problems we're solving.
WE ARE INVESTED
The African XR market presents a rare convergence of opportunity and impact.
While global investors compete to differentiate their portfolios through meaningful philanthropy, the continent's immersive technology sector offers something scarce: genuine first-mover advantage with measurable social returns. The paradox facing our industry—a shortage of skilled talent alongside limited employment pathways—isn't a barrier, it's an investment thesis.
By funding ecosystem development rather than isolated projects, we're not just backing technology; we're building the infrastructure that creates both the workforce and the market demand simultaneously. This is where capital doesn't just chase returns—it creates the conditions for them.
The question isn't whether Africa's XR economy will mature, but whether your investment will be remembered as the catalyst that made it possible. The WE ARE VR ecosystem is the beginning of an effective yet ethical foundation for an emerging industry.
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We are a community. We're about growing together. Coordination nurtures growth. We seek to learn, experiment, and share our findings with the group.
Our Core Activities:DAILY NEWS
Primarily through the WhatsApp & Signal messaging apps, our daily knowledge-sharing efforts highlight the latest hardware releases, industry news, new open-source and software toolsets, and experimental breakthroughs. We also have a live news feed on our home page below. WEEKLY INSIGHT
The weekly insights hosted on our blog focus on the basics of VR & AR for newcomers as well as some realisations that our writers have made. You can see the embedded Notion blog page below. MONTHLY MEETUPS
The monthly meetups, hosted at the Mix Cocktail Bar in Rosebank, are organised to demonstrate new local immersive projects and to hear from their creators. You can join us on the last Thursdays of each month at Mix from 18:00 CAT. YEARLY COLLABORATIONS
Over the years, we've contributed to many ad hoc projects. We support all collaboration efforts within the local ecosystem. Among them, the Fak'ugesi festival, the Africa XR Report, The Africa XR Hackathon, Afro Geek Fest, UJ's Technopreneurship Centre, the Tshimologong Precinct Workshops, and more. For the technically inclined, we host dedicated interest groups for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), the latest hardware such as headsets, haptics, & smartglasses, 3D design & development, immersive mobile apps, open-source initiatives & tools, ai & automation techniques, blockchain solutions, immersive audio & music, and much more. There are also groups dedicated to different game engines like Unity, Unreal, & Godot.
Aside from hard skill-sharing, we also swap strategic knowledge around sales, production, directing, strategy, processes, hiring, marketing, publicity, outsourcing, and collaborations. All the things needed to make an industry grow and mature. And for the theoretical folks, we also explore art, academia, activism, ethics, and the cognitive/social impact of immersive technologies.
With the shared goal of creating world-class immersive experiences, WE ARE VR exists to empower us to explore, flourish, and thrive in this field, together.
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what's in today's VR & AR news?
Here's what's happening in the Metaverse today
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What is the WE ARE VR meetup?
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It’s the Jozi XR scene’s regular meetup.
A place to plug into who’s actually building interesting virtual experiences, locally.
Started in 2018, the monthly meetups are recurring XR community gatherings in Johannesburg, South Africa focused on VR/AR/MR demos, talks, and networking.
When: Last Thursdays Where: Mix Cocktail Bar, Jozi Time: From 18:00 The WE ARE VR meetups have been hosted in physical spaces like galleries and creative hubs (e.g. TMRW Gallery and MIX in Rosebank), usually in the early evening, and often themed per “episode” (season/episode format, e.g. Season 4, last Thursdays at 18:00).
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The format includes a short introduction, a couple of curated talks or panels, live demos you can try, and then free-form mingling.
The tone is “community lab” rather than corporate expo – more nerdy show-and-tell than a trade show.
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What is the Africa XR report?
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Championed by WE ARE VR members, the Africa XR Report surveyed and interviewed hundreds of VR and AR creators, studios, and enthusiasts to assess the state of immersive technologies across the continent.
WE ARE LEARNING
Led by the editorial team of Judith Okonkwo, Dale Deacon, and Gareth Steele; community organizers with first-hand experience of how the XR industry continues to create jobs, empower artists, educate youth, solve business problems, and inspire experimentation.
Things have changed since 2022, but we're happy to see new analyses being done every year. Knowledge is power.
This was a first-of-its-kind initiative, and we're proud of our analysis of the continent's ecosystem.
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Our map of the immersive landscape in Africa
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How do I join?
We keep the momentum going with daily knowledge sharing, weekly blogs & polls, and monthly meetups. Here's the shared calendar.
WE ARE VR CALENDAR
What else do I need to know?
Here are some frequently asked questions we hear about the community
Q: What exactly is WE ARE VR?
A: A grassroots XR community in Johannesburg that showcases local VR/AR/MR talent, provides skills development, and builds collective bargaining power for creators. Started in 2018, now 180+ active members.
Q: Who can join?
A: Anyone interested in extended reality—developers, artists, students, entrepreneurs, researchers, or just curious newcomers. No experience required. The community spans ages 17-60+ and actively works to be gender-inclusive and diverse.
Q: How much does it cost to participate?
A: Free to join the WhatsApp community and attend meetups. There are plans for optional paid membership tiers and merchandise to support community sustainability, but core access remains free.
Q: What actually happens at the monthly meetups?
A: Curated talks and demos, hands-on VR/AR experiences, networking, and knowledge sharing. Usually last Thursday of each month in Rosebank. Format is "community lab" style—more nerdy show-and-tell than corporate expo.
Q: I'm a complete beginner. Will I feel out of place?
A: No. The community explicitly supports newbies with mentorship, skill development workshops, and a welcoming atmosphere. Every expert in our community started with zero XR experience at some point. We like to remind them of that fact.
Q: What's the WhatsApp community like?
A: Structured with dedicated channels: announcements, news, help desk, jobs, and general chat. Daily knowledge sharing, weekly rituals like Monday Wins, curated content drops. Active but not overwhelming—designed for signal over noise.
Q: How does the community help me professionally?
A: Access to job postings, freelance gigs, collaboration opportunities, fair rate guidance, contract advice, and collective support if clients act badly. The community is building toward union-like collective bargaining power.
Q: Can companies or organizations get involved?
A: Yes. Companies recruit talent through the community, sponsor events, or partner on projects. Educational institutions collaborate on training programs. Funders can support specific initiatives like the planned XR Skills Uplift program.
Q: What makes this different from just networking on LinkedIn?
A: Actual face-to-face community, hands-on demos, mentorship relationships, collective protection against exploitation, shared resources and equipment, and a mission beyond individual gain—building the XR industry in Africa on terms that serve creators, not just extract from them.
How can I get in touch?
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How Do I Support WE ARE VR?
WE ARE VR is for the community, by the community. But to scale up, we need funds.
Thank you to everyone who donated to our first ever fundraiser! You guys are the best!
We're taking ad-hoc orders now, so just get in touch using this form and we'll hook you up.
We're taking ad-hoc orders now, so just get in touch using this form and we'll hook you up.
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