At South by Southwest - the gargantuan Texas festival for cinema, music and tech - artists this year embraced virtual reality as a way to better connect with humanity, not escape it.

About two years ago, Italian photographer Matteo Lonardi traveled to Tehran as part of a project called Reframe Iran. His goal was to portray Iran away from the news headlines and politics by using virtual reality (VR) webcams from inside the studios of Iranian artists. But one wonders how well known this new technology is inside Iran and how often ...