Ortega has not been immune to criticism. Some technologists argue her focus on non-interactive, linear narratives fails to leverage VR’s full interactive potential (e.g., hand-tracking, object manipulation). Others in the Latinx community have questioned whether her gentle, domestic stories avoid harder political confrontations with systemic violence. Ortega responds that intimacy is political: “To show a grandmother’s love as worthy of a VR headset is to say that working-class brown life is extraordinary. That is radical.”
As of 2026, Gaby Ortega is the Creative Director of , a non-profit studio in Los Angeles dedicated to training Latina youth in VR production. She is currently developing a mixed-reality installation for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, combining archival photographs with spatial computing. Her work is taught in university courses on immersive media, diversity in tech, and digital ethnography. gaby ortega vr
Gaby Ortega: A Pioneering Voice in Virtual Reality Storytelling and Latinx Representation Ortega has not been immune to criticism
To address this, Ortega developed a —a framework now used by PBS’s immersive unit and the Google VR Creator Lab. The ladder outlines five levels of subject participation in VR, from passive scanning to co-creation. Her insistence on paying VR documentary subjects as collaborators (rather than subjects) has shifted industry norms. Ortega responds that intimacy is political: “To show
Her early short, "Abuela's Kitchen" (2017), serves as a foundational example of her approach. The piece places the viewer in a modest Latinx kitchen as an elderly grandmother cooks tortillas and tells stories of immigration. There is no interaction or gamification; instead, the power lies in sustained eye contact and ambient sound. The work was featured at the Sundance New Frontier program and established Ortega’s signature philosophy: VR is a "machine of intimacy."
Beyond her artistic output, Ortega is a vocal critic of "poverty porn" and exploitation in VR documentaries. She argues that because VR feels so real, creators have an elevated ethical duty. In a 2021 keynote at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), she stated: “When you place a viewer in someone’s trauma in 360°, you are not just showing pain—you are imposing it. We need consent protocols for immersive journalism.”