Founded in Montreal in 2013 by directors Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël and producer Stéphane Rituit, the company has gone from producing a simple 360-degree video in 2014 that put viewers in the same room with a man singing and playing piano (“Strangers”) to its new VR documentary that puts them underwater, in the cockpit of a T-38 supersonic jet and within 20 feet of a Space X rocket as it launches (“Space Explorers: A New Dawn”).
2 comments:
I think that the thing I took away as being the most important part of this article is Green Baum's quote, “What distinguishes Felix & Paul from the rest of the VR community is that they’re first and foremost artists as opposed to technologists". A bunch of the article I see on this blog involving new technology in this sort of category are a showcase of new technology by the people who made the product, not those who are using it in a super artistic context. I think that when a product had artistic potential, an artist should be either on the team or consulted throughout the design process. An example of this, although it is an example quite removed from this context, is my aunt and her prosthetics company. She went to art school (coincidently here at CMU) and when her prosthetics consultant found out he started asking her for more directed feedback and opinions about the product, and the company has been working with her to make a more ideal prosthetic arm for her, and improving the products for other models. She even has tattoos on her prosthetic now, transferred onto the hard plastic arm from a patterned fabric. I just think it is so cool that artists can take technologies and use them in ways never imagined, and I think more artists should be involved in product development. I also think Felix & Paul's work sounds incredible, and I plan on looking up and watching some of the videos they have helped with.
It is always so incredible to me how quickly the world of virtual reality and media develop. In such a short period of time, they went from being in the same room as a performer to a legitimate space exploration. I think its really important that in the face of a rapidly growing industry that more groups follow in suit with Felix & Paul Studios by seeing themselves as artists first. It is so simple to become a rigid tech group, but the key to this entire field is that it absolutely is an art form. The brief summary of the kinds of work Lajeunesse and Raphaël have done for various major companies is so incredible. I am also very fascinated by how they were kind of pushed together, first as co directors, then by making the decision to come together under one group. I am always so inspired by artists whose goal is not simply to create one thing that will leave their intended impact, but is to create something that moves their form forward in a way that inspires the artists around them to explore techniques and “standards” in ways that alter the landscape of the form itself.
Post a Comment