The Verge: Sundance’s New Frontier section showcases some of the most ambitious and interesting experiments currently being done with virtual and augmented reality, among other works based on emerging technology. Over the past several years, these have evolved from simple proofs of concept to long, complex narratives and elaborate installations. In 2019, the show focused on pieces that blended real and virtual art, providing a look at what home audiences will see later this year, but also a taste (sometimes literally) of how festivals might keep offering a unique experience.
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3 comments:
Virtual reality is such a (pun not intended) captivating field! The ability to completely transform your environment into LITERALLY anything is an unfathomably powerful storytelling tool. It really transcends to boundaries of storytelling as we know them! The audience can directly partake in story as either an active member of the story or as a witness. In some places, VR is used as a tool for marketing, therapy, training, and a variety of other experiences. For example, many fire stations now use VR headsets to train in a variety of firefighting scenarios at minimal expense and risk to the firefighters. Some veterans are now using VR as a form of exposure therapy to treat PTSD and a number of other issues. UNICEF doubled its average donation revenue last year with a touring VR experience. Virtual reality has huge potential, but as Spider-man's Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility." In VR, there are no limits to what one can do. You can even break the very principles of reality. As such, we as artists must be careful and responsible in our storytelling with VR to ensure that the crafted environment is exactly the environment we want- Just as film and TV reduced the 'acceptable' level to which an audience will suspend their reality, VR will likely reduce audience's tolerance for overlooking small details.
The fact that there even is such a thing as a “VR” festival, blows my mind because I absolutely love VR games, I can only imagine how cool an entire festival of it would feel like. The first time I tried VR, I played a shooting game that was so intense because the ceiling was very much so involved, there were things dropping from the sky, crawling up my legs from the ground, it just recreated the setting complete;y. By the end of the level I was on the other side of the living room. Not only is VR fun for the person playing it but it’s also very entertaining to watch someone play as well. VR is one of the things that I understand investing in because it's really like nothing else out on the market, and it so loved that it became an entire festival, which I would do anything to be able to go and experience that.
This article is so fascinating, and a total tease. Every one of these descriptions just made me want to dive headfirst into each experience. I think the world of AR/VR is so interesting because it totally suspends our conventions and understandings of everything that the real world looks, feels, sounds, and acts like, transporting our bodies and senses to a world we have so little control over. To create these worlds, stories, and sensations and to have the trust to fall into them necessitates trust between the audience and the artist. It is unlike live performance in that you have so little say over what you feel and to what degree you feel it because you are in a constant state of immersion or role playing. In that sense, I believe that AR/VR can also be a powerful tool in inspiring empathy, triggering more intense psychological responses in such an overstimulated world, and creating art that exists on the intersection of many art forms, or on its own plane entirely.
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