Thread by @kentbye

1/ Venice Immersive features 75 immersive stories.
I got a preview of highlights by co-curators @LizRosenthal & @michelreilhac (includes links to 30+ #VRChat experiences)
voicesofvr.com/1119-venice-im…

I'll be onsite at #VeniceImmersive covering the fest & this is will be my THREAD🧵👇

2/ There will be 10 hours of different #VRChat world hops during #VeniceImmersive spanning 30 different worlds.
The guided tours are only available on site, but the worlds are public.
I link to all of the @VRChat worlds by genre at the bottom of this post:
voicesofvr.com/1119-venice-im…

3/ The video below has trailers for the 30+ different #VRChat worlds featured in the #VeniceImmersive World Gallery Selection.

Find links to these worlds at the bottom of this post: voicesofvr.com/1119-venice-im…

VIDEO:

4/ Here is a PDF listing the events for #VeniceImmersive.
static.labiennale.org/files/cinema/2…

I’ll be on this panel on Sunday, Sep 4 at 2:30p THE ART OF REVIEWING IMMERSIVE ART & ENTERTAINMENT with Kent Bye, Federica Polidoro, Róisín Tapponi, moderated by Liz Rosenthal & Michel Reilhac.

5/ Here’s the layout map for the four wings of #VeniceImmersive with 75 experiences, 18 of 30 competition pieces are in the main hallway.
9 installations spread in 3 wings (the most confusing is Recontre(s) & Darkening are only accessible via patio).

6/ 3 #VRChat worlds in #VeniceImmersive competition now open to the public:
@KevinMackArt’s NAMUANKI
@VRCFins’s TREASURE HEIST
@metaverserick’s UNCANNY ALLEY

They’re linked at the bottom of the Venice Immersive 2022 world + 30 World Gallery portals
vrchat.com/home/world/wrl…

7/ @KevinMackArt’s NAMUANKI brings his unique abstract art style to VRChat resulting in an awe-inspiring, contemplative spatial journey filled w/ Sumerian deities.
We chatted on his generative process after I got a sneak peak + his experiments with AI art
voicesofvr.com/1120-kevin-mac…

8/ I’ve seen 26 of 30 #VeniceImmersive competition pieces.
I’m going to go ahead start my thread as competition is really tight.
I don’t have clear overall favorites yet, & it all depends on what you like when folks ask for recommendations. Hope to give some impressions here👇

9/ DISCLAIMER: the four experiences I haven’t seen yet are MANDALA, TREASURE HEIST, PEAKY BLINDERS, and TU VIVRAS, MON FILS [STAY ALIVE MY SON].

So whenever I say “best” of anything, it’s of what I’ve seen so far at #VeniceImmersive.

10/ A quick word on how I’m organizing this list by quality of presence. Each experience has a combo, but usually a center of gravity of what is more prominent

See this talk for more: “A Primer on Presence, Immersive Storytelling, & Experiential Design”

11/ Staring with 3 experiences that prioritize interaction and agency within the experience.

12/ PAPER ROCK SCISSORS has the best integration of embodied mechanics with the story as this game mechanic works really well, & it’s a well-told animated story of family relationships with a solid look & feel. Some nice interactive moments for converging story beats.

13/ EGGSCAPE is a mixed reality passthrough game that has multiplayer features, & it’s really visceral how you can be present in a space, but play a 3D table top platform we. Reminds me a lot of LUCKEY’S TALE, but more of a AR take where you build out obstacle courses. Super fun

14/ FIGHT BACK teaches you different self-defense hand gestures progressing through 5 levels fighting shadows. Really enjoyed the onboarding, cut scenes, & the finale brings it all home.
Oculus hand tracking system is still very sensitive to environmental conditions.

15/ Now onto #VeniceImmersive experiences that center on the story first and foremost. Nearly all of this years selection have strong stories, but these are ones with deep emotional impact & less focus on interactivity or agency

16/ REIMAGINED VOLUME I: NYSSA was an amazing, short & sweet spatial fairy tale in Quill with some really sophisticated spatial camera movements giving it a real cinematic quality. Really looking to the rest of this series as it’s pushing the structure & form of immersive story.

17/ THE MAN WHO COULDN’T LEAVE is one of the most ambitious 360 videos I’ve ever seen with amazing staging, lighting, & in the end a powerfully told story of the imprisonment & death of Taiwanese men. Some really poetic moments in this piece makes it one of my favorite pieces.

18/ ALL THAT REMAINS is a surreal embodied adventure through liminal moments that leaves a lot of room for you to project on to it.
This is closest I’ve felt to replicating a 1:1 immersive theatre encounter in 360 video.
See behind scenes after watching:

19/ SORELLA’S STORY takes a singles photo of massacre of Latvian Jews & recreates a series of events leading up to that moment. Lots of long takes of static shots letting the fear & terror build. Effect use of 360 video to set a larger context. Moments from this will stick w me.

20/ KINDRED is an animated story about a non-binary transgender person going through the process & journey of adopting a gender-questioning child. Some really profound & reflective memoir-like moments on this spatial journey.

21/ TMÁNÍ (DARKENING) is a very personal story taking you through spatial metaphors of depression as you use your voice to engage with the experience & recenter into your body. One of the best offboarding experiences with the director helping unpack it all via group discussion.

22/ THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR WORLD is a story about a blind boy’s struggles to navigate the world with his friend who is one the autism spectrum & often leaves him behind. Ends up being driven mostly by audio & replicates feelings of frustration & being lost with a vivid ending

23/ These are the experiences that focus on either environmental design & taking you to another place or focusing on embodied experiences.

24/ RENCONTRE(S) is a visceral immersive theatre staged, VR experience of the choosing of @CHANEL No 5. Really transportive onboarding & offboarding, & just incredibly amazing embodied presence using passive haptic feedback of a 1:1 recreation space. Of course, also multisensory

25/ I set a personal record in EURYDICE, [Descent into Infinity] EEN AFDALING IN ONEINDIGHEID for how far I’ve walked in a VR experience. By the end I was in an altered state of consciousness as I descended into Hell via a winding pointcloud trail chasing a mythic opera figure.

26/ DAZZLE: A RE-ASSEMBLY OF BODIES is a hyperstylized dance performance / interactive VR experience. Two audience with dancers, some virtually, some watch LCD screen. Really took me to another world of abstraction, awe-inspiration innovations for real-time, virtual dance perf.

27/ Everyone should go see FRAMERATE: PULSE OF THE EARTH when you have at least a 24-min break as no ticket require to see this cutting-edge, timelapse LIDAR installation.
Incredibly hypnotic & relaxing.
A meditation on time.
See my interview from SXSW on this piece:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1510005894335000576

28/ FROM THE MAIN SQUARE centers you in the middle of a city as it evolves over many years using environmental storytelling to explore many different types of polarizing issues & community divides. Some zoom-in mechanics & click interactions to trigger events.

29/ ÉTERNELLE NOTRE DAME has been one of my favorites. Really excellent use of the VR medium to take the most epic imaginable guided tour through Notre Dame as it evolves through different historical phases. Such a compelling symbolic journey & use of spatial storytelling.

30/ GUMBALL DREAMS is an immersive theatre piece in an epic VRChat world that I first saw ahead of SXSW, features light puzzles is a really transportive place. Also focuses on a series of 1:1 interactions with an alien being.
Check out my previous interview with the creators:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1506012921968570371

31/ UNCANNEY ALLEY is a public VRChat world translating many of the popular sci-fi Metaverse spaces into VR as it deconstructs the more dystopian cyberpunk corporate control of virtual spaces, & carves hidden hacker spaces as you search for a character through many clues.

32/ @KevinMackArt’s NAMUANKI is another public VRChat world in competition that focuses on a contemplative journey into an otherworldly realm of Sumerian deities and procedural art.
See my latest Voices of VR episode to unpack Kevin’s creative process:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1565098149017944066

33/ The last section is experiences with a center of gravity of Mental & Social presence including group interactions with other people, reading text, and mental friction that comes from solving puzzles as a core mechanic or a broader sensemaking process.

34/ ASCENDERS is a full-body tracked experience with 2 teams of 2 who collaborate in taking an epic odyssey adventure up a mountain to escape a tidal wave by solving a series of puzzles. Core mechanic got a bit repetitive, but the spatial adventure had a satisfying payoff.

35/ MRS BENZ: VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY has an escape room puzzle core mechanic, but with some great environmental design & exquisite attention to detail as the wife of the founder of Mercedes Benz steals his car to take 1st ever road trip. Has a stunning imaginal archival film scene.

36/ TYPEMAN is an Immersive Theatre piece in VRChat as an embodied typewriter character takes a group of people reflecting on how we use technology to communicate & how those modes shift over time. Amazing collaborative & percussive musical finale with AR-like language overlays.

37/ The primary mode of storytelling in ALL UNSAVED PROGRESS WILL BE LOST is via motion graphic text. The full context of protagonist’s rebellion & resistance is held until the end with mono color shifts + environmental design from constrained to open spaces bringing more emotion

38/ MANDALA. A BRIEF MOMENT IN TIME is a immersive theatre group experience with some light puzzles for 3-6 on the @Vast_World_XR platform.
Lots of group discussions with main character talking about Buddhist ideas on suffering, happiness, hungry ghosts, & living the good life.

39/ This is a animated spatial story reflecting on the life of a poet & writer. Lots of literal representations of language & the process of articulating the essence of life experiences, but also had many spatial metaphors for poetry at the end.

40/ OKAWARI embodies sustainable practices in how they created this 4-person restaurant installation for VR eating sim in 1st half, second half is more of a didactic lecture unpacking the broader ecological problems of XR tech e-waste, how to track it, & what to do about it.

41/ Just did a speed run w @VRCFins of his TREASURE HEIST VRChat that has really vast & expensive environmental design. Really transportive.
Puzzles are medium to hard difficulty & it would have taken 2x-4x longer than the hour slot without some help.
Great animations at the end

42/ I finished watching all of the #VeniceImmersive competition.

Continuing by organizing via the dominant quality of presence
PEAKY BLINDERS is centered on Active Presence
TU VIVRAS, MON FILS on Environmental Presence
RED TAIL on Emotional Presence

More

43/ There is a lot of really sophisticated worldbuilding in TU VIVRAS, MON FILS [STAY ALIVE MY SON] as it translates the story of a Cambodian genocide survivor into a spatial journey where the environment helps tell the story. Lots of mixed modalities leveraging the medium of VR.

44/ I was really struck by the lighting, staging, & surreal fantasy worldbuilding in the animated piece RED TAIL, which is a dream-like journey of a boy’s chase.
Sometimes the poetic narration was hard to fully grok but watching this video helped fill gaps

45/ PEAKY BLINDERS: THE KING’S RANSOM is the sneak peak of a full-fledged narrative VR game as you LARP as a criminal doing criminal things, including a super intense 1:1 murder simulation scene that may be difficult for many at Venice. It’s the most game-like story at Venice.

46/ So that’s all of the #VeniceImmersive Competition.

I’ll share more thoughts as I digest the competition, share my favorites, have blurbs on other selections, & start doing interviews with creators all of Fri, Sat, & Sun.

Here’s a comprehensive map of all of #VeniceImmersive