The attempts of intellectualizing the beginnings of VR industry, and especially it’s resemblance with the beginning of cinema has been over exploited and Tribeca’s Immersive section proves, year by year, that the train has long left the station, by bringing together a selection of the best immersive experiences raising the storytelling stakes well high. It’s definitely the place where all the visions floating around the XR space lately meet with the audience.
I found Tribeca’s system of displaying VR and AR in the ARCADE section somehow similar to democracy – it’s not perfect, but it’s still the best system that we have. Looks like the whole sign-in system required a big investment , and it’s a good system that delivers. The problem is scheduling and estimating the expected amount of people. One would assume that after a few years the organizers should have an idea what to expect and how to improve the visit for the audience that’s paying tickets.
The best advice that I wish I would have gotten also is Do your homework! – reading about the displayed XR experiences is not enough - ask for a map before going, try to find out how is the space organized, because it’s a jungle when you get there. Once the doors are opened, everyone will literally run to sign up for the VR experiences, and although it looks like a compliment brought to the VR industry, this competition doesn’t bring up the best of human characters.
I have visited Tribeca Immersive two years ago also. Some things have changed and other stayed the same. I’m always frustrated with their system, and although I tried this year to buy tickets for two different sections it still didn’t make any sense. It’s still a jungle, it’s still complicated to get your name on their lists for viewing some experiences. And, of course the frustration gets even higher when you know that you travel from far away, paying for plane tickets and accommodation in NY. There is a strong discrepancy between the stories and the purpose of these immersive experiences and the way they get to be experienced. There are multiple things that could help, like creating a special preview day for producers and their friends, so the audience that’s actually buying the tickets has the opportunity to experience what they paid for. Not over selling tickets might work also. This way maybe one could avoid being third in line for one particular session and they tell you that the list is already full.
On the other hand it’s totally worth it if you’re addicted to high quality storytelling. The curation of the pieces was amazing. I was able to travel all over the world, explore different environments and most important a quite large pallet of emotions. Every single one of these experiences had some elements that deserved to be awarded. All the experiences that I’ve seen were beautiful masterpieces of storytelling and aesthetically impressive. The question: why 360 or why VR was still valid for some of them, and that usually happens when I’m not totally convinced that the design was well though through for an immersive environment.
The list below is exhaustive to the extent of the pieces that I was able to experience, given the time and organizational constrains.
THE CINEMA 360 SECTION
This was an amazing place, closer to my desires of experiencing VR. I chose two sessions on Tuesday and the atmosphere was rexaled, while the whole team that organized this section proved a high professionalism in running the space.
Mr Budha: This 360 video has all the elements of a successful short-film designed for the medium and not adapted and it tells the story of a gang that steals a Buddha head statue. One element that should be stated from the start is that the video quality of this piece is amazing, contributing to the immersiveness of storytelling.
What I loved about this piece was the tension built around the power of a touch, that actually represents much more in a virtual space. It embodies authenticity and presence reflected in such a natural way. This VR piece also contains one of the best display of subtitles that I’ve ever seen. The text blends perfectly in the environment, following the characters and reminding more of a comic book’s line display.When talking about the editing process, the “cuts” black in/black out were exemplary executed justified by the narrative black in/black out justified from a narrative perspective by the use of the cut. I was lucky enough to have a great companion during this immersive journey, Jude Dai, who pointed out the cultural context that maybe I would have missed. With or without the explanations around the Buddha heads statues, this experience was perfectly executed. Here you can find a sneak peek for this impressive piece and I recommend searching for ways for experience it online or offline.
11.11.18. Although presented as a 360 video, this piece is closer to theatre in VR. The story is told from the perspective of an army general and takes place only few minutes before the suspension of fighting in World War on November 11, 1918. The switch of perspective found at the end of the piece was definitely the element that elevated the emotional impact complimented by great sound design. Personally I haven’t perceived the visual effects as a strong element and also the acting style was closer to the theatre than to a cinematic experience. There was something artificial about their performances, and the lack of subtitles enhanced this feeling even more. Of course, I can understand the screaming, but I would have loved to experienced it as a silence piece. I really believe it would have helped.
Space Buddies; 360 animation video. It is definitely a fun piece with grobian elements. The last scene, seeing the Planet Earth from out of Space is kind of the promise brought by the creators of this piece since the beginning. Impressive character design and a lot of story cues aimed to be funny, using a situational type of amusement, but not being able to move forward or to add to the story≥ The vomiting part was definitely my least favorite part. Window cleaning. Maybe I missed some details at the beginning of the experiences, but I did have problems identifying me. Character in that story. So, at the end who was I and why was I there, or in other words, why 360? Although the train has left the station, maybe is a little to soon to expect a full focus on the story and less on the experience design part. But I was happy and amazed at the end of the experience, especially when I found out that it was going to be a long journey.
Water Melts, 360 video - Multiple storylines that explore the feeling of fear of death are beautifully brought together through a ritual of letting go. It’s a powerful mix of various artistic mediums - and the animation used as an allegory for the dance of death complements perfectly the experience.
The arcade section
Wolves in the walls, installation including an interactive animated VR experience
Pen Rose Studios seem to have crafted their own wonderful way of telling stories in this new environment through building narrative worlds in and outside the VR headset. I was really impressed by the art design of the installation built as an introduction for the immersive world, and that space made me feel like I’m in an immersive theatre piece. The VR docent who facilitated the experience gave me the feeling that we started this journey together ever since the beginning. Even discovering the real-life VR controllers in a hidden box was fun, childish, amazing. Once I was in the virtual world I discovered an amazingly well-crafted environment with a unique artistic style and one of the best animated characters that I’ve ever interacted with. The story in itself it’s beautiful. The amount of interactive option is just perfect not to transform the experience in an over gamified environment and virtually decreasing my body size was definitely the perfect rabbit hole to enter this experience. Helping with jar labeling, marking the X on the walls, defending the girl from the wolves in the computer games brought so much for me that I almost felt like I was experiencing my own story. Aesthetically beautiful accomplished animation with characters and environments that could earn any prestigious VR award.
The Cave, animation VR A little girl asks for help preserving humanity. The story hasn’t triggered any emotions for me, but there were a series of immersive elements that show a careful design, such as the majestic entrance of the mammoth beautifully punctuated by the sound design. Mirroring the collective spectatorship in VR is somehow innovative and definitely helped from the immersion perspective, but I personally felt that the real world space was over-crowded and I haven’t necessarily appreciated the small distance between chairs. One element that I really liked is the video introduction when the instructions were explained for everyone. I can’t help thinking of Plato’s Cave in this context. Is this the case with VR, AR, MR? Are we maybe projecting the promises for the future of XR, blinded in some case by the innovative technology and ignoring the core of the experience - the story? You can read more about this experience here:
Common Ground – VR documentary, 45 min Oh, what a beautiful use of VR! There was always a perfect match between the medium and the story. This documentary tells the story of The Aylesbury Estate, one of the largest housing estates from Europe. Although some voices remain unheard, the feeling of presence, of being there surrounded by the concrete walls and all those stories, brings a new perspective upon the story. This piece is constructed beautifully presenting first the exterior of the building complex and then driving the viewer inside. The placement of the video footage compliments the virtual space and offers life to all those walls. In the beginning, you have the feeling of being overwhelmed by the artificial, by the unnatural but then the stories of the inhabitants of that space reveal in such a coherent and natural manner. The usage of traditional video interviews displayed on the walls, the videos that you could hear and see in people’s homes, personalize the building to such an extent that I ended up perceiving the building as a character in itself like it was this old lady taking care of her family. From the atmosphere’s perspective the solitude of the space, the cold and empty exterior spaces are well balanced by the intimacy of the apartments. The opportunity of interacting with the building plans and also with the newspapers show the master abilities of the creators of designing interactiveness. This documentary definitely contributes to a new perspective offered to space and it made me think of the number of AR artistic installations that could inhabit those empty places if the building would not be demolished.
Gymnasia, produced by Felix and Paul Studios it’s an amazing piece that uses the presence and experiential power of VR at its full potential, proving a perfectly executed installation where even every element of the physical space contributes to the atmosphere of the experience before putting the headset on and entering the virtual world. Besides the high aesthetic value of the virtual experience built using stop motion animation, The design of the whole experience proves one again not only high storytelling qualities but also the combined wit the experience of embracing the festival experience. It was definitely one of the most viewed pieces and available, and inviting. The use of stop motion animation is impressive.
Into the Light – AR immersive experience Once again you can see the imprint of a veteran VR designer, Jessica Bilhart, who switch a while ago from being the principal filmmaker at Google to starting her own business, expanding towards AR. This is one of their first projects, proving once again that knowing your audience could definitely have a great impact on an XR experience. I don’t know whether it was designed especially for Tribeca’s Immersive space, but it sure used the venue at its full potential. I really appreciated being able to explore the space, travel two floors and getting on the rooftop where I enjoyed the views and this journey took place being immersed in Batch’s music. Every musical piece was triggered by scanning an imagine that further the display of beautiful digital sculptures that allowed exploration and interactivity.
Drop in the Ocean Impressive VR experience from many perspectives, but the most important fact for me was the social VR component of this piece. It’s nice not being alone in the virtual underwater environment. This is an educational VR piece, perfect for a museum display. Once you enter the physical installation, and you get your VR headset on you get the chance of riding a jellyfish that travels with you from the bottom of the ocean until the top. In your journey, you’ll discover amazing animals, but of course, when you get on the top you are surrounded by all types of plastic objects “gifted” by human beings to the Ocean. It’s an amazing VR piece that definitely contributes to raising awareness regarding the pollution of the Ocean by using an amazing storytelling device, a jellyfish.
War Remains The hype built around this VR piece definitely raised the stakes high. I finally managed to get on the list during my second session. “An immersive memory” are the exact words to describe this experience. It’s outstanding from a visual aesthetic perspective, with visuals depicting a video game. There is a low level of interaction with the elements from the space, but the haptics used help a lot.
I have to admit that being in a location-based VR, being able to wander around was impressive. Although the design of the user journey worked better on paper than in practice. The VR team on site did their best to coordinate with me, but unfortunately, some tech elements didn’t work for me. Although I received instructions in the beginning about waiting for a door to open I totally failed that step because somehow the graphics failed. And from that point on I didn’t like it anymore, frustration started to build and I did have the option to start all over again, but somehow the attitude was that I did something wrong, or didn’t, or whatever.
From a user perspective, the success of this piece depends a lot on the proper coordination of all the psychical elements with the virtual world. Somehow my joy of discovering these amazing WWI scenes had to be restrained by the use of tech.
Dan Carling’s voice and discourse are already amazing from the point of view of describing a world. I felt some redundancy, moments when I would have wanted to spend more on exploring and less on hearing. Maybe testing and using just the things that work till the end and not getting the user blamed for doing/not doing some steps would work better. I think this piece is almost there and with just some simple prioritization in term of elements displayed could be great. Sometimes less is more and there is a fine line between using and displaying the best of the technology that’s out there and keeping in mind that you might have different types of users.
This piece would work great also in a museum environment and actually this is the feeling that I got. A WWI audio-guided museum tour.
Of course, there are a lot of well-designed elements and somehow I do have the tendency of complaining only about the bad parts. It’s an immersive piece where all the ideas that you see and hear around about location-based VR were put into practice, and given the VR market, I do believe it takes a lot of courage to build this type of experience involving a big crew of creatives and tech people, so chapeau for those who funded this project.
Future of Dreaming - VR experience With an outstanding design, this piece’s process of creation surpasses the experience itself. I loved the collaboration that happened, and maybe this is one more proof that the journey is more important than the endpoint: https://noproscenium.com/visit-the-worlds-of-aboriginal-australian-teens-in-future-dreaming-q-a-4de31e673941
Unceded territories - a digital VR art installation with a strong component of social justice and fight. It’s not a piece where you feel comfortable, but the level of energy built specially by the music is impressive. If you have the chance please try to experience this piece in VR.
There were, of course, experiences that I would have loved to experience, but I didn’t have a chance. Among them The Key – the winner of Story Scapes section and Bonfire – for this experience I was registered but couldn’t experience because of tech difficulties.
If you had a different or similar experience and you’d like to chat please leave your comment below, keeping in mind that all the things written above reflect my own experience.