RE: The BadBat29 Oct 2019 13:43
Immersive Media and Art
Immersive technologies are being used to create new cinematic experiences, and to revisit old artworks in new ways
In 2016, journalist Jesse Damiani argued on Upload that current immersive media are dominated by two genres: true virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree cinema. True VR gives users the full freedom to explore 3D virtual environments, while 360-videos are limited by a stationary viewing experience, similar to conventional panoramic gallery views. True VR provides the necessary interactivity and depth of immersion, but the experience often feels like a computer game. Though highly compelling and realistic virtual environments are possible nowadays with state-of-the-art game engines like Unity or Unreal, the content creation process is highly complex and expensive. Photoreal live-action recordings can be easily achieved for 360-degree footages using spherical camera systems such as Google Jump or Ricoh Theta, but arbitrary viewing angles are not possible. As true VR becomes increasingly realistic and 360-degree capture techniques become more sophisticated, predicting unseen regions, both types of media will likely converge as time passes. For now, however, filmmakers, game developers and artists will have to pick one or the other.
Film techniques in VR are still in their infancy. Jessica Brillhart, the principal filmmaker for VR at Google, relayed that VR is all about putting the user in the middle of the action so that they become active participants rather than passive watchers following a director’s storyline. Her 360 VR videos focus on an embodied experience: a non-linear and non-narrative story-telling, in which creators are sharing their vantage point with the audience, seeming to teleport viewers into a different space and time. A more participatory and immersive experience has been demonstrated by director Ramiro Lobez Dau (Oculus Story Studio) in his animated short film Henry, released in 2015. Users – no longer just viewers - can connect with the main character when it looks directly into the viewers’ eyes during moments of extreme emotion. While this Pixar-like VR production earned an Emmy award in 2016 in an interactive media category, VR still has yet to achieve mainstream success.
VR and AR technologies are also pushing the frontiers of art forward, letting users fully escape into a different world through affordable immersive headsets. Australian artist Lynette Wallworth has experimented with VR to tell the story of an indigenous elder in her native country. Her 2016 work, Collisions, which was executive produced by the Forum in collaboration with the Sundance Institute (and which premiered at the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters in 2016), is powerful because it immerses the viewer in the film and allows them to experience rituals in a way not previously possible with traditional cinematography. To be continued
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