2023 list of 50+ Immersive Things that mix storytelling, performance, play, design & code
Welcome to the 5th edition of the annual “Immersive Things” list. A collection of innovative works from around the world pushing at the edges of immersive possibilities.
The following list was compiled thanks to suggestions made by creatives from around the globe. Special thanks to everyone who took the time to share the immersive things that stood out in 2023.
ANYTHING MISSING? Please feel free to share anything that we may have missed.
Borderline Visible — Ant Hampton
“Borderline Visible, by Ant Hampton, winner of the 2023 IDFA DocLab award for Creative Technologies and first in the Time Based Editions series which proposes a new format “merging sound with paper, binding print to time”: an audio track combines narration, soundscape, and instructions that guide you over a given time through a book. Audio and visual are separate elements here, held together in the present through a physical participation; turning, flicking and comparing pages, diving into a here-and-now of the page.” — Time Based Editions
Syn: Unfolded Horizon of Bodily Senses— Daito Manabe, Motoi Ishibashi, MIKIKO
“The inaugural event at TOKYO NODE will take place in the fall of 2023 to coincide with the opening of the new creative hub. Syn: Unfolded Horizon of Bodily Senses is the latest collaboration between Rhizomatiks and ELEVENPLAY, an Immersive performance and novel experiment in integrating the seemingly disparate concepts of technology and human sensation.” — Hills Life
Passing Electrical Storms — Shaun Gladwell
“The notion of resting in peace is being inverted by a nerve-shredding VR experience that shows you what it’s like to die.
Described as a “death simulator”, the unsettling new art installation takes you “from cardiac arrest to brain death” in a hospital-style setting alongside other participants. At one point, staff members dressed in dark scrubs even try to revive you as you start to die.” — The Standard
Empereur — Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen
“ The user is drawn into the experience by being asked his point of view within the story, though in stranger fashion than one might expect. Our role in the experience is the father of the protagonist, who cannot speak. His inability to speak reminds of the solipsistic disposition the user of virtual reality experiences. He is but a mute eye witness, like in a dream. Producers Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen play with the function and role of the VR user and vest it with the motifs that are proper of immersive experiences: memory, remembrance of lived experience in dreamlike key and a subjective point of view.” — Venezia News
Consensus Gentium — Karen Palmer
“Overall, using the multi-channel communication affordances of the phone is able to create an entirely plausible portal into this near-future world that Palmer is creating for us which I found deeply, deeply immersive. It’s no wonder that this piece took home the top prize as the SXSW jurors seemed to agree with that sentiment, while this piece also presciently covers many relevant topics around AI, bias, and threats to our cognitive liberty” — Voices of VR
Game Changers — Megaverse
“Sheffield’s Megaverse is producing a live action narrative game hoping it will become a new model for engaging audiences in climate crisis conversations.
Not only that, but it will be pushing technology, with performers in motion capture and an AI robot all performing live with an online audience.
“We’re in uncharted territory which is very exciting but also slightly nerve-racking! The fact that the performers are live inside the games engine in full mocap with finger articulation and face tracking puppeteering all the characters is mind boggling — especially when you add on top the live camera crew operating virtual cameras…” — Prolific North
No Save Points — Sébastien Heins
“The elevator pitch for NO SAVE POINTS sounds far more like the genesis of a modern indie game as opposed to a live theatre project. In it, actor and creator Sébastien Heins explores his relationship with his mother through four unique, interactive videogames and invites the live audience along with him as players, lending them direct control over his actions to add both comic and dramatic nuance to how his story unfolds.” — CGM
Third World: The Bottom Dimension — Gabriel Massan and collaborators
“Surrounded by visionary works of sound, sculpture, film, and set design, visitors can play the vibrant video game while minting “memories” from their experience as digital tokens — provided by Tezos — on the blockchain. Here, a highly textural public archive unfolds, connecting diverse perspectives and realities. Introducing captivating art by Alexandre Pina, Marchino Manga, Iraj Montasham, Ralph McCoy, Masako Hirano, Carlos Minozzi, and Sweet Baby Inc., the multi-dimensional game is a bold and challenging experience. With each stage designed by a different artist, players pilot characters such as FUNFUN, an agent sent to the Third World by a resource extraction organization, probing complex environments like that of post-colonial Brazil. Championing ecological appreciation and individual agency, the meta-simulation reveals twisted perceptions and de-centralizes the global narrative.” — Whitewall
After Ginsberg — the VERSEverse
“The estate of acclaimed American poet and countercultural icon Allen Ginsberg is bringing new life to his art by using artificial intelligence (AI) to create new works based on his expansive literary archive.
Ginsberg, best known for his 1955 poem “Howl,” which celebrates the subversion of societal norms, died in 1997. His evocative work is widely credited for inspiring the literary subculture movement known as the Beat Generation.”
House of Weaving Songs — dhaqan collective
“dhaqan collective invites guests to step inside the House of Weaving Songs, an outdoor sanctuary inspired by the Aqal, a nomadic Somali home.
Once inside, become enveloped by a series of beautiful woven tapestries that through touch ignite a sonic patchwork of stories and sounds of Somali women’s traditional weaving songs.” — Textile Society
Voidopolis — Kat Mustatea
“VOIDOPOLIS: A first-of-its-kind publication from the The MIT Press Leonardo Series, this hybrid digital artistic and literary project in the form of an augmented reality book made to disappear, retells Dante’s Inferno as if it were set in pandemic-ravaged New York City. The book’s pages are garbled and can only be deciphered through an AR app published alongside the book — but over a period of a year, its digital components decay the way memory might, leaving behind foggy imagery and half-remembered bits of language. The work’s enactment of its own disappearance across all copies of the book worldwide turns the private act of reading into a collective experience of loss. Voidopolis has been recognized as both a work of literature (Arts and Letters ‘Unclassifiable’ Prize, European Literature Night, etc) and as a work of new media art (2023 Lumen Prize shortlist, Ars Electronica, New Images Festival Paris Official Selection), and has been exhibited internationally in a variety of digital and physical formats.”
Nothing Forever — Skyler Hartle and Brian Habersberger
“That unending “Seinfeld” AI show is starting to seem more like “Westworld.”
“Nothing, Forever” currently streams on Twitch in a 24–7 loop. In one-minute doses, the show uses AI tools like GPT-3 and Dall-E, all trained on classic ’90s sitcom scripts to generate miniature scenes of four different characters, each modeled loosely off the look and feel of “Seinfeld” in pixely, blocky colors.” — IndieWire
The Eye and I — Jean Michel Jarre and Hsin Chien Huang
“Accompanied by hypnotic music created for the occasion by Jean-Michel Jarre — co-creator of THE EYE & I , he was presented with the Film & Beyond Award in Geneva in recognition of his outstanding contribution to music and the digital arts — and immersed in an atmosphere somewhere between the oneiric and the metaphysical, the user assumes the role of a prisoner and is called to visit the 12 cells of a global prison.
On this journey they will rediscover the multiple and sometimes forgotten meanings of the word ‘surveillance’, in its original French sense of ‘eye in the sky’, and become aware of how control — which we often take for granted — dominates us and allows us to dominate others in ways that are now an integral part of our daily lives.”
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Ghosts of Solid Air — Anagram
“As part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival, director Amy Rose created an augmented reality tour of central London that examines the nature of disobedience by fusing historical voices with contemporary realities. — TVB Europe
The Wizard of AI — Alan Warburton
“The Wizard of AI is more than watchable. While trying to unpick both the hype and the terror that has arisen around AI, the documentary gleefully unloads a barrage of riotous images, from mutated, musclebound fish to vanishing genies via nuclear warhead top trump cards. It’s visually stunning and rattles along at a rollercoaster pace. But behind all the eye-candy is a subversive message — Warburton is using AI to warn us of the damage being done to artists and creatives by … AI itself.” — The Guardian
Aggro Dr1ft — Harmony Korine
“Artist, director and all-around creative polymath, Harmony Korine, is showcasing a series of new paintings at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles to complement his new experimental action film, Aggro Dr1ft.
Shot entirely in infrared and complemented by a pulsating score by Araabmuzik, Korine’s latest film, if you want to call it that, follows the life of an assassin (played by Jordi Moller) and his manic nemesis, Zion, who is played by rapper Travis Scott. Admittedly, Korine told German art historian, Isabelle Graw, that he doesn’t see Aggro Dr1ft as a film at all, but rather the concept of what comes “after films…a kind of post-cinema or post-picture.”
OXENFREE II — Night School Studio
“Part walking simulator, part branching-dialogue talk ’em up, Oxenfree II blends the paranormal with the interpersonal, seeing players fend off vengeful ghosts while carefully navigating the ever-perilous minefield of human relationships. To players of the original, this will sound incredibly familiar and, initially at least, that familiarity breeds contempt. As you amble across idyllic landscapes in the American midwest, there’s a clear checklist of Oxenfree stalwarts being met. Spooky sea spirits? Check. Treacherous hikes punctuated by sass-filled conversations and magic walkie talkies? All present and correct. Yet as this twisting twoquel’s narrative threads start to unfurl, its haunted hallmarks reveal an expertly woven and surprisingly poignant tale.” — The Guardian
Tulpamancer — Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser
“Tulpamancer, created by Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser uses open-source AI tools, including Open AI and StableDiffusion, to reconstruct users’ memories and dreams in a guided two-step journey, then reproduce through virtual reality (VR).” — Hollywood Reporter
A Number From the Ghost — Peter Adams
“A Number From the Ghost, the visionary project helmed by artist Peter Adams, is breaking new ground with its latest single, “One, Stop” The release struts a groundbreaking interactive virtual reality experience, allowing fans to explore a mesmerizing world intricately connected to the music.
“One, Stop” takes listeners on an extraordinary journey through an interactive and playable virtual reality landscape. Fans can now dive into this captivating universe by visiting the official website. Prepare to be transported to a surreal gallery with rooms that lead to exhibits in different worlds, where the environment itself acts as a visual score synchronized with A Number From the Ghost’s original music.”
Where There’s Smoke — Lance Weiler
Where There’s Smoke is a generative documentary. An iterative project that is constantly evolving. From a store front installation in 2019 to a series of virtual experiences during the pandemic to most recently a new touring exhibition. In 2023 WTS returned with a brand new 3,000 sq ft installation and series of live performances.
“The vivid collection of thousands of 35mm fire slides, about 3,200, captured by his father between 1968 and 1988, ignite the emotional and visual core of the exhibit. They delve deep into realms of obsession, constructing a labyrinthine mystery interwoven with shadows, smoke, and echoes. Within the overarching theme of destruction and decay, these photographs demonstrate aesthetic beauty and emotional depth, serving not only as a means of understanding but also as a journey into the very soul of familial bonds and shadows cast by untold stories.” — FW Log
Chom5ky vs Chomsky — Sandra Rodriguez
A CHOM5KY vs CHOMSKY version of the project opened earlier this fall at the Phi Centre in Montreal in collaboration with NFB interactive.
“When I arrived at the interactive studio in March 2023 to begin my documentation work, my vision of the project was shaped by the discussions I had with the production team, including Louis-Richard Tremblay (executive producer) and Marie-Pier Gauthier (producer). During these initial meetings, I note the importance of “conversation” as an idea that shaped the way the experience was conceptualized. Specifically, Marie-Pier Gauthier insists on the idea that the message conveyed in CHOM5KY vs CHOMSKY goes through a three-tiered conversation: “about,” “with” and “through” AI.
According to Sandra Rodriguez, the problem with the way most chatbots are designed is that they are usually based on systems where each question has an answer. This creates a mode of conversation where the exchange is idealized as a transaction of information. The goal with CHOM5KY was not to build a servile chatbot but an entity that naturally exchanges ideas with its audience. And if all goes well, that exchange will naturally lead to a reflection on AI.” — NFB Blog
TeleAbsence: Communication with those who are no longer with us. — D. Pilli, Kyung Yun Choi, Mengying Cathy Fang
“The TeleAbsence project, supported in part by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), is one of the group’s most ambitious efforts. In addition to blending the real and virtual worlds, it also probes — and imitates — the way humans process feelings of belonging, love, and loss. Originally inspired by bereavement, the project has evolved and now addresses other forms of loss and emotional distance.” —Arts at MIT
Chao Bing: A Read-Only Memory Experience — Jackie Liu
“Chao Bing: A Read-Only Memory Experience is an interactive memoir in the style of a 90s CD-ROM storybook game.
The game features narrated storybook scenes and mini-games based on moments from my childhood to tell a larger story about time, memory, and transformation. Chao Bing is a game — and also about the performative and poetic act of making a game.
This project currently takes place as a web-based game in the form of an in-progress demo on itch.io, but also has been presented in a exhibition format, and later as a live-performance.”
Pillow — Lucas Rizzotto
“Pillow comes packaged with 4 unique experiences at launch. “Sky Fishing,” which allows you to fish user voice messages from your ceiling in daily themed-ponds that change every day. “Bedtime Stories” allows users to craft adventure stories they can play in. “Stargazing, which transforms your ceiling into an interactive night sky, allowing you to explore the stars, grab constellations to learn about them. “Meditations” is rhythm-based interactive breath-tracking experience that lets users transform their reality as they create worlds with their breath. More are planned for next year.” — Forbes
Body of Mine — Cameron Kostopoulous
“Body of Mine is an experimental storytelling experience. It’s interactive, but not a “game,” per se. Instead, the VR environment puts the viewer in the body of someone with a different gender than their own. I’m a masc-presenting cis man, and so the artists who built it put me into a feminine woman.” — Wired
The Wolf and the Lamb — Coperni, Alexandre Silberstein, Florent Canale
“Directed by Alexandre Silberstein and Florent Canale, the piece extends beyond time as the 40-second film will play continuously for six months straight, randomly choosing 320,000 different versions, which are all based on multiple options of scenery, looks and scenarios from Coperni’s FW23 collection. Accompanied by Anomaly Spectre’s musical compositions, the visual experience transforms into one of meditation and reflection on the mutually beneficial or destructive connection we have with artificial intelligence. The choose-your-own-adventure story will play in real time on Epic Games Unreal Engine and Coperni’s Youtube channel. Take a closer look at the campaign above and watch Coperni’s The Wolf and the Lamb below.” Hypebae
Heart on My Sleeve — Ghostwriter
“It all started in April, when Ghostwriter posted an AI-generated song titled “Heart on My Sleeve” that purported to feature Drake and The Weeknd collaborating on their first track in 10 years.
It wasn’t the first song to impersonate a famous artist with emerging tech — far from it. But whereas most past AI musical experiments could pretty easily be dismissed as ersatz novelties, “Heart on My Sleeve” was different: It was actually good.” — Decrypt
Despelote — Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena
“Everything here has a painfully nostalgic, almost hazy dreamlike feeling that I love. And theming the game around football culture is a really smart move. I’m a terrible footballer, but I do love watching people play, and talk about, and bond over football. Total strangers become instant pals when asked about their favourite teams. I’ve moved past language barriers with family by kicking a silly little plastic ball. It’s kind of beautiful.” — Rock Paper Shotgun
Season: a letter to the future — Scavengers Studio
“…There’s no danger in the game. Instead of weapons, you’re given tools like a recorder, a camera, and a notebook. You move from place to place by riding a cute bike. The idea is to venture to various spots — say, an abandoned farm or a shrine in a faraway valley — and collect enough material to fill up a section of your notebook. This requires perception. You can record just about anything: a photo of an old tree, the sound of a trickling stream, an old note found tucked away in a drawer. You also meet a handful of characters along the way who will ask for your help and give you their story in return.” — The Verge
Emojiii — Smartphone Orchestra
“Emojiii is an immersive social experience for 20–200 people by the Smartphone Orchestra where people use their phone web browsers to be guided through a number of interactive games and quizzes exploring how we make meaning and communicate with emojis. Steye Hallema is the founder of the Smartphone Orchestra, which aims to “unlock new possibilities for telling stories and creating unforgettable, large-scale experiences.” Hallema identifies as a multi-hyphenate creative director, artist, storytelling, experience designer, and musician, and I had a chance to catch up with him after experiencing Emojiii to get the origin story of the Smartphone Orchestra, how it evolved from distributed spatial musical experiments into exploring group social dynamics and ice breaker experiments that are creating new rituals for connecting.” — Voices of VR
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Project Site
Port of Entry — Albany Park Theater Project and Third Rail Projects
“In the northwestern Chicago neighborhood of Albany Park, a three-story warehouse stands on an east-west thoroughfare, surrounded by residences, small businesses, and chain stores such as Family Dollar. Constructed in 1929, the building still has “Fernstrom Fireproof Storage” engraved on its handsome façade. But the interior has been transformed into a courtyard-style apartment complex for Port of Entry, a world-premiere immersive production by Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) and Third Rail Projects.
In Port of Entry, 26 young performers portray immigrants from around the world who live in Albany Park, one of Chicago’s most diverse communities. At each performance, the cast guides 28 audience members through custom-built homes, inviting them to handle treasured objects, play games, and even eat and drink together as they share their characters’ stories.” — American Theatre
Backstage at the Goosebury — Campfire
“It’s every fan’s dream to step inside the world of their favorite TV show. At “Only Murders in the Building: Backstage at the Goosebury,” that dream becomes reality.
The currently airing third season of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building follows the central trio of Charles, Oliver, and Mabel (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) as they solve the murder of Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), killed on the night of his Broadway debut. The debut in question was staged at the fictional Goosebury Theater, filmed in the very real United Palace Theater in New York City.
That’s where “Backstage at the Goosebury” comes in. At the immersive experience, fans can explore the theater where the season was filmed and get clues to the season’s mystery along the way.” — Into
Stranger Things The First Shadow — Duffer Brothers, Stephen Daldry
“Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story — and may hold the key to the end.” Gizmodo
Goodbye Volcano High — KO_OP
“If getting (mostly) on the other side of a pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the looming specter of mass death really has a way of realigning your priorities. That mood hits especially different in the world of Montreal-based developer KO_OP’s Goodbye Volcano High, a game which posits that prehistoric life on Pangaea was a very modern, 21st-century kind of situation. Prehistoric high school in particular is a perennial genderqueer maze of entanglements, crushes, awkwardness, puberty, half-formed ambitions, and parental expectations that just so happen to be populated by anthropomorphic, animated dinosaurs.”
Polyphonic Garden Suite II — Ruby Singh
“Musician and composer Ruby Singh is amplifying the vibrations of plants and organisms and integrating them into his latest music project.
The Vancouver-based artist’s recent album, Polyphonic Garden Suite II, aims to take listeners on a road trip across B.C.
Singh used field recordings from across the province and bioelectric information from plants and mushrooms to create an ambient, meditative offering that explores our relationship to the natural world.” — CBC
KAGAMI — Tin Drum
“Ryuichi Sakamoto died in March aged 71, but the legendary Japanese composer/computer-pop pioneer/actor has left behind this extraordinary “never-before-experienced mixed reality presentation” with technology collective Tin Drum, showcased by the Manchester international festival. The audience are given “optically transparent devices” — special glasses a bit like a VR headset. Once they’re all on, Sakamoto appears as if by magic, playing a grand piano, virtual white clouds wafting around his feet as if he is, well, playing in heaven. Seconds later, he is surrounded by falling snowflakes.” — The Guardian
Reimagined Volume II: Mahal — Michaela A. Ternasky-Holland
“Inspired by Philippine mythology, Mahal opening at the Tribeca Film Festival focuses on Apolaki, Mayari, Tala, and Hanan, the four immortal children of the recently passed creator god, Bathala. Each of these sibling deities confronts their emotions when they lose Bathala, and their all-powerful actions create ripples throughout the universe.” AsAm News
VIDEOVERSE — Kinmoku
“Anyone who ever played and loved a video game, especially as a teenager, will know that the game itself is often only part of the experience. It is also about community. We seek out other players, through forums, message boards and social media, and sometimes the relationships we form in these haphazard spaces move beyond expressions of shared fandom. They become friendships, support networks, perhaps even romances. Videoverse, the new visual novel from Kinmoku, creator of the acclaimed relationship drama One Night Stand, is an engrossing and emotional study of these digital relationships and the games that precariously support them.” The Guardian
Alan Wake 2 — Remedy Entertainment
“I put off writing this Alan Wake 2 review because I was scared. Scared that I’d look into myself and find I wasn’t up to the task, that I lacked the right words, with nothing to offer but emptiness and failure. It’s not at all uncommon, though, for writers to be wracked with doubt. Many years ago, I saw the novelist William Gibson give a talk in which he said that, at some point in the writing of every novel, he tells his wife he thinks it’s the worst book anyone’s ever written.
Alan Wake 2, the striking new narrative-driven horror game from Remedy Entertainment, understands this fear so many writers and other creative people face well, and uses it as the seed of frightful inspiration for its surreal horror odyssey.” — Kotaku
Hidden Door Game — Hidden Door
“I recently tried a game that generates NPC dialogue with an AI chatbot, and within minutes I was arguing with a hard-boiled cop about whether or not dragons are real. “Large language models” like ChatGPT are unpredictable, habitual bullshitters, which makes them funny, but not very good videogame characters. Hidden Door, a company founded by long-time AI developers, says it can do much better.” — PC Gamer
Meneath: The Mirrors of Ethics — Terril Calder
“Through a system of interfering screens, Terril Calder forces our gaze below the surface to witness a dissection of the colonial narrative, physically shifting the dominant Christian perspective. The installation offers an augmented reality-type looking glass into the Indigenous ethical voice that often remains hidden. Indigenous Teachings are reflected from the earth and fused into the story to create a unique viewing experience that’s dependent on where you stand in relation to the interfering screens.” — Animation Magazine
Thistle Gulch — The Simulation
“The Simulation (formerly Fable Studios) launched a new version of its Showrunner AI text-to-episode AI application. The tech used South Park to show off its new technology. Now it’s previewing its first original AI TV series, Thistle Gulch, set in a simulation of a Western town that’s filled with dynamic AI characters seeking a new future in the Wild West. — Forbes (part of an article highlighting Cinematic AI at the Venice Film Festival)
Grapevine — Meow Wolf
“Since debuting its original immersive art experience, House of Eternal Return, in Santa Fe in 2016, Meow Wolf has become one of the biggest attractions in New Mexico. It became so popular that the U.S.-based arts and entertainment company expanded to Las Vegas (Omega Mart) and Denver (Convergence Station) in 2021. And after digitally teasing something new for Texas last summer, Meow Wolf officially announced its next move — doubling down on the Lone Star State with locations in both Grapevine and Houston.” — Paper City
Free Your Mind — Michael “Mikey J” Asante, Kenrick “H20” Sandy, Danny Boyle, Es Devlin, Sabrina Mahfouz
“f you’re going to launch the biggest cultural building in Britain since Tate Modern, one that has cost somewhere in the region of £240m, then what better way to do it than with a dance adaptation of The Matrix, a cult series of movies that gained many of their main effects through groundbreaking CGI? The ambition is breathtaking.” — The Guardian
81st Street Studio — The Met, Bluecadet
“The 3,500-square-foot space offers a variety of different activities targeted at different ages. One station shows children how artists use clay, metal and wood by displaying images of objects from the museum’s collection, such as a cuneiform tablet and an 18th-century British teapot decorated with images of fossils, as Hyperallergic’s Elaine Velie reports.” — Smithsonian Magazine
Dragon, Magic Freedom Giants — Juliana Loh, Chris Madsen, Mada de Leeuw
“This immersive project combines elements of art installation, interactive workshops, and virtual theme park design, exploring profound themes such as home, belonging, culture, diversity, and the power of dreams. Participants embark on an enchanting odyssey through a virtual realm inhabited by mythical creatures and ethereal blue-skinned figures representing various states of being.
As participants actively navigate this virtual world, they are encouraged to project themselves onto these fantastical creatures, facilitating a journey of self-discovery and reconnection with one’s authentic self. The narrative unfolds across two distinct worlds…” FIVARS
Enter the Multiverse — HyperCinema
“As I clutched the ‘data cube’ holding images of my face, an enthusiastic gentleman welcomed me: “You are the fifth person in the world to experience Hyper Cinema. Well, technically the third.” Sporting a white lab coat and a wonderfully matching moustache, I could feel this fellow’s excitement for this installation. He didn’t elaborate on the technically the third part and I couldn’t bring myself to question it.
Promoting itself as the world’s first live AI experience, Hyper Cinema takes your physical likeness and select data (via a simple survey) to construct a visual compendium of different possible versions of you. “It’s your Multiverse,” the official site describes. “You’ll see mind blowing, hilarious, surreal, thought-provoking glimpses into alternate timelines of your life.”- Flicks
CENTO — Nancy Baker Cahill
“A monumental digital hybrid creature takes flight over New York’s Meatpacking District as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent commission by new media artist, Nancy Baker Cahill. As the Museum’s first participatory and collectively built augmented reality (AR) art intervention, CENTO invites visitors to the museum’s many terraces to observe the soaring chimeric creature via the artist’s 4th Wall app. Inviting collaboration to virtually foster its evolutionary development, the project embraces an ecosophical perspective that challenges the conventional divide between humans and the natural world, tackling the imperative for cross-species collaboration in confronting the climate crisis.” — Designboom
Paragraphica — Bjørn Karmann
“Danish designer Bjørn Karmann has unveiled an innovative camera called Paragraphica, which uses location data and artificial intelligence to generate ‘photos’ of specific places and moments. The lensless camera comes in both physical and virtual forms, allowing users to experience its capabilities firsthand. When looking through the viewfinder, users are presented with a real-time description of their current location. By pressing the trigger, the camera then transforms this description into a scintigraphic representation, effectively creating a unique ‘photo’ of the scene.” — designboom
Phantom House — Jason Zada, Secret Level, Snap
“SNAP recently launched an immersive Halloween experience spanning across Snapchat’s Chat, Camera, Stories and Spotlight tabs. In this series, digital creators like Tony Talks, Sofie Dossi and Ezee will be featured as they race against time to escape the Phantom House.
Snapchatters can follow the story weekly and contribute to the adventure by assisting the creators in gathering clues and solving puzzles. They can share their experiences with friends using AR Lenses and AI-generated Dreams selfies inspired by the Phantom House.” — Yahoo Finance
Broken Spectre — Stitch Media
“As someone who’s been playing just about any VR horror game I could get my hands on for the last five years, I can say it’s not too often that I see a lot of innovation within the genre. Much of the horror game selection available for VR platforms relies on cheap jump scares, minimal interactivity, or boring horde-mode gameplay, which often just ends up feeling like a haunted house simulator or arena shooter with not much substance past its concept.” — Rely on Horror
Remember this place: 31°20′46″N 34°46′46″E —
Patricia Echeverria Liras
“Using visual components composed of 3D reconstructions of real locations, spaces, and artifacts and recorded noises from different communities, the team used immersive storytelling to bring memories of histories and spaces that are being erased in the real world and take them into a virtual landscape. “With this project, we seek to amplify the voices and oral histories recorded with different generations of Bedouin women to preserve and celebrate memories of their home and culture,” said Liras. “The process of preservation through the digital becomes a political act, only possible within the context of XR technologies.” — Northwestern
Language Is Leaving Me, An AI Cinematic Opera of the Skin — Ellen Pearlman
“The project “Language Is Leaving Me — An AI Opera Of the Skin” explores the relations between artificial intelligence, memory, power, trauma, and war…
The installation consists of a film, sound materials, and a portable electromyograph — a device allowing a particular person to influence the soundtrack using muscle signals.” — Centrum Nauki Kopernik
Rumble in The Jungle Rematch — Rematch Live
“The atmosphere is electric. While I’ve never been a boxing aficionado, immersive theatre is my favourite kind of entertainment!
The creative minds at Rematch Live, who previously brought to life the Wimbledon showdown between Borg and McEnroe, have now turned their attention to the world of boxing. They’ve recreated the iconic 1974 match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, and the result is nothing short of spectacular.” — 1883 Magazine
Medieval Murder Maps — Manuel Eisner
“The macabre tool, which draws on city coroners’ rolls dating to between 1300 and 1340, is the brainchild of the University of Cambridge’s Manuel Eisner, an expert in the history of violence. As Eisner tells the Guardian’s Nicola Davis, the map reveals a surprising number of commonalities between medieval murders and contemporary homicides: Both tend to begin with altercations “of a very trivial nature.” They occur with the highest frequency on days when individuals don’t have to work and they overwhelmingly take place during the evening.”- Smithsonian Magazine
COMING SOON
Lushfoil Photography Sim — Matt Newell
“Lushfoil Photography Sim aims to deliver a true-to-life photography experience and accurately simulate various camera features and controls, including automatic and manual focus, aperture, shutter speed, burst shooting, and more.” — PetaPixel
Eno — Gary Hustwit
“The definitive documentary about visionary musician and artist Brian Eno, and a groundbreaking generative film that’s different every time it’s shown. …Eno will have its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, January 18–28” — from Director Gary Hustwit’s site
