Virtual Trees & Digital Light Poems: Sundance Recap
As I start to come out of my Sundance VR hangover, here are some noteworthy experiences I saw in Park City inside and outside a headset. In no particular order …
“Tree”: This masterpiece by New Reality Company’s Milica Zec and Winslow Porter took a simple concept, being a tree, and grew it to new heights. The experience started with the viewer taking a real seed and dropping it on the ground. Then, inside the headset, you could see yourself sprout and evolve into a young sapling and ultimately a glorious rainforest tree. With Oculus hand controls, you could wave your branches by waving your arms and watch yourself grow. A SubPac allowed you to experience the vibration as your trunk grew taller. There was also a strategically placed heat component. “Tree” is about how a single tree in the rainforest experiences life and eventually its own demise. I won’t spoil the ending but I will tell you that for the first time in my life I actually empathized with a tree.
“Out of Exile”: Videogrammetry abounds in this important piece about Daniel Ashley Pierce, whose family confronted and disowned him because of his sexual orientation. Emblematic Group’s recreation of Daniel’s experience allows you to watch an anti-gay attack.
“Life of Us” by Within: Evolution is a serious topic, but this experience gave me some serious belly laughs. Using the HTC Vive hand controls, you could catch baby monkeys, jump off cliffs and flap your wings as a flying pterodactyl. Set up for two participants, “Life of Us” had several layers of interactivity. You and the other viewer could interact with each other, and your voices were part of the story. As you laughed, you heard your high-pitched squeal in the headset, which made you want to laugh even more.
VR for Good: Nine films premiered at Oculus House Sunday, all with the purpose of helping charities. StoryUP’s film “See Beyond Labels” was one of the premieres. Commissioned for the Ad Council’s “Love Has No Labels” charity, it placed viewers in close proximity with people of different races, religions, ages, genders and abilities.
“Blindness does not define who I am. Blindness is revealing who I am,” said Deborah McAlexander, an equestrian and pianist featured in “See Beyond Labels.”
Our project about implicit bias revealed the ways people can discriminate unintentionally with their assumptions.
Here’s a complete list of the nine #VRforGood films
“My Brother’s Keeper”: I really enjoyed the storytelling in this narrative VR piece from Connor Hair, Alex Meader and Brian Seth Hurst. Beautifully shot with some quality dolly work, “My Brother’s Keeper” takes you inside the lives of two brothers fighting on opposing sides during the Civil War. With all of the dissension in the US now, this moving piece was timely in its message. It also had some nice positional audio moments to gently direct your attention.
“NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism”: This experience by Hyphen-Labs placed you in a futuristic cosmetologist’s chair to receive transcranial extensions to make your brain more open to neuroplasticity. As you moved through different worlds, you explored messages about Afro-feminism, technology and the brain. As with many of the other experiences at Sundance, a head-tracking component allowed you to move the head of your VR character. Powerful story and science with some great production values.
“Chasing Coral”: Jeff Orlowski’s documentary on coral bleaching and its consequences was disquieting yet visually soothing. I think the entire piece was monoscopic — welcome relief for my eyes after watching a lot of blurry stereoscopic videos at Sundance. Shooting 360 footage underwater and stitching it are no easy tasks. Hats off to Seaview 360 for diving right into that challenge. Definitely put “Chasing Coral” on your to-watch list once it comes to headsets.
“Heartcorps: Riders of the Storyboard”: Dandypunk’s uniquely choreographed “digital light poem” combined projection mapping and puppetry with performers who used flashlights to interact with the room’s physical walls. My favorite part of the piece was when one of the dancers used a couch to board a rocket and a horse made entirely of light. Then, like a fire eater, the dancer completely swallowed the light.
“Miyubi”: This certainly was a technically superior stereoscopic film, but 40 minutes is a long time to be in a headset when people are waiting for a turn at Sundance. There were some fun interactive elements with the robot mimicking your movement in a TV screen and some delightful easter eggs, but after 35 minutes I was ready to take off my headset. The film is definitely worth watching, though, to see how stereoscopic 360 video can be done right. It was interesting that my phone did not shut down after 35 minutes. I would love to know what kind of SDK or voodoo is enabling that viewing length! Some of our Samsung phones can overheat and shut down after watching just 8 minutes of video.
I ended my VR binge in a Daydream headset. Best cure for a VR hangover? “Yoga pants on your face,” of course.
Originally published at medium.com on January 24, 2017.
