Ioana Mischie is a Romanian-born transmedia artist and futurist, active in the field for almost 12 years. She is also founder of the Storyscapes collective, which emerged as the first association focussing on transmedia storytelling in the country, paving the way for new genres and pioneering narrative structures and she serves as a lecturer at UNATC, where she has co-created two master degrees focussing on interactive technologies and game design. HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE) is a project that has passed through the Biennale College Cinema VR, a fragment of which has being unveiled last September at Venice Immersive 2023, however the full transmedia installation including the World Premiere of the multi-player are selected in the Immersive Competition at the Cannes Festival 2024.
Exploring transmedia creation as a form of “infinite cinema”
Ioana Mischie – I’m a transmedia artist born in Romania, with a background in creative writing and film. I’ve always conceived stories, often in unconventional formats, tapping into new angles and grammars. At times, I feel I belong more to a community of inventors than to a community of filmmakers per se, as there are hardly any craft-driven books for what we do.
I. M. – During my bachelor studies I focused on screenwriting, which gradually led me to discover new media concepts, from transmedia to extended realities. I was lucky enough to be selected early, immediately after my studenthood, for the Berlinale Talents, cross-media mentoring sessions and conferences during the Berlin festival, where I met Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac for the very first time. I immediately fell in love with XR and the energy it exuded. In many ways, it felt the entire transmedia philosophy was already describing what I was doing, but had no formal name for it yet. I gradually began researching the field of transmedia storytelling as part of my PhD studies. In 2017, I received a Fulbright scholarship which allowed me to expand the research at University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, in the USA with Henry Jenkins, who had defined the term of transmedia storytelling as early as 2003 in his iconic book “Convergence Culture”.
I. M. – I wrote a thesis proposing new theories on the subject, and initiated numerous concepts and genres inspired by it. For example, for me, XR (especially when used in a transmedia context) refers to an “infinite cinema” format. It invites us to create stories that can continue in time and space, to imagine concepts that can unfold on different levels, to tap into a multitude of perspectives. “Infinite cinema” requires an entire semiotic revolution such as “the infinite story paradigm” (scalable storytelling), “the infinite authorship paradigm” (I perceive it more as an auctorial network than as a sole person as pre-defined by previous theorists). Above all, infinite cinema proposes a giant shift from the conservative, passive “Homo Spectator” to “Homo Immersionis”, a category of adaptable explorers that are able to swim swiftly in entirely new worlds.
I. M. – In my research, I was very intrigued by the movement of “Expanded Cinema” that happened in the 1960s, being coined by Gene Youngblood as a form of “expanded consciousness”. In many ways, I associate immersive storytelling and XR worldbuilding with this immense expansion of the body and soul. The immersive device acts like a machine that allows you to travel in time, space and spirit.
I. M. – XR seems often like a new continent that humanity has discovered. At the moment, the ideal storytelling practice to me is not only transmedia, but also trans-temporal, trans-spatial, trans-perspectivist, trans-real (inviting us to navigate real and virtual realities wisely, while allowing both to elevate humanity, instead of alienating it).
I. M. – Finally, I had the chance to put myself into practice by making numerous transmedia franchises, films or immersive experiences that used numerous high end technologies, many of which represented a national premiere for my native country. In some cases, it took years to RnD certain concepts, in some others projects flowed easier than expected. Every single project taps into a new category of discoveries.
From Cross Video Days 2012 to Festival de Cannes 2024
I. M. – One of my first transmedia projects was selected for Cross Video Days more than ten years ago, the event being co-organized back then by Elie Levasseur and Bruno Smadja. That event upgraded my cinematic career immensely and allowed me to evolve from a local creator to an international creator. It was at Cross Video Days that I had the opportunity to meet a Channel 4 (UK) commissioner, and the project was launched immediately – much to my surprise! From the pitch onwards, everything happened very organically. We’ve made two webseries in London, with a record of views. This gave me the chance to work internationally, before returning to Romania, where I wanted to support the development of the industry. Ever since then I actively started to pioneer new formats in the country.
I. M. – After more than a decade of intensive work, we reached a new historical milestone as one of our most loved immersive experiences is now part of the immersive competition in Cannes Film Festival, the event being organized by the very same inspirational Elie Levasseur, to whom I am infinitely thankful! I am proud that our industry has visionary spirits such as Elie’s, who really succeeds in creating innovative ecosystems and to reposition Europe as a brilliant, inclusive, edgy playground for creators of all nations. I believe he is one of the strongest trendsetters I have met in terms of ecosystem design, able to recognize and protect immersive and innovative value or artworks in their very early days.
I. M. – The existence of the Immersive Competition is a symbol that our world is advancing both physically and virtually, that we are able to create and perceive complex forms of storytelling and we cannot fit anymore only in passive spectatorship paradigms or in linear authorship structures.
I. M. – I am hoping Cannes 2024’s immersive competition will inspire all nations to develop strong policies for the creation, distribution and archival of immersive works and to treat this new category of thinking as a precious heritage of humanity, not as a marginal form of expression. Visionary artworks do belong at the forefront!
Developing an artistic practice at the crossroads
I. M. – I design mostly transmedia concepts that blend film and VR, mostly because these mediums have a strong visual component that I tend to prioritise wholeheartedly. This doesn’t mean that in the future I won’t be discovering or exploring other formats, my curiosity for uncharted territories is ever-evolving. The selection in the Cannes Immersive Competition invited us to tap into the installation format. In this sense, HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE is designed as a fully transmedia piece. We are proposing three key parts: an interactive, narrative VR film to be experienced individually, a multi-user experience meant to facilitate a form of collective consciousness between all explorers and a physical exhibition, designed as a collection of audio testimonies encompassing the real stories that have inspired the entire project.
I. M. – This transmedia journey is meant to combine fiction and non-fiction, surreal and real practices, in order to awaken the viewer on multiple levels.
I. M. – I’m curious to see what new dimensions of humanity will immersive creation and new media activate in the short, medium and long-term. The narrative innovation developed by most XR creators encourages us to reconsider the way we make traditional films, the way we design societies, the way we inhabit this world overall. Everything can be called into question, and this encourages also a form of proactive humility. What elements are native to immersive filmmaking, what elements are shared with other disciplines? How can we create a link with the public without making addictive artworks? How can we preserve and enrich human creativity with the support of immersive tools? How to balance immersion and interactivity? We’re right in the middle of all these questions.
I. M. – Immersive art is an immensely powerful tool, sometimes perhaps over-powerful, and it requires contemplation, research, continuous user testing. In the cinema, everyone is looking in the same direction, but there is no direct human connection. In VR, you co-inhabit the same world, you co-elevate it, you experience the story in a different way, from different angles, you meet the others, however differently than you would meet them in real life. It’s an accelerator of the human soul, testing our inner and outer boundaries.
HUMAN VIOLINS: an immersive work redesigning memory
I. M. – HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE is based on true events, although it is deeply fictionalized. During my Fulbright scholarship, in 2018, I visited by chance an exhibition featuring a violin restored by Amnon Weinstein, that had been saved from the Holocaust. It’s a memory I’ve never been able to forget. I gradually began to learn more about the subject, and discovered that Jews could take an object with them to the camps. Many chose to bring their instrument, their violin. In some cases, the violins saved their lives. In others, the violins remained as eternal testimonies of human creativity.
I. M. – My own father adored violin music, especially Romanian folklore. During his childhood, he wanted to take violin lessons, however he could not afford it, so he self-trained to play a rusty violin and later on in life he invested a lot of his energy to support all local musicians. In his closeby village, almost everyone played an instrument and even drew on their houses the specific symbol for the instrument of their choice – so every time there was a wedding in the village, one could form an orchestra just by looking at the houses. Although he turned into a history professor and into a pioneering civic voice, he was always attached to music in vital manners, being surrounded by it at all times and using it as a transformative force. My father died before the project came into being and I conceived this entire journey as an homage for his immensely creative spirit, for his joie de vivre, despite immensely challenging times. I tried to facilitate a universal tone of the project, so it feels it belongs to all humanity equally, not just to the Jewish or to the Romanian community. We wanted it to serve as a deep reminder that conflicts like the ones in the past should not be re-lived again and to become aware that music and art are the highest expressions of inner and outer peace.
Working with Ioana Mischie on HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE honours our duty to remember. Growing up among Holocaust survivors, I saw how art could offer hope. This experience pays tribute to all the victims through their instruments which, against all odds, outlived them.
Jeremy Sahel, DA PROD Producer
I. M. – With HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE, we put the emphasis on music and its sensorial array of emotions, and not so much on the history per se. In our story, music is central; it brings freedom, it leads towards unleashing inner light, and perhaps allows us to elevate reality, to adhere to a new realm – to a poetic consciousness.
I. M. – In its development phase, the project was selected for the Biennale College Cinema VR, which helped us immensely. After polishing the story, we created moodboards and curated the art direction – a highlight of the experience, co-created with Alexandru Pop, the art director of the entire piece. The concept of the wired world was part of the pitch from the beginning, but we had to prototype it several times in order to reach the current shape of the look.
I. M. – During the program, I met Allison Crank, a talented UX designer. Together we imagined the ideal-case scenario for our storyworld: making the entire wired architecture of the experience, based on the strings of the violin, playable. This led us to the idea of a highly sensorial experience, where music would be everywhere. Music would awaken our senses. After many iterations, we found a balance between this visual touch and the interactive part – while accepting the fact that today’s technology still limits us greatly. That’s when we decided to redesign the experience into several chapters to lighten the complexity of the story and to intertwine it with interactive moments. The explorers are the companions of Alma, a teenager passionate about violin music. They are invited to take the legacy of her music further, but in subsidiary to be aware of the legacy we all leave behind.
I. M. – As the project progressed and as the world around us changed drastically, as I contemplated further on the essence of the piece, I realised that to me personally “Music is the highest form of peace”. Music is a metaphor for the inner strength we have inside of us, not just the artform. Humanity itself can be seen as music rather than noise. Music is larger than an artform, it can become one of the definitions of humankind.
From a violin string to state of the art graphics
I. M. – HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE’s art direction concept grew organically from its philosophical concept. All the graphic design is rooted in the story. We wanted to tell a story about the power of music in humanity’s darkest times. And all the elements had to have the same design. The string of the instrument was the central element and we tried to expand on it ad infinitum, by replicating it in the architecture, in the character design. At times it looks like an over-chaotic rope, at times it feels like a soothing silk line, while at times it becomes and endless umbilical chord. It’s both a unifying force and a separating force, depending on how we use it.
I. M. – The strings-driven world turned into the most natural way to build the visual aspect of the experience. And a real challenge in the very conception of the work! We had to test a lot, find 3D design techniques and generative mechanics to dress up each project. The strings can respond to certain actions. In the end, the result is poetic and it encompasses the essence of the project. At Cannes, for the Immersive Competition, we pursued this intention also for the scenography of our installation. The LED strings were illustrated by Sebastian Comanescu and implemented masterfully with the help of Diversion cinéma.
I. M. – The design had to be poetic, leaving room for the imagination without limiting the viewer. Hopefully, this experience and its visual palette are leading him to become curious about the subject. I hope some of you will go and find out more about the iconic stories of humanity. Our goal with the art direction was also to create a form of immersive legacy in saying that certain visual grammars, native to VR, can help us understand the world differently than before.
The first Romanian-French co-production in VR
I. M. – The project emerged in Romania, with local support and local talents such as the interactive designer and music composer Adrian Tabacaru, lead actress Cabiria Morgenstern, among many. It took three years to bring it to the current advanced stage.
I. M. – I’m very happy to be at the heart of one of the first Franco-Romanian co-productions, HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE having also benefited from Jeremy Sahel’s help at DA PROD, and from regional French funding that enabled us to work with some fabulous French talent such as Benoit Arbelot who elevated interactivity or Pierre-Marie Blind who signed the immersive sound of the experience, among many. The entire French team was immensely supportive, the co-producer Jeremy Sahel and the line producer Cyril Gautier allowed us to progress in a record of time.
I. M. – In the end, four countries participated in the project, in a very easy and organic way, as if everyone knew where to place themselves at the heart of the production and creative process. We believe this will open up a new array of collaborations for the industry of our country and we’re eager to share the case study of the project, to serve the community of new talents.
Responding to the need to remember
I. M. – In the near future, I hope to be able to take HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE expanded into museums and schools to start exciting discussions between multiple generations. And reactivate a form of human connection, a form of collective creativity and collective peace. We are inhabiting immensely difficult times, when we need to be able to remember previous conflicts so as not to repeat them. When we started the project, there weren’t as many major conflicts around the world. Our goal is to design a manifesto for peace, but one that is not just told or shown, but wholeheartedly lived.
I. M. – XR is an important tool for preserving collective memory. I remember seeing Shirin Anlen’s TZINA: SYMPHONY OF LONGING, which takes place in Tel Aviv, and captures a square doomed to disappear, illustrating the experience with testimonials. It’s a fascinating example because it was more stimulating to discover the immersive experience, with the essence of the place, even before the square’s destruction. Another interesting example is learning about the archiving of Holocaust survivors. Talking to museums in the USA, I discovered that everything was thought through, saved in several places, so that the memory survives. We can wonder about our individual capacity to preserve the memory of our loved ones, families and friends. And we can take these questions way further: how can we archive human creativity? How to best reveal rituals for creative practices? How to archive also XR works, that suffer often of ephemerality?
I. M. – At the same time, the further along we get, the more alive our collective memory becomes. My son naturally incorporates the memories of our world. He inherits everything that the adults around him have learned. It’s a shared process. And for a futurist, it might feel unusual to be fascinated by the past, however the ideal project to me blends practices from multiple temporal contexts. For my next project, I’m turning this idea on its head. With my ongoing project TANGIBLE UTOPIAS, I’m recording possible futures based on the testimonies of children who imagine their own version of it. In other words, I’m archiving visionary imaginaries and XR feels the ideal vehicle for this goal.
Anticipate the degree of interactivity required
I. M. – VR is an important vector for public impact, perhaps a vital one. It’s an impressive engine for making an impression, exponentially more than a book or film. The power of multi-player experiences, able to connect people from all over the world, with diverse cultural heritages, in an organic, common experience is simply brilliant. Public reactions can vary from one country to another, however sometimes it matters more how much we are the same than how much we are different. In HUMAN VIOLINS – PRELUDE, while following in the heroine’s footsteps, it’s still possible to have your own journey. You decide your pace of the experience, the level of engagement in taking this legacy further.
I. M. – As a surprise, I met someone who was discovering VR for the first time and natively had the facilities to interact with it. There’s a momentum of discovery where we as humans can interpret these complex experiences more naturally. Virtual reality is a powerful tool that we must continue to explore as it reveals human stories with an increased level of sophistication. And it becomes gradually more accessible too.
I. M. – As creators, narrators and interactive designers, we accompany the narrative around memory preservation with in-depth reflection on the interaction aspect. We have to remain attentive to people’s wishes, and flexible in our approach to interactivity. The viewer must be able to follow the story, however some stories cannot be altered completely, some stories need roots along with a creative space of freedom. In real life, it’s the same thing: you can control certain things, but we have to respect some others. In HUMAN VIOLINS, we started from this premise. The multi-user part is based on the simple premise of inviting people to play music together, however this is seen as an amplified connected moment. As we play instruments together, we modify the entire fabric of the world. On the long-term, Cannes inspired us to think about expanding the multi-player, by bringing in more participants, more instruments, to enrich the experience and create new moments of togetherness. Interactivity in this sense advances the story, not the other way round. And the players can have immense fun without forgetting the depth of the message.
I. M. – I really hope that the new Immersive Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and the recent efforts of the immersive industry, will bring real visibility to the medium. XR creation has an unprecedented ability to touch people, and we must continue to support creators to better understand all the capabilities offered by these new creative platforms. VR can inspire traditional audiovisual creation, and other artistic disciplines. It’s an unprecedented creative crossroads. This kind of techno-artistic revolution only happens once a century and we are luckily living it wholeheartedly.
A New Genre Activating Collective Consciousness
I. M. – Back in 2019, in my PhD thesis, I have initiated a new audio-visual genre, called noetic fiction, an alternative to science fiction. If sci-fi worlds propose futures fueled by the advancement of technology, noe-fi worlds propose futures fueled by the advancement of human consciousness and human creativity. Ever single project is an opportunity to make new discoveries and to test the theories.
I. M. – With HUMAN VIOLINS, there is a profound noetic layer. People explore, inhabit and then continue what is valuable to them. It invites us all to create a collective rhythm, a collective pulse. Humans are, perhaps to some extent, temporary homes for a much larger creative spirit and what is crucial is to maintain this spirit alive, to make sure it is not altered by conflicts. I’m hoping to inspire creators to take this genre further. My goal is to use state of the art new technologies to help us reach a state of the art form of consciousness.
The Power of Glocal Heritage and Combinatory Thinking
I. M. – In Europe, transmedia and XR are often seen as an avant-garde movement, however in the United States transmedia practices have become the norm for the industry. I’ve been able to assimilate many forms of systemic thinking through several residencies and exchanges, which today synthesise my own practice. Ideally, would love to blend in my own practice the profoundness of European projects, the scalability of American-inspired works, the ritualistic dimension of African-inspired works, the playfulness of Asian-inspired works so that our works can speak to all audiences. We need to be able to build bridges between generations through our experiences, and open up discussions. Encounters with audiences at festivals are always deeply moving. And this is just the beginning!
I. M. – We had numerous visitors that saw the installation and remained to discuss it for hours or visitors who took their headsets out only to release their tears. It was truly a transformative journey for all of us to encounter these reactions. We never had prior to this exhibit a more emotional encounter with the reactions of people.
The Immersive Ecosystem in Eastern Europe
I. M. – XR is immensely provoking mostly because we are expected to co-write the manual while implementing it flawlessly. And many of us, apart of being artistic creators, we are obliged to become also context-creators. Back in 2012, I created the Storyscapes association (years later I laughed wholeheartedly with Ingrid Kopp from Tribeca on the topic that we came up with the same name for the programs we loved, one year apart). In 2014 I served as the programs coordinator of CINETic, a New Media research center supported by European funding, with an investment of 8 mil. Euro. In 2018, our national university, UNATC was supportive enough to allow us to co-initiate two crucial academic programs, 2 masters degrees in new technologies and video game design, both in English language. That’s how we’ve been able to create contexts that welcome new talent in immersive creation and transmedia storytelling in Romania and abroad. More recently, along with my colleagues in East Doc we have created the Eastern European XR Alliance, a group of debate and collective brainstorming on the advancement of XR in our region of the world. Soon after, the European Commission acknowledged the importance of Virtual Worlds and nominated me among the representatives for the professional industry, which allowed me to speak up about the policies we need to advance the field. This entire journey grew organically, however XR is not by any means an “easy” industry, it requires radical adaptability to new practices and it does need constant support, not only for “stand alone” experiences, but also for concepts that need to be continued on the long-term.
The Future(s), Present(s) and Past(s) of XR
I. M. – Svetland Boym underlined in The Future of Nostalgia a massive shift in the way time was perceived in the last centuries: “From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, the representation of time itself changed; it moved away from allegorical human figures— an old man, a blind youth holding an hourglass, a woman with bared breasts representing Fate— to the impersonal language of numbers: railroad schedules, the bottom line of industrial progress. Time was no longer shifting sand; time was money. Yet the modern era also allowed for multiple conceptions of time and made the experience of time more individual and creative.” Indeed, I feel, XR proposes a new paradigm, one in which we explore time comparatively, collectively, creatively. Perhaps this is the power of XR: to improve and expand the definitions of time, space and humankind.
I. M. – We often associate XR too much exclusively with the future and too little with the present or past, or in my view this format has exponentially more strength, this form of expression is not just relevant for the short term, but for the long-term. And the danger here is actually to have the feeling that XR is still in its infancy, in fact, it is already a holistic form of storytelling, it is already forming a new category of artistic legacy, it is already a wise medium of human expression, we only need to protect it and cherish it wholeheartedly.
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