44 projects from 25 countries and 24 works in the Worlds Gallery: with just over a month to go until our favourite event of the year, we caught up with Venice Immersive programmers Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac to talk about the upcoming edition, the impressive lineup and the role that the immersive community and its talents play in creativity.
Cover: EMPEROR
The immersive industry between a new market mentality and ongoing interest in new formats
LIZ ROSENTHAL –The 2023 edition will follow the same format as the 2022 edition. After two years away from the Lazzaretto Vecchio, last year we felt strongly the need to get back to real life, throwing ourselves full throttle into a huge in-presence event that occupied the entire surface of the island. This year we will do more or less the same, with spaces dedicated to a lineup of 44 works, hosting a whole range of projects aimed at showing all forms of creative expression and immersivity through a variety of formats and our Worlds gallery – a huge area that we are particularly passionate about and that for us represents the vanguard of creativity in terms of immersive. 24 worlds, plus 2 more in competition. The Venice Immersive Market and Venice Production Bridge programme will also take place again on the Venice Immersive Island bringing together the whole Creative Immersive Ecosystem.
I would say that the one big change this year is that, among the different formats, fewer live performance projects were submitted.
MICHEL REILHAC – In this regard and reflecting on the selection process and what it tells us about the industry today, what I’ve noticed is a higher economic strain on everyone. We are obviously reaching a point where it must be feasible for producers and directors to express themselves and create their work, and the economic pressure is growing. Producers and studios are working hard to optimize costs, including the cost of coming to Venice, which is obviously very high for installations.
L. R. – I think there is another side of the coin, though. For the past eight years, we have been showing this medium as an art form at festivals and to the public. I feel that the art of R&D is no longer something that people have the luxury of playing with; it needs to have an impact and maybe some kind of economic return too. That’s why I think people are more careful about the formats they choose. Over the years, we showed incredible performance projects in Venice that required big sets and several actors. These works have proven to be incredibly challenging for their creators. Coming to a festival for 10 days can be difficult if you don’t have almost 100 % subsidy.
M. R. – I think these careful choices can be seen as a sign of health for the industry. We are moving toward a market mentality, which is absolutely necessary for immersive media to strive, grow and develop into a more self-sustaining art form. There has to be a market, after all, and we know that the weak point in the immersive industry right now is distribution. So I see it very positively that everyone is more cost-conscious and designing their installations so that they can travel easily with less production and operational costs and less time to set up and take down the works. We have to remember that during Venice Immersive we work 10 days in a row without a day off, 12 hours a day from 10 in the morning to 10 at night. It is a huge pressure for people who are presenting their work in this context.
L. R. – Looking at the upcoming projects, however, we can say that the incredible experimentation with formats that has always characterised Venice has not yet stopped. Simply, there’s a wider attention to the form that is chosen. There are some new types of works that we are very excited about and we are seeing the evolution of some avant-gardiste uses ofof technology in terms of creative expression.
Mixed Reality and AI: the trends of the Venice Immersive 2023 line-up
M. R. – This year we identified two main trends: the first is the use of mixed reality. We already encountered it last year with German Heller’s Eggscape (a/n this year German Heller is in the jury of Venice Immersive together with Singing Chen and Pedro Harres – see our interview). Eggscape did a great use of mixed reality in pass-through mode, that allows you to still see the environment around you. For this edition we have more works that go in this direction. The first one is Gargoyle Doyle by Ethan Shaftel, a well-written and beautifully acted piece of entertainment that starts in mixed reality, switches to VR and then back to mixed reality. The second one is Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: The Seven Ravens by Felix & Paul Studios.
L. R. – This is the first time Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël have tried their hand at mixed reality (the project was announced in 2020), as we have always seen them working on their magnificent 360. The work uses Magic Leap 2 to allow a physical book to come to life around you. It’s an exquisitely executed project.
M. R. – This work is really cutting edge in terms of generating 360 and depth and how actions and landscapes are brought to life from the pages of the book, which becomes almost a stage with a story coming to life in front of you, in your living room. It’s something we haven’t seen until now.
L.R. – Felix and Paul’s work is always top-notch in every respect and on top of that the piece has Neil Gaiman as narrator. This is a new format for them, which will be adaptable to different mixed reality or smart glasses.
M. R. – They very strategically consider that what they are doing with this piece is a pilot attempt to perfect a model and a format that could be used in any kind of publishing.
Then, another trend we present this year is artificial intelligence. We are starting to see how artificial intelligence can be used by artists and for me this is thrilling.
L. R. – On the AI front one of the projects to look for is Tulpamancer by Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser. Nothing like this has been presented to the public before. This is the first time we’ve seen a real-time use of artificial intelligence in VR where the first part of the experience poses questions from your memories. This series of questions/answers is then converted in real time into a VR experience with a voice over. Tulpamancer is an incredibly poetic and emotional piece of work, a personalised experience that refers to something you created.
M. R. – The first impression is that the story is 100% customised to the person involved, to their memories and what they say. Of course there is an underlying pattern, a background skeleton structure. But the content, both visual and textual, is completely unique. And I think this is just the beginning for this format, which is really interesting to watch in VR.
Large-scale projections, interactive gaming and more: the other technological and thematic trends we will see at Venice Immersive
L. R. – Over the years we have seen several key trends evolve in the immersive industry. One is definitely large-scale projections. Think about the way people are using them – no headset required – to create beautiful exhibitions that can be scaled to large audiences as well that we’re seeing proliferate outside of the festival circuit. In this regard we will have two projects at Venice that are beautiful but very different examples of projections. Both works reflect on the environment and how human systems interconnect with nature and the planetThe first Peupler by Maya Mouawad and Cyril Laurier is an interactive immersive projection. The second title Home, visualises a sort of breakdown of human systems on our planet, created by British based Indian artist Temsuyanger Longkumer, is projected onto a giant beehive with incredible images morphing between different scenes from above. An absolute discovery for us.
M. R. – The blend of game dynamics and storytelling continues to grow in different forms, which I find really exciting: we no longer have games with just puzzles or riddles to solve to move forward in the story, but the journey becomes sometimes more poetic, sometimes more mysterious. It takes on different forms, and I like to see how the user experience begins to merge interactions with the game dynamics, turning them into a whole new way of immersing and interacting with the story.
L. R. An example is Wallace & Gromit in the Grand Getaway, too, which we are very excited about. Aardman Animation studio has collaborated with Atlas V to create a great example of an interactive, humorous game that flows beautifully, with a narrative that works seamlessly with the interactivity and puzzles to be solved. It’s a perfect addition to Wallace and Gromit canon, something that should really satisfy their immense fan base.
Another work that has interesting game dynamics is Another Fisherman’s Tale, the sequel to the first A Fisherman’s Tale (see our interview) that was also presented in Venice in 2019. This game has a completely new dynamic that is difficult but incredibly satisfying. This work is among the ones selected for the Best Of of our lineup.
In the lineup we also have some high-end cinematic productions, almost blockbuster projects. One is a German production called Aufwind (Upwind) by Florian Siebert, about Germany’s first two female pilots at the turn of the 20th century. It’s a piece that uses various techniques (CGI, etc.) and superb environment constructions, so we wanted to emphasize the incredible production value that this work presents. The second is a Chinese work called Chen Xiang Vr by Liu Yuejun, Wu Nanni, Shi Tao and Xu Jingqiu, a narrative martial arts game sumptuous in terms of graphics and based on Chinese mythology.
M. R. – Speaking of entertainment, in the Best Of section we will also show a very simple but incredible piece by Felix & Paul. Space Explorers: Blue Marble – Orbit 1 is a chapter of their space series in which, just outside the International Space Station, you look at Planet Earth as you fly over it from space, seeing it go from sunrise to sunset in real time. It’s really an amazing sight, and that’s the macro viewpoint on entertainment. On the micro viewpoint, we have David Attenborough’s new narrated piece on flying insects, David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies.
L. R. – Thematically, a large number of projects in the lineup have a transcendental aspect. Of course, VR is always a medium that transports you through invisible realms and allows you to explore them, or to enter different states of consciousness. Honestly, I don’t think there are any other media that can do that as effectively.
Another area that VR is a master at is that of embodiment and stepping into the body and experience of others. That fall into this category of projects are definitely Body of Mine by Cameron Kostopoulos (see our interview), and Finalmente Eu (Finally Me) by Marcio Sal. Body of Mine won the Special Jury Award at SXSW: a beautiful project where you find yourself embodied in this amazing world that starts to move and pulsate and blossom and that sensitively allows you step into the body of people who have or are transitioning. In a way it’s a work that almost transcends to allow us question societal gender roles in a poetic, creative and delicate way.
M. R. – Finalmente Eu (Finally Me) is an animation project with a very new, very touching style. It’s about someone who has been living his whole life in hiding because he is physically very different from other people. Only as an old man is he able to embrace who he is fully and find freedom and fulfillment. The piece is a poetic way of celebrating difference and encouraging anyone who does not feel like everyone else to embrace who they are.
The role of Venice Immersive as a discoverer of new productions and talents
M. R. – For The Best Of we invite the works that impressed us the most out of all those that have been released. We try to look beyond the productions that have been talked about the most at festivals or have had the glowing reviews. We look for works that may have had less of an impact or have been less well reviewed, but for us represent a breakthrough in the creative field.
L. R. – We spend a lot of time looking on the VR storefronts and seeing what’s being released over the year by indie developers. For example, there’s a new artist in the lineup this year, Lionel Marsden, who is a games designer and digital artist, who we discovered on Steam, where they launched a project called The Utility Room. Nobody on the festival circuit has presented this project yet, so it’s great to have the chance to do it. Last year we did the same with Shores of Loci, which has since been upgraded from Applab the Meta Quest storeI like to think that Venice has had some influence on thesuccess of these types of titles.
M. R. – Venice Immersive is playing a very important role, because some of the works that are most often shown at festivals and bought on platforms were first shown and discovered in Venice! Take the example of Craig Quintero. He was not a known artist, despite his talent, before his work arrived at Venice Immersive. And so was Pedro Harres, who got the Grand Jury Prize for From the Main Square in 2022 (see our interview). We are very proud to play this role, and I see that many people from the immersive community come to Venice and make it a must because they know it is the place where they have the best chance of meeting new works and new artists. Liz and I work very hard to go outside the territory already covered by the festivals and to look for new talent.
In terms of discoveries, we are very proud to continue showing the work of Keisuke Itoh, who was not only discovered by Venice, but almost trained here. Itoh participated in the Biennale College Cinema VR a few years ago, and in that context he created his first work, Feather. From then on, he fell in love with the medium and we have presented all of his later productions. This year he is back with the most poetic and surprising piece he has done so far, Sen, about the tea ceremony, and we’re very glad to have him again. Especially considering how successful Typeman was last year (see our interview). To me, Typeman is probably the only piece I’ve seen in VR that truly succeeded in making me want to stand up and dance and move with the characters.
New countries joining Venice Immersive in 2023
L. R. – In the lineup we have a project that comes from the Biennale College Cinema VR titled Remember This Place: 31°20’46”N 34°46’46”E, which is from Palestine, Qatar and Spain and was created by a woman director, Patricia Echeverria Liras. It is a really moving story about home told from the voices of Bedouin women. Regarding the VR-producing territories, it’s our first Palestian project at Venice Immersive.
M. A. – We also have a Ukrainian piece, which is the winning project of this year’s Biennale College Cinema VR. The work is called First Day, by director Valeriy Korshunov and producer Svitlana Korshunova, and it gives you a 3D experience of the first day of the war in Kiev.
L. R. – We also have a quite strong selection from South Korea and Japan. From South Korea, Oneroom-Babel by Sanghee Lee, Comfortless by Gina Kim and My Name is O90 by Siyeon Kim. From Japan, in addition to Sen by Keisuke Itoh, we also find Syuhasuu (The Frequency), directed by Ellie Omiya.
Notes on the Venice Production Bridge and the Biennale College Cinema VR
M. A. – As part of the Venice Production Bridge, we have selected 12 international projects that are seeking funding and will be presented and meet potential partners during the market. So there is a whole series of artists and producers who will be on the island during the first part of the festival, which will nurture the community even more.
We also invited the 11 projects that participated in this year’s VR college, which will be added to the 44 projects in the lineup, the 24 worlds in the Worlds Gallery and the 12 projects seeking funding.
L. R. – This year there are also six Biennale College Cinema VR projects in the selection, the largest number ever!
In terms of conferences and panels, once again this year the Venice Immersive will host the popular Meet the Creator sessions because it is always important to hear the voices of the teams behind the selected works. Like in 2022 the meetings will take place from 5pm to 6.30pm in the central garden of the Island. Michel and I will then hold two conference sessions on topics that we think are really important. The first will be on the distribution crisis and will be an invitation-only event to constructively discuss the crisis in terms of the distribution of creative projects with key people in the industry so that we can set clear goals and an agenda. The second is a panel discussion on what we believe to be the vanguard of creativity in immersive, the World building.
World building and community: the vanguards of creativity
M. R. – Liz and I firmly believe, based on everything we’ve seen, that there is an absolute explosion of talent in online social platform communities, where individuals build worlds as a hobby. They don’t see themselves as artists, they don’t make money from it. Very often these are individuals creating amazing things with the support of the community and all within a matter of weeks. The level of sophistication of these worlds, the interactivity they generate… is simply astounding!
It is a completely different approach from anything that is happening in VR. It’s a proliferation of worlds that continues to happen, and so we think it’s absolutely crucial to represent it at Venice Immersive. This is because even within the community of VR professionals, very few people are familiar with what is happening in a platform like VR chat. VR chat has grown into the metaverse of today. This is where the metaverse is really happening.
Most of the complex productions that are created in VR and that we will show in Venice use the same model as filmmaking: you write a project, you develop it, you look for financing, then you produce it and of course you produce it with less money than you had budgeted for … and then comes distribution. World builders don’t do that. They just build and see it almost as a game. And what’s amazing is that the worlds that they create, in terms of visual and narrative quality, gameplay quality, interactivity sometimes far exceeds some of the more professional productions that we’ve seen.
L. R. – I think it’s an incredible expression of collaborative work and joint creation. For one thing, there is this platform, which is in continuous development, it has incredible functionality because VR Chat is there to provide software development, it is incredible in terms of multiplayer… in short, it’s an art form and a form of entertainment that is completely different from what we see in other contexts. VRChat has listened to its community, it has even hired key players. Just think of Fins, who is one of the key artists we featured this year and in our last edition in Competition and who has been hired by VRChat as their in house world builder!
M. R. – Kevin Mack is another example of an artist who discovered VR Chat after attending all the conferences, panels and experiences that we organized on the topic. He’s been doing it since we started discussing it and because of that he has become a world builder himself and was in the competition last year with a great project, Namuanki.
L. R. – This year we will present 24 worlds plus 2 in competition, including Complex Seven created by Fins himself and which is a sequel to a world he presented last year, District Roboto.
M. R. – It is incredible, for us, to see how these artists are often far removed from any kind of production logic. And perhaps that is also the beauty of it, this sort of naivety in an economic sense, which surely will not last forever. The wealth of talent in that community of world-builders is astounding and when VR chat, under pressure from the shareholders, will introduce, for example, a ticketing system, a system whereby you can charge people for access to your concert or your event or your dance class, I’m sure the situation will change radically.
L. R. – We should mention that there is also a project in the lineup that uses a different social platform: not VR Chat, but Engage. It is the Fatboy Slim concert, Fatboy Slim – Eat, Sleep, VR, Repeat, which will be shown privately.
M. R. – I think you can compare it to Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxymore, which was on a platform where a number of people could go, listen to music and have the visual experiences that came with it. Fatboy Slim is another example of musicians using a social VR platform, but in a completely different way from Jean Michelle Jarre, although the idea behind it is the same- which is to transport the experience of a concert into the metaverse.
L. R. – The winning point of Engage is the ticketing, the sign-up process, which is very simple. I think it’s an extraordinary example because beyond that we didn’t see anything in all the other platforms we visited that really fit what we were looking for.
M. R. – We made sure we were familiar with the evolution of the main platforms, but they tend to specialise now – you find business platforms or b2b platforms, as is the case with Engaged, which is trying to open up a bit. We also visited Horizon, the Facebook metaplatform, and saw dozens of worlds, but we didn’t select any from there. In short, we look at what is happening in all platforms, but so far VR Chat is far superior to everything else.
One thing we have learnt from last year is to make world hop access more suitable for people who are already familiar with VR Chat or who have never participated in a social platform before. Therefore, people will be able to choose whether it is their first time on VRChat or whether they have already visited this platform and you will get two different speeds: a slower access for beginners and a more agile world hop for those who are already familiar with it.
L. R. – One of the main things Michel and I want to continue, is to reach out to these different communities that we feel are essential to this art form. They represent what excites me the most when I’m wearing a headset, because ultimately I haven’t yet transformed my idea of what mass entertainment is. I actually can’t believe that the big studios haven’t yet embarked on a narrative path experimenting with storytelling in the same way people like Fins do on these platforms. Their creations are simply mind-blowing.
On the audience of Venice Immersive
L. R. – We have a whole range of different audiences, also because of the Venice Immersive pass we started offering a few years ago: 60 euro for five days, or 90 euro for the whole festival. It’s an incredible possibility considering the number of experiences that are presented at the event. Venetians, people from the industry, people who travel, professionals and creatives… we discovered that there is a whole clique of people surrounding a festival. But me and Michel, we always try to go further, in search of new territories and new visitors.
With the market we are always very careful to invite people who have never visited it before, and still important in this sector, and new exhibitors as well: we are seeing a lot of people in the gallery sector, in the exhibition sector, or that are managing new types of spaces for venues that are coming up, because there is a huge growth in this sector. We are very focused on offering a market that is global geographically but also in terms of areas of interest: people from the world of art, from the world of performance, from the world of video games- and this is also something new: there are more and more people from gaming studios that are applying and are aware of the existence of this initiative.
Another reason why the pass is a great initiative is because it opens the doors of Venice Immersive to the younger audiences. A film festival can sometimes appear as not very accessible, and in this way their entry point can become Venice Immersive and thus a completely new medium. Then of course there is the press, with an ever-increasing presence and journalists returning every year, like Xan Brooks of the Guardian, who now visits Venice Immersive every year. It’s really great to see writers coming from film and other art forms specialising in the field and doing it with great success.
M. R. – I agree. The most difficult thing for us is still to build a bridge between the film part of the festival and the VR island. When people come to Venice to see films, they tend to have a very busy schedule. They might even be interested in visiting the Venice Immersive, but between screenings, meetings and networking they don’t find the time. We haven’t yet found a way to make the visit to Lazzaretto a top priority for them, so that they schedule, for example, an afternoon on the island with the same level of priority as watching the films. We are still working on this!
L. R. – I think this is normal. In the end, even people who are at the Lazzaretto stay there and don’t visit the film sections. It is true that the Venice Immersive is part of the official selection of the Venice Film Festival – which is absolutely unique – but at the same time we are like a festival within the festival. Even though we are clearly part of the event, having expanded with the market on the island means that our growing community is focusing on Lazzaretto Vecchio. And having a community, as the world building community has shown, is incredibly valuable.
The Venice Film Festival will take place from August 30 to September 9: we look forward to seeing you all at the Lazzaretto Vecchio, where great immersive works await you… and also delicious Campari spritzes.
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