There was an projection-based immersive experience called ORIGINS – LIFE’S EPIC JOURNEY that was originally formatted for a digital art museum in Germany called Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, but it was translated into a three-channel video installation that was showing in a small conference room at SXSW. I only saw the video version at SXSW, and so I have not experienced the piece within its originally-intended, fully-immersive context. But it’s collaboration between digital artists Markos Kay, Martin Salfity, Thomas Vanz, Davy Evans, Gokhan Tekin, Susi Sie, Teun van der Zalm and Roman Hill to tell the story of the evolution of life from the smallest quantum to biological to galactic scales, each using different visual techniques to create these 25 different chapters. I had a chance to chat with Paolo Loeffler to get a bit more context on the evolution of Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, and how ORIGINS was developed and commissioned to play in these projection-based immersive exhibition spaces.
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[00:00:05.458] Kent Bye: The Voices of VR Podcast. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling and the future of spatial computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. So continuing on my series of looking at different immersive stories from South by Southwest 2025, I'm going to be talking about the Voices of VR podcast. I'm going to talk about one project that is really this translation of what would normally be a projection-based immersive art experience that takes place in this really old warehouse that is in Leipzig, Germany. But they'd made a translation of this into a three-channel video installation using these projectors that were really close to the screens. So they're kind of giving a flattened version of what would normally be a much more immersive experience. art installation, but in the context of a small conference room on the third floor of the Fairmont Hotel. So the piece is called Origins, Life's Epic Journey, and was commissioned by Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig. And I had a chance to talk to the executive producer, Paolo Leffler, whose parents actually were responsible for acquiring this building and then transforming it into a digital media arts center and museum within the context of Leipzig, Germany. So this was a piece that was commissioned amongst lots of different animators, and there's a number of different styles, but basically three different main chapters where it's looking at from early, from the smallest quantum level up until getting to life forms. And then it skips ahead, and it goes to the galactic scale, and then it goes back into the biological scale. So you kind of end with the more human... scale type of entities although there are no humans actually featured it's showing these biological organisms and this more speculative biological representations and so it's telling the story of the evolution of life but in this kind of really poetic variety of three main types of art styles that we start to dive into um So we're covering all that and more on today's episode of Voices of VR podcast. So this interview with Apollo happened on Monday, March 10th, 2025 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in.
[00:02:24.605] Paolo Loeffler: Hello, I'm Paolo Löffler, Managing Director at the Digital Arts Center Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig. We're Germany's first immersive and multimedia arts center. Maybe you could give a bit more context as to your background and your journey into the space. Well actually my background is engineering so I'm a mechanical engineer by background but I sort of went into software programming and product development and these kind of things and I don't know like by chances somehow I ended up in now developing these digital experiences for the Kunstkraftwerk and came into this immersive sector and it's I think it's actually It's a bit unexpected, but actually it's also expected in a sense because like my job was always to come up with new digital products, new innovative business models, new solutions, tools. So I mean these experiences are also in a sense some forms of digital products.
[00:03:25.316] Kent Bye: Yeah, maybe you could give a bit more context to the space and like did the space exist already? Were they already doing this or is this something that you brought into the space? Yeah, just a bit more context for how this developed.
[00:03:36.229] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, so the space is a former power plant where coal was actually burned to produce heat and steam for the region and it was a former power plant from the DDR from East Germany and it was just left abandoned and then some investors basically are like passionate people about culture bought this place and transformed it into a place for culture. It then became clear somehow that the goal was to do something a bit new, something a bit more innovative also in that sector and giving the industrial place the new media aspects fitted very well with this a little bit raw industrial beauty. In 2016 the decision was taken to make this a fully projected and immersive venue and a cultural hotspot to experiment with these new multimedia and immersive formats. Since then, in 2016, we kicked off with this immersive focus and then we developed a lot of these immersive experiences. I mean, the typical ones that started all off with the painters, you know, Van Gogh, Hundertwasser, Monet, Klimt. We did also some more cultural heritage shows with the Uffizi Museum from Florence, for example, or the Renaissance topics, or also some more local German artists. And now we're actually experimenting with all kinds of different stories. So we did also something about Alice in Wonderland, a bit more entertaining. Now with Origins, we're stepping into more science, artist-science based combination. And we really try to figure out what kind of storytellings can we enable with this format.
[00:05:21.607] Kent Bye: Nice. And so that's a great overview for the evolution of the space. And so at what point did you come on? Were you there before they made this transition in immersive in 2016? Or did you come after that had already happened?
[00:05:33.577] Paolo Loeffler: Well, actually, the more personal story of mine is actually that it's my parents who built up the place. And so I was always from the beginning somehow related to it and observing from the sideline. And yeah, so I stepped in when like officially last year, but I was already working since three years. getting on experiences, producing new experiences and stuff but since last year I stepped in as managing director and now like my real first large experience was Origins where I basically developed the whole exhibition concept and together with Markus K who has done the artistic direction for all the immersive contents. Yeah, we came up with this.
[00:06:17.739] Kent Bye: Okay, okay. So that gives a bit more context. And so what was your first introduction to like the immersive space? Like, how did you get into this as a possibility? Was it the fact that your parents had this space that was already doing these immersive projects? Or were there other things that got you more interested into pursuing this?
[00:06:34.249] Paolo Loeffler: I think it was like so basically since 2016 we were into this you know it was already from the first time they did this was like oh wow that's actually very cool you can do very cool stuff with it and and there's also the way we used it since then as I said they're experimenting a lot with the different things so we already at that time did of course the experiences we did DJ nights we did immersive ballet and all these kind of things so I was already in there but really I think for me it was more the motivation also to see what is beyond the painters like how can you drive that further to other topics and create different narratives so I don't know and then actually also with Origins the project came up and this gave me also more the push to say well there's actually something a huge potential in there and to do some more of this cool stuff and that brought me in.
[00:07:29.528] Kent Bye: Awesome. So it sounds like you have this space where all these different immersive projects are being exhibited. And when I was in Paris, I had a chance to drop by some of these different immersive places and see different painters. And back at IEEE VR of 2015 in France, actually, they had a Van Gogh type of experience way before the Van Gogh had really got popularized into this whole immersive movement across the United States of all these towns had these exhibition spaces to have these projections. And When I go to them, they were often very like montage based, kind of like a music video, but like immersive space where the space has got this changing vibe that, you know, you are fully immersed into the painting that's all around you, but no explicit narrative structure or even arc to get like a sense of a story. And so I'd love to hear some of your reflections on the space that you came into and seeing that very sparse music video montage approach, and then wanting to try something different with origins.
[00:08:28.496] Paolo Loeffler: Well, I think in general that's very interesting to sort of deconstruct where are the elements for storytelling for such immersive experiences. In general, I see it that way that for the painters, and I think that's a style that works very well, is more this kind of animation of the paintings, you know, and picking up some elements, animating them slightly. I think that works well for the painters because it already gives a more... active representation of these artworks, which are super nice and projected in large, they get more visible also and you can put into scene some more details. So I think for the painters that works very well. And you also need to consider like there are some constraints for the immersive factors that are important. It's first of all the duration. So we always tend to say such an experience should take around 30 minutes. because too much more will be too long for the spatial experience and you cannot try to recreate a whole film story in 30 minutes. Plus of course you don't have the budget to do that because it's a bit different format. So you need to find a narrative that works well in 30 minutes and that does not compete with film because you have large walls and you cannot really recreate these narratives. So it's more about finding a subtle story you can tell that works across all these walls and for us it's also a bit more particular because we have this industrial space so it's not a white cube. You can do some different storytellings in white cubes because you can also do some more game design oriented stories. For our industrial space those don't work as good just because of the projection surfaces. But with Origins what we do is, I think that's quite a nice fit because we are telling the story of the origins of life in like 25 key milestones and each milestone has a unique distinct visual scenery and people can follow this narrative but they are sort of also, it feels quite sweeping and they know okay at which stage they're in but also it doesn't feel forced and fitting to the format. Yeah, so I think that's a little bit the goal, like how can you bring in a subtle narrative without telling a crazy story less in movies, but still have an orientation for the people so they know or feel that there's a beginning and an end and some emotional resonance and some relation to the topic. Nice.
[00:11:01.414] Kent Bye: Origins is being featured here at South by Southwest as part of the spotlight, which implies in some ways that it's been shown or featured at your location already. So maybe you could talk around the original context on which this is shown, because what's showing here at South by Southwest is obviously not a whole projection map of like a full room, but more of like a three-channel video installation with projectors that are able to give some smaller context of some of the key beats that are happening in the story. So when it was first created, though, what was the original context? Is it just a space with the four walls, the ceiling, the floor? How many different channels? How do you start to describe the format of its original exhibition?
[00:11:43.993] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, so the original exhibition launched one month ago. It premiered in Leipzig, in Germany, at our venue. And, well, yeah, it's kind of like, I mean, for those who know Atelier de Lumiere, yeah, it's very similar to this industrial monumental hall style. So we have a very large hall. It's 36 by 18 meters, super high walls, and kind of feels like... it gives the vibe of a church but not in the sense of of a church being a church but it's like an industrial church you know hard to explain i think the images always tell this better but there of course all is much larger and just much more monumental in that sense and of course like we have also mobile immersive box but we just couldn't bring all the setup here to south by southwest it would have been a logistical hassle also and and also i mean we're here at fairmont and hotel room so it's a bit more neutral let's say environment so we decided to go for a more intimate panorama cinema screening setup which i think is totally fine and good also for here for south by southwest as people i mean you know people are also passing by and sort of always in a rush and hurry to see stuff So it's okay to have this a bit smaller setup, while in our venue of course people need to focus more. They also go to a whole exhibition, it's not just the experience. So in our place they really can first dig through the story of this all. So they get much more context, they learn much more about it. There's a parkour of light, sound, digital art. installations as well as a VR experience and sort of this is the the culminating end so it's a different setup you know a different kind of experience and I think for South by there's a little bit more intimate setup fits quite well okay okay yeah so it sounds like that you are able to have both format change but also have other like installations and other things that can you elaborate a little bit on what specific things are adding that context like
[00:13:53.903] Kent Bye: Is it like another art exhibition or displays or how are people being onboarded and offboarded of this experience?
[00:13:59.987] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, so like when we design these exhibitions for us, the immersive experience itself, the projection based experience is very important. But like we are focusing a hybrid approach, so we always want to have also physical installations with it, also even interactive. And for Origins itself, you start off with an introduction to the story of Origins. You have panels where you can read through. We have a video gallery following up, showing already some of the highlights or artistic clips in a more focused way. Then we have different installations like a black hole, for example, and a physical representation, artistic one. We have visuals about a dying star. We have recreated sort of a primordial landscape and primordial forms with very nice 3D modeling and laser effects to recreate a little bit the mood of ancient times. Yeah, it's a very nice VR experience called First Life with Attenborough and so, you know, Forest Origins was intended to be not a natural science exhibition, but a more artistic multimedia exhibition elaborating this topic.
[00:15:15.748] Kent Bye: Yeah, in terms of the story that's being told, you're going from different scales from like the quantum scale and then it jumps up to like the cosmic scale and then you kind of end coming back to the biological scale. So I'm just curious around that structure because it seems very intentional to want to end with this more spectacular aspect of the biological life rather than blasting you out into the universe. where it's a little bit more sparse and abstract, you kind of start with the two more abstract and get more into these ecosystems of entities that are getting more and more complex, bringing us back here to Earth. So I'd love to hear that structure of starting with the smallest and going up to the largest. It reminds me a lot of the powers of 10 as a reference, that's going from the small to the large. But yeah, I'd love to hear the thinking in terms of both the origins of this piece and kind of the structure of it.
[00:16:06.331] Paolo Loeffler: I mean, basically, we're just following nature's structure here. So we just stick to the, let's say, to the scientific story, though. But I think what's interesting is exactly that we have this super immense universe no one can explain that's just endless. And from there, we're getting to the first miniaturized cells, living forms on our planet, and then to beautiful animals. And I think this is a little bit the power of this whole story to see this super complex process coming to life and creating beautiful things in the end. And so for us and also for Markus, that's mainly also the idea to bring reflection of this very complex, unexplainable process in many ways and to spark sort of wonder and curiosity on how life came up. And there is one really intended element to it, which is that we purposely didn't include any humans into the story. This is mainly because in order to show that we are also just a very tiny fraction part of this whole process. I mean, it's been hundreds of millions of years on Earth without humans. and so we're just a tiny part of it and who knows for how long we're going to stay and yeah so that's it yeah and also i mean since all this is an artistic interpretation it also sparks some imagination on maybe this could be on another planet you know taking the same process again and again and yeah so that's the ideas behind
[00:17:45.276] Kent Bye: Nice. And I wanted to dive into some of the artistic expression of this piece. But before I do that, I do want to ask around just to get a ground set in terms of the context for how this piece even came about. Because it sounds like you had this space. You're coming on board. You're starting to become the managing director. This is your first project that you're taking on. What was the starting point for this specific project? Was this your idea? Or was this something that was like, hey, we need to have more narrative driven? What was the catalyst to really go down this path?
[00:18:14.335] Paolo Loeffler: I think, so as I said, my motivation was to look out for different topics in the beginning. So I researched, looked out for a lot of different artists online and styles and so on. And yeah, then came actually across Markus K and saw his Biogenesis artwork on social media and just got me the visual. We have also seen here, we're bringing this visuals of vessels of life, we call it in Origins. but it just struck me visually and I did some research on Markus also and he was very much into the soul, biological processes and his background was basically all in this story and well, to be honest, let's say I just contacted him and said hey, what do you think about the idea of doing an immersive experience together on these kind of topics and for him it felt also like sort of his works life coming together in a narrative and so he was immediately on board and he was like already so prepared in a sense he was just presenting a storyboard with already all the milestones the visual idea he had and so it was sort of a i would say a perfect fit in that sense and then we just developed together onto it and i think it was a very nice collaboration and then we dragged in like as I said he had already the storyboard and the visuals and he knew also already which artists or which styles to include and then it's so nice that this got a very collaborative endeavor I think it's also I mean you can cross check but I think it's also one of the really a production with a very large amount of artists collaborating this I think it's eight in total eight visual artists plus sound and the interesting thing is that everyone has a different technique and style which fits perfectly for a specific scene and we could also deep dive later into the techniques but I think this was a little bit the interesting part on how it started and how it evolved.
[00:20:22.185] Kent Bye: OK. Well, having a half-hour runtime is super convenient for being at a festival like this because you can have people get checked in, and then you start two minutes after that. And then it's a pretty tight turnaround to have that 27-minute piece in a half-hour slot. But it seems like you're able to have this flow in and out. And so when I've gone to some of these different immersive spaces, It was more of like you go in and then you can come and go as you please, like you can stay as long as you want. Is the idea that in your space you want to get people in and out in that half hour? Or are you allowing people, if they want to linger and watch it a second or third time, that they can, if they want to rewatch it from different perspectives?
[00:21:03.485] Paolo Loeffler: No, actually we like if people watch the show multiple times and they just get in there and are stuck. This happens a lot also at our venue in Leipzig. I mean, there we have all running in a continuous loop. So actually people really stay longer and because the first time you understand the idea and the second time you watch it, you understand even more. So it's a very interesting effect. think for South by Southwest let's say people are in a hurry so I think they can pop and have a quick check go out I mean it's not so nice because you don't really get into the story right you just see the visual effects which is good but I think what's the nicest is when people pop in, and they just stay. And then they didn't expect it, and they just stay, watch it until the end. And I think that's a very cool effect, because it shows that they get to enjoy it, and they are stuck with it.
[00:22:02.210] Kent Bye: Yeah. And you mentioned some of the different techniques. Were there any generative AI techniques? Or what other techniques were the artists using to produce this?
[00:22:09.775] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, actually we're using the three main different techniques. What many people don't get is that actually a large part of it are liquid visuals. So, I mean, it's not CGI. Those are, let's say, inks and chemicals, reaction recorded with a video camera at high frames and a lot of post-processing and that stuff afterwards. So these are so-called analog effects. And then we have one part which is sort of Markus' key scene, the AI. This is generative art by Markus. And then we have a lot of 3D design based stuff. And the thing is, artistically this resonates also well with the story because we're using the liquid animations particularly for the whole cosmos. chaos and fluid related things. AI part is symbolizing also a little bit the try and error nature of this evolutionary process. And the 3D animation fits very well with the building of complex structures and the cells, the animals and life forms. So this reflects also quite well the narrative.
[00:23:26.109] Kent Bye: OK. So the other thing about this piece is that it's with projectors. And then the projectors were actually really quite close to the screen. And I was like, where's the light coming from? Because I went up and found that it looked like it was a lens that is distorting it to the screen. It was really quite close to the screen. Normally, you have projectors that are further away. So I imagine that when you're at your location back home, that it's actually a completely different type of projector. But I also noticed that you were sponsored or had some support from Epson. So I'd just love to hear how that came about in terms of working with Epson as a collaborator in this piece.
[00:24:01.966] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, it's true. You noticed well, so in our space we have different distances so we can use different projectors. But we're very happy that we just found these very short throw projectors here from Epson. And basically they supported us with bringing them here. And I think it's also the most short throw we at least have found. So it fitted perfectly the setup. And this is how it came. And then Epson said, hey, we're going to support you with that. You can use them and have them for the setup. So we're super happy about that and thanks a lot to Epson here.
[00:24:34.834] Kent Bye: Do you have a relationship with Epson already?
[00:24:37.577] Paolo Loeffler: Yes, yes, we have already a relationship with Epson. I think they're well connected in the industry everywhere. And I think this also shows that they are not just a hardware seller. They're also trying to or they're building up relations with all the promoters, producers, creators and like work also on the people dimension. And so this is a nice showcase where they basically support also beyond.
[00:25:03.440] Kent Bye: You said it's the shortest throw projector you've seen. It's certainly the one that I've seen. I'm not really in the projection-based scene much, but yeah, it was just really striking for how clear it looked based upon how they're able to be that close, but yet still distort all the light so that it still feels like it has equal resolution throughout. But I didn't... do a close analysis. But when you have that type of distortion, are you able to get the same type of pixel density that's uniform across? Or is this something that has a little bit of distortion effects?
[00:25:35.239] Paolo Loeffler: No, no. I think I really like the visual resolution of how it ends up. It's even 4K. So that's very cool and I don't think so. I think it's a very good setup. The funny thing about those projectors is they are not made for immersive spaces in that sense. They are made for home entertainment. So they are actually more like their luxury product offer for home projectors that you don't have to put on the wall or whatever. You can just place on your sideboard and project onto the wall. So we're a little bit abusing those, but I think it fits very well for the setup.
[00:26:12.053] Kent Bye: Nice. And so what's next for this project?
[00:26:15.796] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, so first of all, we're super excited to get some international resonance here from all the different continents and countries to see how the story also resonates with all these different backgrounds and cultures. And then our goal is to tour it. So we're working hard on that to see where we will bring Origins next and hopefully all around the world. That's the goal. I mean, it's running in Germany until end of June for sure, maybe getting extended. And then we're looking for venues and other people who would like to support also in touring Origins.
[00:26:54.864] Kent Bye: Nice. And finally, what do you think the ultimate potential of this type of immersive art and immersive media might be and what it might be able to enable?
[00:27:04.451] Paolo Loeffler: Yeah, I like this question actually a lot because some say, you know, it's just a hype, you see these venues popping up everywhere and how long are gonna people like the immersive format? I actually think it's giving a new value proposition in a sense that, you know, cinema is being done more and more at homes through Netflix, so people don't really need to go out to cities anymore for cinemas. Or they do less at least. I think museums are a little bit struggling with adopting to these multimedia formats and also transporting topics in a more engaging, emotional and active way. And so from my perspective these immersive experiences have really the potential to create a cinema museum or learning about a topic and experience attraction things. So I think they're combining all these elements when developed correctly. And I think this is a very nice mix and a very nice offer for cities and for people to engage with topics in a new way.
[00:28:09.831] Kent Bye: Great. And is there anything else that's left unsaid that you'd like to say to the broader immersive community?
[00:28:14.278] Paolo Loeffler: I think I'm good. I hope that was interesting and I gave you some glimpse into the immersive projection-based immersive world. But yeah, hope you enjoyed it.
[00:28:25.344] Kent Bye: Yeah, for sure. And I really enjoyed watching through the piece. And yeah, I kind of wish I could see it in the full immersive context and to be totally immersed into everything. But still enjoyed seeing more of the three-channel screen-based installation here. So yeah, thanks again for joining me here on the podcast to help break it all down.
[00:28:41.993] Paolo Loeffler: Thank you very much.
[00:28:43.663] Kent Bye: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Voices of VR podcast. And there is a lot that's happening in the world today. And the one place that I find solace is in stories, whether that's a great movie, a documentary, or immersive storytelling. And I love going to these different conferences and festivals and seeing all the different work and talking to all the different artists And sharing that with the community, because I think there's just so much to be learned from listening to someone's process to hear about what they want to tell a story about. And even if you don't have a chance to see it, just to have the opportunity to hear about a project that you might have missed or to learn about it. And so this is a part of my own creative process of capturing these stories and sharing it with a larger community. And if you find that valuable and want to sustain this oral history project that I've been doing for the last decade, then please do consider supporting me on Patreon at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. Every amount does indeed help sustain the work that I'm doing here, even if it's just $5 a month. That goes a long way for allowing me to continue to make these trips and to to ensure that I can see as much of the work as I can and to talk to as many of the artists as I can and to share that with the larger community. So you can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voices of VR. Thanks for listening. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling in the future of spatial computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. So continuing my series of looking at different immersive stories from South by Southwest 2025, I'm going to start to dive into a number of different experiences that were shown or are available on the Apple Vision Pro. So the first piece is called Cosmos in Focus, and it was produced by Atlantic Studios, which is formerly known as Atlantic Productions. And I had a chance to talk to Aditi, who was the director of this piece. And it's kind of like a educational experience where it is taking you through a number of different images of deep space that were shot from the James Webb Telescope, which is out in space and taking all these really amazing high resolution photos going further than we've ever seen before. And it's contextualizing it within the context of what feels like you're in a planetarium context and you're able to kind of zoom in through this portaling effect that is kind of like a mashup between like the powers of 10 movie where you're going through all these different scales, but also combined with like the Google Maps where you're zooming in and out and there's this tiling effect. And so they're swapping in and out higher and higher resolution photos as they're taking all these different images from all these different satellites from across space and time. And they're kind of blending them together to give this really amazing effect that you're kind of really zooming in to this point of focus. And you learn a little bit more about each of these different points. And they also have like these 3D models of the James Webb telescope where you're able to learn a little bit more. So they're really trying to create this arc and journey where you have these opportunities to dive deeper, to get more information if you want. But also it's kind of like this linear journey and arc of learning a little bit more around things. these images and to really set this broader relational context for putting what would normally be like these JPEG images that you're looking at and putting it within the context of where it's at in the sky, but also all these other previous images that's being contextualized along with it. So real transformation of what would normally be these pretty mundane JPEGs. I mean, they're spectacular, but they're even more spectacular when you see them in the context of where they're at in the sky. So we cover all that and more on today's episode of the Voices VR podcast. So this interview with Aditi happened on Monday, March 10th, 2025 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling and the future of spatial computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. So continuing my series of looking at different immersive stories from South by Southwest 2025, There's a number of different experiences that were either being exhibited on the Apple Vision Pro there at the exhibition, or they are generally available on the Apple Vision Pro. So this piece, Otto's Planet, it was actually premiered at Venice Immersive 2024. It actually picked up the special jury prize. It's kind of like the second place prize at Venice Immersive. And it's available on both the Quest platform and the Apple Vision Pro. If you happen to have an Apple Vision Pro, highly, highly recommend checking it out. On that platform, I think that the high resolution and the eye tracking, it's just a little bit more fluid interactions that you can have there on the Apple Vision Pro. But it's also available on the Quest platform, and that's where I first saw it, and it's just as strong as a piece there, but it's a little bit lower resolution. But I think the interaction design is a little bit more dialed in when it comes to the Apple Vision Pro. This is a really amazing like tabletop scale animation where you have this conceit of a planet that you can rotate all around. And so you're seeing Otto, who is this laid back character. He's got a pet that is following around and he's playing with it. And then all of a sudden there's a visitor, kind of like this colonizing force that is trying to take over and seize different parts of the land. And so there's a number of different interactions that are happening, some miscommunications along the way. And the story kind of develops from there. It's conflict that is kind of resolved by the end. But they're traversing across this little globe-like sphere. And you are asked as a viewer to rotate that when there may be multiple points of focus on different points of the sphere. So you're kind of like this virtual cinematographer that is watching the story as it's unfolding, but also able to change the perspective. Sometimes it force changes the perspective if you might be missing something, but more or less you have a lot of control to change the way that you're actually viewing the story as it's unfolding. It's not changing the story much. There are some interactive parts, but it's mostly a way that you can change your perspective on how the story is unfolding. So really quite innovative and a really beautiful story simply told and highly recommend it if you have either their Quest or an Apple Vision Pro. And we talk a little bit about some of those differences and actually how they're having a lot more success on Apple Vision Pro than on the Quest, which I think kind of speaks to the larger ecosystem changes that have been happening on the Quest platform where they're really deprioritizing third-party apps, focusing on their own first-party apps with Horizon Worlds and kind of flooding the system with both promoting Horizon Worlds as well as with these App Lab applications. And they did actually get featured by Apple on their store. So anyway, lots to dig into with this really beautiful piece called Otto's Planet on today's episode of the Voices of VR podcast. So this interview with Gwinell happened on Sunday, March 9th, 2025 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in. Hello, my name is Kent Bye, and welcome to the Voices of VR podcast. It's a podcast that looks at the structures and forms of immersive storytelling and the future of spatial computing. You can support the podcast at patreon.com slash voicesofvr. So continuing my series of looking at different immersive stories from Southwest Southwest 2025, And also this is my last episode in this series. And so this was like my third favorite experience from South by Southwest, but it was one of my favorite conversations just because Jake Olson is a really dynamic, new immersive filmmaker that's coming on the scene. He's coming from like more of a filmmaking background. He's done a lot of music videos and advertising. So he's got like a production pipeline that is really dialed in. And so he actually did a lot of pre-production on this piece that feels like it's a music video, right? And it's one of the more compelling cinematic 180 videos that I've seen so far. Lots of different hyper-stylized movements, but more than anything, he's telling a really compelling story that is juxtaposing the differences between a life living in the country where there's less opportunities, but also more connection to the land around you, and then moving into the city where there's more opportunities, but it's more chaotic and a lot of visual noise around there. So it's a spatial story that poetically tells a story. And Jake's also... a musician and so he specifically composed the musical track to fit the story and so you really have this tying together of both the story the spatial storytelling and the music and also all this grammar of storytelling that he's pulling in he did a lot of pre-production animatics to be able to really make sure that the camera moves would be to motion sickness inducing and also just a lot of preparation like he actually like had everything edited before he even started to shoot anything And I think it really shows when you watch it. It's just a really amazingly tight experience that I found myself coming back to again and again. I had access to it before the festival started and I watched it like three times just because it was just a really compelling piece. I found myself coming back to it. And it's sponsored by Vimeo because Apple getting licensed to some other different proprietary formats for the full Apple immersive video. And there's lots of different potential distribution options that are still getting fleshed out. But I think this kind of represents like a new phase of immersive filmmaking because with Apple Vision Pro, it's a really great target device, really high resolution, like 16K is what he can render out to. And it just looks brilliant when you watch it. So I had a chance to talk to Jake and it was a real pleasure to hear a lot more around some of the gear that he's using as well as his whole production pipeline and just his entry into the immersive filmmaking space. So we're covering all that and more on today's episode of the Voices of VR podcast. So this interview with Jake happened on Tuesday, March 11th, 2025 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. So with that, let's go ahead and dive right in.
