Entertainment

444 episodes

Picture of Curtis Hickman and his book about Hyper-Reality.

#1237: The VOID’s Curtis Hickman on his book “Hyper-Reality: The Art of Designing Impossible Experiences”

by kentbyeAugust 3, 2023

The VOID was a location-based entertainment company that shut down during the pandemic and maybe coming back at some point. The VOID Co-founder & Chief Creative Officer Curtis Hickman convinced his partners to allow him to reflect upon and share...

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screenshot of Cosmonious High VR game showing off the new vision accessibility update settings

#1232: Low-Vision VR Design Innovations & XR Accessibility in Owlchemy Labs’ “Cosmonious High”

by kentbyeJuly 13, 2023

Owlchemy Labs has been on the leading edge of accessible VR game design since 2016. starting with Job Simulator, and then following up with key accessibility features for Vacation Simulator, and Cosmonious High. They were at XR Access Symposium...

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Cover graphic and branding for the Tribeca Festival running from June 7-18, 2023

#1220: Tribeca Immersive 2023 Preview with Curator Ana Brzezińska

by kentbyeJune 7, 2023

I had a chance to speak with Tribeca Immersive curator Ana Brzezińska to break down each one of this year’s selection of 13 immersive stories. I’ll be in NYC from June 7-16th covering the festival, and so stay tuned for more coverage...

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Branding graphic for SXSW 2023 with the dates March 10-19

#1208: 2023 SXSW Immersive Recap and Highlights with Programmer Blake Kammerdiener

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

In my final SXSW interview, I had a chance to catch up with SXSW Immersive Programmer Blake Kammerdiener to do a retrospective look at this year’s program, some of the challenges for VR exhibition, his design intentions for how to intermingle the...

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Picture of a woman wearing a Quest 2 and a fashionable haptic vest while point cloud images are projected onto her and the screen behind her.

#1207: “Temporal World” Blends Touch with Sound Design for a Unique Haptisonic Experience about Memory

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Chloé Lee’s immersive art piece Temporal World: A Haptisonic Virtual Reality Memory World uses a custom-made haptic vest that is intimately integrated into the ambient sound design of this point-cloud, spatial exploration around memory. Lee wanted...

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#1204: Blending Open World Exploration with VR Immersive Theatre Drama with “Find WiiLii” in International Collaboration with GiiOii Immersive Studio and Ferryman Collective

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

The Ferryman Collective were back at SXSW presenting another immersive theatre piece in virtual reality, but this time they were translating an adapted a piece called Find WiiLii that was originally produced in South Korea by GiiÖii Immersive Studio...

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Shot of Miro Shot band on stage at a SXSW bar playing a mixed reality gig for seven people sitting down wearing VR headsets.

#1202: Miro Shot’s Second Mixed Reality Concert at SXSW: An Intimate, Live Performance Ritual

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Roman Rappak’s Miro Shot band returned to SXSW again this year for an updated mixed reality, live concert performance with a much needed upgrade from the high-latency and outdated GearVR headsets to the much more cutting-edge HTC Elite mixed...

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The letters JCPR&C on a blue background, which is Jessie Cohen's PR company.

#1201: Jessie Cohen’s Oral History of Public Relations for Immersive Stories from 2013 to 2023

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Jessie Cohen started representing immersive stories back at Sundance 2013 when she was working for the Sundance Film Festival for the New Frontier section. She eventually transitioned from trying to represent every New Frontier project through the...

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#1200: Defining Process-Relational Architecture with Andreea Ion CojoCaru: Spatial Design as a Participatory Improv Performance

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Andreea Ion CojoCaru is a unique blend of VR developer and practicing architect in both virtual and physical spaces, but who is also driven by deep philosophical questions and her own embodied curiosities exploring the boundaries between the virtual...

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Screenshot of Whipped Cream music video shows a volumetrically captured man and woman reaching towards each other while standing in a virtual field with mountains in the background and rose pedals raining from the sky.

#1199: “Whipped Cream: The Dark” Interactive Music Video Blending Volumetric Capture with Spatial Locomotion

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Departure Lounge is volumetric studio based in Vancouver, Canada that is collaborating with the Monstercat music label to experiment with XR technologies in making both 2D music videos and more volumetric immersive experiences that they were showing...

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Picture of the Aespa K-Pop band captured with stereo 180-video while dancing within a high-res, virtually-generated world

#1198: AmazeVR is Bringing High-Res, Immersive Concert Experiences to the Quest Starting with K-Pop Band Aespa

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Last year, AmazeVR launched their Into the Hottiverse virtual concert experience at SXSW featuring Megan Thee Stallion before taking it on a VR concert tour at AMC theaters around the United States. This year AmazeVR is back with an even more...

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Outside picture of the Phi Gallery building at a corner in downtown Montreal

#1197: Myriam Achard’s Industry-Leading, Immersive Curation for Montreal’s Phi Centre

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Myriam Achard is the Chief of New Media Partnership as well as PR Officer at Montreal’s Phi Centre. Part of Achard’s job is to travel around the work searching for the best immersive storytelling, art, music at festivals and gatherings...

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Picture of a cute animated egg character running and escaping danger and mayhem with bombs, lasers, snakes, buzzsaws, snakes, bombs, dragons, and a giant tidal wave.

#1196: “Eggscape” is a Groundbreaking, Mixed Reality, Multi-Player, Table Top Platformer Aiming for LBE

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Eggscape is a mixed reality, table top platformer game similar to Lucky’s Tale, but since it’s mixed reality then there’s a lot more of moving your body through space as a control dynamic. I previously got the whole backstory about Eggscape from...

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Screenshot of Figural Bodies performance that includes abstract avatars, and two video feeds featuring disabled dancers wearing motion capture gear

#1195: Exploring Non-Normative Avatars with Disabled Dancers in “Figural Bodies” Research Project

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Figural Bodies is a research project out of Goldsmiths college that uses motion captured dance with disabled, non-disabled, and neurodivergent dancers in order to explore non-normative avatar representations as well as the accessibility challenges...

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Jailbirds poster featuring a couple of the animated characters within the context of a jail cell.

#1194: “Jailbirds” is a Well-Told, Magical Realist Story Using Character-Driven Animation and Stylized Cinematography

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Jailbirds is a really well-told, three-part episodic animated VR piece that uses the spatial affordances of VR to tell a compelling metaphoric story about the escapist qualities of virtual reality. It’s a character-driven story set within a prison...

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Three mobile phone screenshots showing speculative future video segments from the Concensus Gentium cinematic AR piece.

#1193: Phone-based Interactive Story “Consensus Gentium” Takes Top SXSW Prize for Chilling Speculative Worldbuilding Exploring AI Bias, Surveillance, & Biometric Agency

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Consensus Gentium is took him the Grand Jury prize for SXSW Immersive 2023, and it’s the most immersive phone-based experience that I’ve ever had. The Latin title translated means that “If everyone believes it, it must be true,” and it’s a near-term...

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Pictures of five people in five locations wearing VR headsets while watching immersive story experiences distributed by Astrea

#1191: Closing the Distribution Gap: Atlas V’s Astrea Aims to Port, Publish, & Market the Best of Immersive Stories

by kentbyeApril 3, 2023

Astrea is the publishing arm of Atlas V that aims to close the current gap in distribution for immersive stories that debut on the film festival circuit, but then often don’t make it wider distribution. There’s a lot of optimization, porting, and...

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Posters for two 360 videos including Behind the Dish showing food close-ups, and picture of John F Kennedy in the car just before he was shot for a JFK Memento VR doc chronicling his assassination.

#1190: Targo Stories’ Immersive Documentary Spatial Innovations with “Behind the Dish” & “JFK Memento”

by kentbyeApril 2, 2023

Targo Stories continues to innovate with novel spatial storytelling techniques in both of the projects that were submitted and selected to SXSW. The Behind the Dish series uses micro lenses to give a uniquely fresh and giant look at food being...

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Shot of photogrammetry scanned mushroom within a virtual forest that is a screencapture from Forager.

#1189: “Forager” Volumetric Timelapse of Mushroom Growth Hits a Sweet Spot of Touch, Smell, & Immersive Storytelling

by kentbyeApril 2, 2023

Forager is a short immersive story that shows the four stages of development of a mushroom through a groundbreaking volumetric timelapse that takes place within a game engine. They had to innovate on automating their photogrammetry timelapse...

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Older Ukrainian man standing within a bombed out bathroom while staring within a 360 video camera.

#1188: Emotionally Evocative, Virtual Eye Gazing with Ukrainians in Bombed Out Buildings in “Fresh Memories: The Look”

by kentbyeApril 2, 2023

Fresh Memories: The Look is a 360-video about the war in Ukraine that takes the deceptively simple idea of having Ukrainian citizens gaze into a 360-degree camera within the context of a bombed out home, workplace, or school that's juxtaposed...

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Sonya Haskins standing in front of Echo VR ad from Oculus Connect 2019

#1173: Echo VR Reflections from 2019 by Sonya Haskins + My Thoughts of Echo VR Shut Down Announcement

by kentbyeFebruary 17, 2023

I dig into my interview backlog archive from April 2019 at F8 (a month before the Quest launch) to publish this conversation with Sonya Haskins, who shares her journey into VR through eSports and the Echo VR community. Haskins is a writer who...

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Picture of the opening of the IDFA DocLab R&D Summit taken from the balcony showing a theatre full of people in the audience listening to a women on stage speaking.

#1169: IDFA DocLab Founder Caspar Sonnen Reflects on 2022 Program, Industry Trends, and Distribution Challenges

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

In my final interview from IDFA DocLab 2022, I had a chance to catch up with DocLab founder Caspar Sonnen to reflect on the 2022 program and the ecological points made by the piece Okawari, to comment on the “Nervous System” in this...

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Screen capture virtual trees painted with Open Brush on the beach as a monsoon comes in for the "Anticipation of Rain" VR story.

#1168: “The Anticipation of Rain” Combines Open Brush Landscape VR Painting of a Monsoon with Custom Scents

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

After suffering a paralyzing viral infection, XR Director Naima Karim started to notice the natural world around her in a more visceral way, She “experienced the monsoon even more intensely than usual: the initial gusts of wind, the rapidly...

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Screenshot of the MIT Open Documentary Lab's website showing off their different initiatives.

#1166: Sarah Wolozin’s Journey to Directing the MIT Open Documentary Lab

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

Sarah Wolozin is the director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, and I had a chance to catch up with her at the IDFA DocLab 2022 in order to record her journey from being a storytelling to working at MIT’s Open DocLab. Here’s the mission statement of...

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$Picture of LED light strip immersive pyramid installation in a small room that's being diffracted and creating ghostly symmetrical triangular repetitions.$

#1165: XR Installation “Ikhet (Sound Pyramid)” Combines Immersive Sound, Visceral Haptics, & Diffracted Kaleidoscopic Visuals

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

Ikhet (Sound Pyramid) is a 14-channel spatial audio installation that included ButtKicker Haptics, LED tubes with diffractive glasses giving a ghostly, analog Holographic effect, experimental field recordings, and a harsh electronic music track that...

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#1164: Live XR Sketch Comedy “Bag of Worms” Blends Realities for Surrealist Humor Reflecting on Virtual Violence

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

Bag of Worms is a live XR sketch comedy performance developed by Matt Romein in collaboration with Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey that showed as a part of the ONX + DocLab MoCap Stage at IDFA DocLab 2022. It’s difficult to fully describe the...

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#1163: Live XR Performance Experiments with ONX Studios and DocLab Motion Capture Stage at IDFA 2022

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

The ONX + DocLab MoCap Stage at IDFA DocLab 2022 featured a number of experimental XR performances using a high-end OptiTrack – Motion Capture System within a theatrical stage with a screen that was projecting the virtual representations. Each of...

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#1162: Talk on Motion Capture in Immersive Stories + Panel at IDFA DocLab: “Capturing Reality in Motion”

by kentbyeDecember 22, 2022

I was invited to give a keynote at the Capturing Reality in Motion session as a part of the ONX + DocLab MoCap Stage. I gave a 20-minute talk reflecting on how some of the different projects on the film festival circuit have been using motion...

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#1161: The Many Immersive Documentary Innovations of “In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats:” Winner of IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats is a landmark immersive documentary that seamlessly integrates so many different immersive storytelling techniques and XR modalities earning it the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction. You’re transported back...

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#1159: “With These Hands” VR Installation Explores Sexual Violence Stories with New Models of Consent for Audience & Production

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

With These Hands is a VR installation that “shares challenging, complex and under discussed stories of sexual assault and recovery. It explores the role of listening in the recovery of both survivors and those responsible for sexual harm.” It was...

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#1158: Searching for Post-Colonial Identity in an Experimental Oral Knowledge & Multi-Media Project “Ghana Airways”

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

Ghana Airways by Hakeem Adam was shown at IDFA DocLab 2022 as an experimental, non-linear audio installation with accompanying visuals, but it is also available online on Bandcamp as a linear, one-hour, 3-part audio series. The piece is Adam’s...

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#1157: Capturing the Digital Culture of a Virtual Help Desk for the Elderly in “New Update Available – Version 2.1”

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

New Update Available – Version 2.1 is a VR installation piece that blends contemporary audio documentary recordings of computer help sessions for the elderly, but then recreates these characters in VR within a speculative future where elders...

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1156: Winner of IDFA DocLab Digital Storytelling Award “He Fucked the Girl Out of Me” Explores Trauma in 2D Retro Game Walking Simulator

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

Taylor McCue’s He Fucked the Girl Out of Me (play for free on itch.io) won the IDFA DocLab Digital Storytelling Award at DocLab 2022. It is a deeply personal story and powerful exploration of shame and trauma that uses a unique blend of retro 2D...

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#1155: Polymorf’s Multi-Sensory “Symbiosis” Explores Speculative Futures Inspired by Philosopher Donna Haraway

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

Polymorf's Symbiosis is a multi-sensory VR experience that uses soft-body haptics, a bespoke, microdose smell dispersal system, and different tastes. The piece debuted at IDFA DocLab 2021 (see my previous interview here), and it has a sold out run...

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#1154: Visualizing Melting Glaciers in 360 Video Story in “Once a Glacier” + Mixing Motion Capture Dance and Indigenous Poetry

by kentbyeDecember 21, 2022

Once a Glacier is a 360 video that visualizes the before and after a glacier melts over the course of a single human life time. Director Jiabao then expanded this piece as a part of a live motion capture dance performance that showed at The ONX +...

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#1153: Imagining the Future of a 15-year old in 30 years in “Horizon” One-on-One Immersive Theater Piece

by kentbyeDecember 12, 2022

Horizon is a one-on-one immersive theater piece where an audience member is asked a series of questions by a 15-year old to imagine their future 30 years from now in 2052. It ends up being a world building exercise where the audience has to create...

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#1151: Shooting an Immersive Doc the War on Ukraine’s Culture with NowHere Media

by kentbyeDecember 1, 2022

You Destroy. We Create: The War on Ukraine’s Culture is a 360-video documentary by NowHere Media & Meta’s VR for Good that was released on Meta Quest TV on November 30th. Shot over the course of 2 weeks and a distance of 4000 kilometers by co...

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#1148: Golf+ VR: Making Golf More Accessible & Partnering with Top Golfers & Sports Stars

by kentbyeNovember 4, 2022

The seeds of Golf+ VR started with founder Ryan Engle creating an iOS ARKit app to help read the golf putting green topology to give a suggested path to help improve his puts, but the lack of demand caused a pivot into moving into a professional...

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#1146: Brad Lynch’s Journey as a VR Hardware Analyst: Valve Deckard, Speculative Patent Research, & Hardware Leaks

by kentbyeOctober 18, 2022

Brad Lynch has described his SadlyItsBradly YouTube channel as a speculation and prediction channel focusing on the next generation VR hardware, and it has been providing some of the most insightful and detailed VR hardware analysis in the XR...

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#1144: Venice Immersive Panel on The Art of Reviewing Immersive Art and Entertainment

by kentbyeOctober 11, 2022

This is the 26th & last episode of my Venice Immersive 2022 coverage, and I wanted to end with this discussion amongst film and immersive critics about the various challenges for reviewing and critiquing immersive art and entertainment. This is a...

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#1143: VRChat World Builder Fins and his 3 Experiences in Venice Immersive 2022: “Treasure Heist,” “Magic Heist,” and “District Roboto”

by kentbyeOctober 11, 2022

VRChat world builder Fins had 3 experiences in Venice Immersive 2022 with one in competition (Treasure Heist), and two in the Worlds Gallery (Magic Heist and District Roboto). Fins comes from an illustration and concept artist background, and so...

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#1142: Scene-by-Scene Breakdown of “Kindred” Exploring Themes of LGBTQ+ Identity and Family

by kentbyeOctober 11, 2022

Kindred is a short and sweet experience that explores issues of non-binary, gender-questioning, and LGBTQ+ identities in the context of family. It’s an animated piece that manages to be both general and universal in it’s themes, but you learn at the...

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