Everything Immersive This Week (9/6/20)
Come dream with us
I had this dream the other night.
I was looking for Landon Zakheim, co-creator of the Overlook Film Festival, on an unfamiliar social media interface. When I located him I teleported into a cartoon loft, where a cartoon version of Landon — one without legs and whose hands floated in front of his body without being attached to his arms but totally recognizable as my friend — was fiddling with an invisible controller.
He could hear me, but couldn’t see me. So I invited him to a place we could both go and look at some art. He agreed, and I opened a portal into another universe and we both stepped through. After about a minute of motionless travel we arrived out in the desert, deep into the playa of Black Rock City. There I taught him how to fly, and once he got the hang of it we hopped from world to world. sometimes bringing strangers with us and at one point slipping across the boarder of BRC to go to the happiest place we know on earth.
Only it wasn’t a dream.
It was AltSpace. It is Burning Man. But it did happen.
Seriously. AltSpace is having a moment thanks to the BRCvr project. There are more universes in Burning Man’s Multiverse experiment this weekend, and there are alternate VR social spaces out there. Venice VR is using VR Chat, which is the favorite of a lot of indie coders and creators who have access to good PC VR rigs. Yet right now? For my sensibilities as someone who cares less about the fidelity of graphics and more about how well the sandbox at hand facilitates human interaction?
Let’s just say I wasn’t all that surprised that 90 minutes passed by in the blink of an eye.
(For an extensive list of BRCvr worlds to visit, complete with links, turn to no other than Kent Bye of Voices of VR, who I got to spend part of the man burn with.)
Anyway, that’s not all that is going on right now in the world. In fact, Spooky Season is around the corner and every part of the map is starting to get that Fall vibe with some socially distanced seasonal action. Get ready to drive into some sketchy situations. Okay… they only seem sketchy. We’ll have more soon enough.
And finally, for those who made it this far. The Tension Experience and iConfidant creators (that would be the Saw franchise’s Darren Lynn Bousman and his merry band) have set loose a new ARG for the season One Day Die. If mindgames are your thing, they will definitely play with you.
-Noah Nelson, Publisher
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ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK
The highly anticipated AREA 15 will open its doors in Las Vegas on September 17th, kicking off a rollout of the immersive entertainment hub that will last into next year and the debut of Meow Wolf Las Vegas aka Omega Mart.
This week, Area 15 CEO Winston Fisher and Chief Creative Officer Michael Beneville join host Noah Nelson to talk about the road that led here and what to expect from Area 15’s rollout.
FROM EI: SHOWS, EVENTS, & EXPERIENCES
Have a show or event you’d like to see here? Submit at EverythingImmersive.com
London
- We Sing/I SangA hivemind grapples with its past in this interactive opera.
- The Enchanted Mirror
- The Hunt for the Cheshire Cat
- Moriarty’s Game: The Professor’s Invitation
Orlando
- Scream n’ Stream
Drive-thru, socially distanced haunt bringing spooky season back to Central Florida - Infected
A Horror Audio Drama performed entirely socially distant
Atlanta
- HEREafter, Episode 2A drive-in performance. A grief circle. A healing cypher atop an empty parking garage.
Los Angeles
- Freeform’s Halloween Road
Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Interactive Livestream
- OBJECTIVITYWhen our world feels unstable, what do we choose to hold onto?
- PaintingsAt what point do your actions define your character beyond repair?
- KevinYour coworker was your best friend. Okay, not really your best friend. Just, a very good friend.
Podplay (At-Home)
- What Life Gives YouAn end of summer audio-sensory piece designed to be experienced in the place where you live.
Virtual Reality
- Venice VR Expanded
The cream of the VR crop - Burning Man: The Multiverse
There are more worlds than this
Reviews
Yeah we do those still
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There’s a great idea at the heart of Dacha Theatre’s :robot_face: but it isn’t given enough room to breathe. Which is to say: we hope this show gets developed some more, as they could really have something on their hands. Publisher Noah Nelson, master of third person writing, has some notes.
There’s little argument that Darkfield are the masters of immersive audio, and if you haven’t had a chance to experience their workout in the world, the new Darkfield Radio project is going to correct that.
Our own Laura Hess, while impressed with the fidelity of the experience, didn’t feel like the story landed quite how it could have.
The performers in Strange Bird Immersive’s first full online production The Strange Secret of Mr. Adrian Rook have charm to spare. Sadly the show itself doesn’t take advantage of the Zoom format in a way that let’s much more than that charm be put on display. Executive Editor Kathryn Yu has our review.
News From around the Immersiverse
Appropriately enough for Labor day weekend we start with a labor story: there’s a union drive underway at Meow Wolf that includes employees from the Santa Fe, Las Vegas, and Denver branches. The Meow Wolf Workers Collective would be part of the Communications Workers of America once established.
The Denver Post has a great article about the unfolding drive, including statements from the union organizers and one attributed to the co-CEOs of the company. The social media constellation of Meow Wolf employees and management is abuzz as this latest chapter in the life of the artist collective turned billion-dollar company unfolds.
Of course, that’s not the only Meow Wolf related news. As noted in the podcast this week Area 15, future home of the Omega Mart aka Meow Wolf Las Vegas, is holding a soft opening on Sep. 17th. Learn more about it on this week’s podcast, above.
Watch that video.
If you are not charmed by that you might just be dead inside.
AVORE’s The Line first made a splash at the 2019 Venice VR exhibition, and this week took home an Emmy for “Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Programming.” The Line is available on Steam and Oculus platforms.
Finally, let’s close on some good labor news: the California assembly passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2257, which rolls back some of the restrictions on freelancers introduced in AB 5 this past year.
Those of you who have been following this story know that AB 5 was ostensibly aimed at Uber and Lyft, but was written in such a way that it nuked freelance writers, musicians, and others. A good part of that damage has been undone, but not everything is back to the way it was before AB 5. (Nor have any of the underlying systemic issues which AB 5 was hamfistedly trying to address been dealt with.) The new rules around performing artists are written in a way that appear to still categorize actors as employees by default. Further analysis is required by legal experts. In short: it’s not over yet, but a lot of writers and musicians are breathing sighs of relief right now.
NOW FUNDING
The Club Drosselmeyer 1943 Radio Broadcast
An interactive radio show, an ARG puzzle hunt, and a Nutcracker in Swingtime!
The holidays will never be canceled, not when Green Door Labs is on the case. The creators of the annual Club Drosselmeyer event are hoping you’ll tune in to their Kickstarter and help them broadcast the signal that will save Christmas.
Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.
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