NoPro’s 10 Most Anticipated New Immersive Works of 2024 (Part I)

It’s the question we get asked the MOST hear at NoPro: what are you looking forward to? And the truth is, for most of the ten years that we’ve been in print, half the time we have no idea what’s coming more than a few weeks around the corner.

Luckily that has started to change, somewhat, as theatrical companies seek longer runs, VR developers create more ambitious projects with longer promotional cycles, and the seasonal calendar stabilizes as the shock waves of the high pandemic wear off.

For the first half of 2024 the NoPro team has tagged TEN works that we think warrant the attention of immersive enthusiasts. Some are signature works from regional luminaries, others are standouts on the international stage. And yes, there’s VR in the mix here as well.

Something you won’t find: things that are exclusively headed to the Apple Vision Pro. This just so happens to be dropping on the same day as initial reviews of the new headset, but aside from a few ports of VR/AR experiences we already love (like Demeo) there haven’t been a lot of things announced for the new platform yet that really catch our eye. That’s not saying there won’t be, it’s just clear to us that the launch is a bit like the early days of the iPhone and Apple Watch: no one really knows what it’s for yet.

That will change, maybe in time for something to hit the “Most Anticipated of 2024 Part II” later in the year.

— Noah J. Nelson, Founder & Publisher

Here’s all the places you’ll go with us this time out:

• Tokyo
• Las Vegas
• Wales
• London
• Denver
• San Francisco
• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Virtual Reality

We’ve arranged this edition based on expected premiere/release dates, so as you dive deeper you head into the future…future…future.

teamLab Borderless — teamLab
Feb 9, Tokyo, Japan

It’s easy to look at images of teamLab’s work and think you’ve seen something just like it at your local tourist trap. That is, unless you’ve actually been to a teamLab installation. Then you know. You KNOW.

The work of this Japanese arts collective is what everyone else in the installation world is chasing, and only a few really come close. No one eclipses.

Borderless is one of teamLab’s signature works, and it’s been missing from their home turf since closing in 2022. The new site in the Azabudai Hills is set to open in early February, and instantly becomes a “must visit” alongside Planets in Toyosu. Consider keeping tabs on what the daisydoze immersive theatre company is up to when making travel plans.

— Noah J. Nelson

Particle Ink: House of Shattered Prisms/Wanderlust — Particle Ink/Kaleidoco
March 14th; Las Vegas

The creators of Particle Ink: Speed of Dark are back with an even more ambitious project that will see them setting up shop inside the Luxor.

By day the Wanderlust experience will function as an invitation to explore a “living graphic novel…while engaging with magical, interactive, and projection-mapped technology.” Given what the Particle Ink team is capable of this should put most such experiences shy of teamLab to shame.

At night the space is taken over by live performers and the story behind the House of Shattered Prisms unfolds. After falling in love with Speed of Dark, we can’t wait to see what the team has to offer.

— Noah J. Nelson

Bridge Command — Parabolic Theatre
March 2024, London, UK

Parabolic’s beloved Bridge Command is back from its original 2019 run, now in a permanent space and more ambitious than ever.

With its unique episodic format and high-tech player experience, Bridge Command blew me away in its first iteration 4+ years ago. Returning in 2024 with expanded audience roles and storyline, Parabolic promises to whisk players away to starships and galaxies never before seen. If Parabolic continues to deliver on their promises as they have so often in the past, Bridge Command will become a not-to-be-missed London staple.

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— Parker Sela

Without Walls Festival — La Jolla Playhouse
April 4–7, San Diego, CA

A key part of the immersive calendar each year, La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival returns to the campus of UCSD this year. So far the lineup hasn’t been announced, but we expect another fun mix of large scale outdoor events, interactive experiments, and fresh work from established immersive creators whose projects we never want to miss.

Best of all, just like last year’s incredibly fun lineup, all of the shows are free. There’s still a reservation system for tickets, so that means if you stay sharp you can put together a good festival weekend, or a day, for yourself for the cost of getting yourself down to San Diego. For folks in the Southland, that’s a no brainer.

— Noah J. Nelson

Chocolate Room (part of ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN) — Ed Ruscha
April 7, Los Angeles, CA

First created in 1970 by artist Ed Ruscha, Chocolate Room is exactly that: a room of “printed” chocolate tiles. Each time the work is made anew; onsite fabrication avoids in-transit melting. The installation evolves as its aromatic medium degrades, often “blooms,” and may even attract a nontraditional audience: ants. Rarely produced, the artwork recently had its New York debut and opens this spring in Los Angeles. It’s a sweet invitation.

— Laura Hess

The Key of Dreams — Lemon Difficult
April 2024, Monmouth, UK

A brand new, original luxury overnight experience from the team that created the much buzzed about The Locksmith’s Dream is cause for excitement. Both our own reviewer and immersive connoisseur Neil Patrick Harris have raved about the first experience from this creative team that blends theatre, puzzling, and an overnight stay in a manor house in the Welsh countryside.

This time out the team pulls their inspiration from the grandfathers of weird fiction, including Lovecraft himself, to whip together a unsettling mystery from the fabric of the unconscious. Few events caused more FOMO to break out than the first production from this company, and we expect more of the same when Key premieres in April. Luckily the team has also landed on a new business model, which will let them grow the number of performances in line with interest.

We’ll be watching this one closely.

–Noah Nelson

Umurangi Generation VR — Playism
April 2024, Quest/Playstation VR2

I’ve been meaning to play the original Umurangi Generation, the “post-apocalyptic photography simulator,” since hearing about it endlessly from the Waypoint Radio/Remap Radio crew back in 2020. I even have it in my Steam account but, like much of my “retirement fund,” have never gotten around to playing it.

With the VR version of the game set to release this April, and with the whole thing centering around taking pictures in VR, I think I’ve finally got the excuse to allow myself to play this new version of the game. Also: if taking pictures of kaiju & mecha in an apocalyptic scenario doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time I’m not sure if we are meant to be friends. Okay, maybe not actually doing it, but pretending to. Wait. Where are you going?

–Noah J. Nelson

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot — The Tenderloin Museum
Spring 2024, San Francisco, CA

This immersive re-imagining of a play by the same name promises to pull audiences into a fateful night in 1996 of queer and trans history.

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, an impactful piece of San Francisco queer and trans protest deserves its place in history next to Stonewall, and the voices behind this production are the perfect people to tell this story. Written and directed by a team of LGBTQ+ artists and immersive veterans, the show will place audience members as diners at Compton’s Cafeteria on a fateful August night in 1966. This premier helps put San Francisco rightfully back on the immersive map in 2024 and (hopefully) beyond.

— Parker Sela

Cabinet of Curiosities & Impossibilities — Lonnie Hanzon at Museum of Outdoor Arts
Spring 2024, Denver, CO

Denver’s Museum of Outdoor Arts originally opened this work by Denver’s own Lonnie Hanzon (Camp Christmas) in 2010 as a mainstay installation at their former headquarter galleries, and now has reteamed with Hanzon to rework the piece for their new HQ in Marjorie Park.

“MOA’s Cabinet of Curiosities & Impossibilities is a whimsical immersive exhibition showcasing the talents of various artists in a collaborative installation revealing unique stories, ephemera and radiant displays. The juxtaposition of disparate objects is sure to delight the historian, tinkerer, and armchair scientist. Among the many oddities, you will see Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland cabinet featuring bronze maquette’s by Harry Marinsky, an original 19th Century ‘rocking ships’ automaton by Jean-Marie Phalibois, Nick Bantock’s ‘Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man,’ and David Zimmer’s ‘I am Lost.’”

For the installation art aficionados in our cohort, the debut of the new Cabinet makes for a good excuse to explore the MOA’s collection.

— Noah J. Nelson

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire — Schell Games
TBA 2024, Meta Quest

From the game studio behind the I Expect You To Die franchise comes a new spooky intense puzzler that’s bound to have some bite to it….

One of my favorite recurring elements of the I Expect You to Die franchise is how so many puzzles require loudly and clumsily putting together the solution — rarely is stealth and grace used to save the day. But as seen in the teaser trailer for Schell Games’ latest puzzler, Silent Slayer appears to demand players keep a steady hand under focused precision to vanquish a castle filled with sleeping vampires. And if there’s even the slightest of slip ups when navigating a given coffin’s self-defense elements, it appears the player should, well, expect to die. It’s this simple change in gameplay that has me not only excited to try my hand as a vampire hunter, but admiring the ingenuity of Schell Games to deliver most likely another instant VR hit.

– Patrick B. McLean

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, home of NoPro’s show listings.

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