Making the Kessel Run in less than twelve immersive parsecs
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Seeking Emerging Media Arts Professors and Pioneers
The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, a newly established $57M facility and academic degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is re-envisioning the university for the 21st century and how students learn. We are looking for a pioneering faculty team to re-imagine how stories are told across a continuum from live performance to immersive & interactive media, cinema arts, virtual and mixed reality, gaming, extended theatre, sonic arts, physical computing, data + art and spatial and experience design. For more information or to apply, visit http://go.unl.edu/carsoncenterfaculty. For questions, contact Megan Elliott, Director, Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, at megan.elliott@unl.edu.
Hey gang. We’ve had a busy week here at NoPro with interviews and reviews coming in from all over: Boston, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Miami, NYC, LA, Denver, and more. Plus a great conversation on the podcast, some Immersive Design Summit news (deadline to apply extended to 11/30!), some huge Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge teasers, and so much more.
More on that, below!
PATREON BACKER SPECIAL
No Proscenium depends upon the generous support of people just like you.
Back us now at $5 or more to get early access to a special episode of the podcast: Noah’s keynote at the Denver Immersive Summit:
IMMERSIVE DESIGN SUMMIT
This February, The Immersive Design Summit plays host to the team behind one of 2019’s most ambitious immersive projects: Disney’s 14-acre experience, ‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.’
Two of our newest speakers at February 2019’s Summit will be making the journey to San Francisco from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
Walt Disney Imagineering’s Scott Trowbridge and Asa Kalama will be speaking about their experience launching the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, an immersive theme park resort. Scott oversees the entire project for Disney, while Asa oversees the signature ride: The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (see video above).
Scott and Asa will be joined at The Summit by two of New York’s new pioneers, Jae Lee and Yvonne Chang, whose space Wildrence has created a platform for New York City immersive artists to craft immersive experiences from theatre to dance to LARPs to magic to games to interactive cocktail experiences.
You have until November 30 apply for The Immersive Design Summit! We’ll be gathering a dynamic mix of 200 immersive creators, producers, artists, and thinkers to meet in San Francisco to explore everything new and pressing in the immersive world.
We’re also happy to announce that 50 of the 200 seats at the Summit will be reserved for our half-scholarship recipients.
Make sure that you have a seat at the table — apply today!
ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK
We met Amanda Rose Villarreal at the Denver Immersive Summit, where we shared a panel with her and Jenny Weinbloom of Meow Wolf Denver on Consent & Agency in immersive. Amanda Rose is getting her Ph.D in Theatre Arts at Colorado University at Boulder, and her practice involves training “police officers, lawyers, and counselors to use effective communication and de-escalation techniques during crisis intervention and conflict management.”
Amanda Rose is both a practitioner and a researcher, so we’re getting a full spectrum look.
That work has given her incredible insight into the challenges facing immersive creators around issues of agency and consent, and we dig into that on today’s episode, recorded live in the field at The Molecule Effect cafe in Denver.
This week’s episode brought to you by listeners like you and The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.
Content Advisory: language and mature themes.
FROM THE WIRE: SHOWS, EVENTS, & EXPERIENCES
Boston: Club Drosselmeyer 1941
Edmonton: Viscosity
Juneau, AK: Here’s Looking at You, Casablanca
Hannibal, MO: Journey to Bethlehem at The Crossing
LA: Chained: A Victorian Nightmare; 49 Boxes (New Dates); Happily Never After — An Immersive Whodunnit
LA/Las Vegas/Orlando: Ralph Breaks VR
NYC: Bit of a Party; Consumption
Miami: Miami Motel Stories MiMo
Oklahoma City, OK: Those Who Lie Beyond
Philadelphia: Immigrant Kitchen
SF: Death Becomes Life: Banish Darkness; The Great Dickens Christmas Fair
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Wenham, MA: The Star
REVIEWS
From No Proscenium:
Examining Lifting Culture and Masculinity in ‘Gain!’ (Review)Join four guys at a Manhattan gym for a workout and self-reflectionnoproscenium.comBirch House’s ‘Cursed’ is a Blessing for Our ‘American Tragedy’ (Review)The Chicago-based company’s latest tells a history that is as much ours as it is its charactersnoproscenium.comThe VOID Wants You to Wreck It with ‘Ralph Breaks VR’ (The NoPro Review)The Bunny gets the pancake and the Kitty gets the milkshakenoproscenium.com
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
13th Hour Escape Rooms - The Grand Parlor [Review] - Room Escape ArtistEarn the urn. Location: Wharton, NJ Date Played: October 28, 2018 Team size: up to 10; we recommend 5-7 Duration: 60…roomescapeartist.comHeyou Escape - La Terrible Affaire Bambell [Review] - Room Escape ArtistThe Terrible Bambell Affair (available in English) Location: Le Cannet, France Date Played: September 30, 2018 Team…roomescapeartist.com
STORIES
From NoProscenium.com and our Twitter feed:
Bringing in Political Intrigue to Life with ‘Crown Me’ (Q&A)We speak to Incantrix Productions about their latest experience inspired by Game of Thronesnoproscenium.comMiami’s Rich History to Comes to Life in a Former Motel (Q&A)An interview with some of the creators behind Miami Motel Storiesnoproscenium.comHow ‘Southern Gothic’ Puts Audiences in the Middle of the Action (Q&A)Co-creator Amy Rubenstein chats all things 1960s cocktail party and morenoproscenium.comJoshua Jay Wants to Redefine What A Magic Show Can Be (Q&A)We interview the magician behind the site-specific, promenade experience ‘Six Impossible Things’noproscenium.comImmersive Theatre Hits Oklahoma City with ‘Those Who Lie Beyond’ (Q&A)19th Century Hound and Factory Obscura mix together immersive theatre and artnoproscenium.comEscape RoomWORDPLAY Eric Berlin brings us a crossword puzzle contest. 2018 CROSSWORD PUZZLE CONTEST - It's been a while! Welcome…www.nytimes.comHistory of VR and AR - Future Reality LabAlthough it seems like VR and AR were born yesterday, and it's boomed at the speed of light, these technologies have…frl.nyu.eduLeaping into a new realityA whale leaps out of the room in front of you. Penguins falls off your table. You are holding an elephant in the palm…www.ibc.orgA Tech Company Attempts to Do the Unthinkable-Create Healthy Screen Time for KidsWhat if you could give your child an iPad for an hour and not feel guilty about it? In parenting circles, screen time…www.vogue.comLive theatre goes to a risky new level: inside a real-life care homeImmersive show The Home will give audiences the chance to confront their own futureswww.theguardian.comThe Unreal Garden Is San Francisco's Selfie Museum For The Burning Man GenerationI'm surrounded by flowers and animals, some virtual, some real, with a $5000 Microsoft Hololens strapped to my head. In…www.forbes.comDisney Is Spending More on Theme Parks Than It Did on Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm CombinedThere is nothing small about Walt Disney World. It is made up of four separate theme parks in Lake Buena Vista, Fla…www.nytimes.comExciting Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge news from Destination DEarlier today, Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products Chairman Bob Chapek shared some exciting news about Star…disneyparks.disney.go.comExciting new details of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attractions and coming Star Wars ResortD23's Destination D kicks off with official announcements of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of…insidethemagic.net
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
From Laura E. Hall, author and escape room/puzzle designer:
“My book on Katamari Damacy was recently released:”
“The IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions/@IAAPAHQ) had their (huge!) attractions expo this week. Check Twitter posts tagged #IAAPA, #IAE18, #IAAPA2018, #IAAPA100 to see posts from attendees:”
From Haley E.R. Cooper, Strange Bird Immersive:
“New Immersology post!”
From Ricky Brigante, pseudonym productions:
“Our #NOFILTER experience wrapped up this week, returning hundreds of players to their regular lives after 6 weeks of interacting online and in person with a satirical story of social media gone horribly wrong (you know, just like real-life social media).
“With nearly 200,000 page views on the custom social network we built as the hub for the experience, our players logged a combined total of more than 5,200 hours of play time, including texting, emailing, receiving phone calls, engaging with elaborate video content, and attending live events in Orlando, Los Angeles, and New York. What started as a seemingly innocent send-up rapidly evolved into an all-too-real microcosm of the horrors that occur every day on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, leading several players to compare this experience to the Stanford Prison Experiment. We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.
“In the months ahead, we’ll be sharing a complete look at what transpired during the experience on our website.”
“I’m thrilled to see that the Walt Disney Imagineering team behind Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will be speaking at next year’s Immersive Design Summit. That project is a huge step toward mainstream audiences understanding what we’ve been working on in this budding ‘immersive’ scene.”
From Kellian Adams Pletcher, Green Door Labs:
“Museums and the cultural sector are getting more excited about immersive theatre, games and installations — this particular article was still very tech-focused but still they acknowledged that the key to creating these environments is world-building, which is what the immersive world does best!”
THE BIZ
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