It’s officially summer and immersive is sizzling hot right now. So what happened in immersive news this week?
The former lead VR filmmaker for Google, Jessica Brillhart, was named Director of USC ICT’s Mixed Reality Lab. Valve Index, the high end VR headset, also launched this week. Wired called the upcoming Lion King film, which is being shot entirely in VR, the “future of cinema.” Plus Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge finally lifted the reservation requirement to visit the planet of Batuu. And the first revenue reports started rolling in for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, with the AR-based game falling far short of what Pokémon Go had previously achieved during its launch.
We for us, we interviewed the creators of an escape game at a historic village, a steampunk-inspired LARP meets puzzles pub crawl, a VR chef, the immersive art juggernaut 29Rooms, as well as LA-based immersive theatre troupe The Speakeasy Society.
We’ve also got some great reviews coming out this week, including an outdoor scavenger hunt with escape room and ARG elements, a multimedia play for two from the 1960s, an interactive art exhibit at the Rubin Museum, an immersive dining experience for two, and a Harry Potter-themed murder mystery. Plus some of the NYC writing staff on a roundtable for the podcast!
Whew!
By the way, we’re taking next week off for American Independence Day! So we’ll see you again, very soon, after the holiday.
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ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK
Managing Editor Kathryn Yu is joined by members of the NYC team — Allie Marotta, Asya Gorovits, Blake Weil, and Cheyenne Ligon — to talk about what they’ve been seeing and what’s on their minds: including the Great Gotham Challenge, which had some issues.
OUR GUIDE TO HOLLYWOOD FRINGE IMMERSIVE
FROM THE WIRE: SHOWS, EVENTS, & EXPERIENCES
Chicago: The Recommendation
Cleveland: Shadow of the Run Chapter 1: Wanderlust
LA: Somebody to Love; One Exit; Nothing Cheezy; Knowing Not Knowing
New Orleans: Saintsbone
Paso Robles: Field of Light at Sensorio
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REVIEWS
From No Proscenium:
Questionable Design Decisions Mar The Expansive ‘Great Gotham Challenge’ (The NoPro Review)A scavenger hunt through the city turns out to be both frightening and funnoproscenium.comA Revamped Version of ‘Balls’ Frustrates and Confuses (Review)A disquieting 60's radio play gets a modern-ish and immersive-ish update by CultureHubnoproscenium.comEmpowering Participants at ‘Reinventing the Prayer Wheel’ (Review)Examining an exhibition of interactive art, inspired by ancient Tibetan ritual, at the Rubin Museumnoproscenium.com‘Our Trace of Time’ Uses Experience as a Vehicle for Connection (The NoPro Review)An exercise in the generous act of gifting your timenoproscenium.comMaid to Order Mysteries—‘The Parseltongue Parlay Murder Mystery’ (A NoPro Adventure)Cosplaying detectives, Wizarding World style, in Burbanknoproscenium.com
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
“This week reviewed two incredible escape rooms in The Netherlands. Each one is a technological marvel that takes the players on a journey.
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“We love the way that Dark Park blends atmosphere, narrative, and puzzles to create haunting experiences.The End was a thrilling, weird, and thought-provoking experience from start to finish.”
“The Dome at Escape Room Nederland was something special. It was an escape room designed to feel like a hallucination… and through the magic of design and technology, it achieved it.”
STORIES
From NoProscenium.com and our Twitter feed:
‘Expand Your Reality’ with the Immersive Art Installation ‘29Rooms’ (Q&A)A conversation with Olivia-Jene Fagon of Refinery29 as they prepare their five city tournoproscenium.comHow Jenny Dorsey Blends Dining and Virtual Reality (Q&A)An interview with the cutting edge chef and creator of ‘Asian in America’ and ‘HIDDEN’noproscenium.com‘Where Dark Things Dwell’ Takes Toronto Audiences Into the Shadows (Q&A)A conversation with Secret City Adventures’ Michael Keenan about the escape gamenoproscenium.comThe Immersive 5 with The Speakeasy SocietyAn LA troupe with a track record of transforming literary classics tackles our core questionsnoproscenium.com‘The Infinity Engine’ Brings a Steampunk Pub Crawl to NYC (Q&A)A conversation with Boston-based Incantrix Productions and their show partners Sinking Ship Creationsnoproscenium.com'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' Isn't the Next 'Pokémon Go.' GoodWhen developer Niantic launched Pokémon Go in the summer of 2016, it did so at maximum velocity. The game's blend of…www.wired.comHarry Potter: Wizards Unite is missing the Pokémon Go magicThree years after Pokémon Go took the world by storm, Niantic is back to try to recapture that lightning in a bottle…www.theverge.comJessica Brillhart Named Director of USC ICT Mixed Reality Lab (Exclusive)Former Google Principal Filmmaker for VR and Vrai Pictures Founder to lead University of Southern California Institute…www.forbes.comUSC Institute for Creative Technologies Names New Mixed Reality Lab DirectorLOS ANGELES (June 25, 2019) - The USC Institute for Creative Technologies has appointed Jessica Brillhart, as the Mixed…ict.usc.edu'Freediver: Triton Down' is a Short But Worthwhile VR Adventure Full of Good IdeasFreediver: Triton Down launched quietly at the end of May, and while the $9 price reflects its short playtime, the…www.roadtovr.com'Real' violence: coming to grips with the ethics of virtual reality brutalityTwo VR artworks at this year's Dark Mofo ask the viewer to endure confronting simulations. Are we complicit if they…www.theguardian.comDisney's New 'Lion King' Is the VR-Fueled Future of CinemaFor the 26 million people who watched Friends in the mid-'90s, Jon Favreau was Pete Becker. Not the star filmmaker who…www.wired.comHow the Beat Saber Devs Make Their Game Feel so FunTwo weeks ago, one of the biggest musical moments yet happened in Beat Saber. We released the Imagine Dragons Music…blog.us.playstation.comJason Rubin: Oculus Quest is seeing 'console-like usage'Mike Futter, Mon, 24 Jun 2019 19:40:00 Oculus has come a long way since its booth full of chairs and televisions at E3…finance.yahoo.comValve Index Now Shipping Alongside 30+ Supported Games - VRScoutShare TweetValve's long-awaited response to PC VR has officially arrived. Today marks the launch of the Valve Index, a…vrscout.comVR Experience Gave E3 Attendees A Platform For Inclusion - VRScoutShare TweetAn interactive VR painting provided underrepresented communities with a meditative space to share thoughts…vrscout.comGames For Change's XR Summit Was An Unmitigated Success - VRScoutShare TweetExpert researchers and veteran developers collide at XR For Change. Having just completed its sixteenth…vrscout.com
From Michael Andersen of ARGN:
“Escape the Night, YouTube’s murder mystery reality show, is entering its fourth season in two weeks by bringing back stars from the prior seasons. To celebrate, the first three seasons are available free on YouTube, breaking the reality show that is equal parts escape-room-and-LARP free from its YouTube Premium paywall through the end of July.”
From Kent Bye of the Voices of VR podcast:
“The Valve Index launches this week & I captured some of UploadVR’s + my own deep impressions. It’s pricey at $999, but it’s the best PC VR on the market. The new Index (aka Knuckles) Controllers enable new open hand interactions that make grabbing objects in VR so much more visceral and real for incredible hand presence.”
From Lance Weiler of the Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab:
“Recorded live at Film at Lincoln Center. Lance Weiler sits down with Loren Hammonds (Senior Programmer Film & Immersive, Tribeca Film Festival) for a fireside chat. The candid conversation explores the challenges and opportunities of staging site-specific installations that attempt to balance story and interactivity — work where those formerly known as the audience become storytellers and part of the experience.
Topics covered: curating immersive works, the history of immersive at Tribeca, logistical challenges to staging projects that mix story and code within a festival environment…”
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