Thursday, February 21, 9:00pm
In an almost Inception-like way to attend a summit about experiential design within such a rich space like the Swedish American Hall will be like attending a very poetic immersive and interactive theater-like production. There will be lead protagonists that take the stage for long soliloquies and keynotes, groups of characters performing in rhythm and time with one another on panels, interactive moments of play through workshops, time for free exploration to meet fellow guests and other figures a part of the production.
Below are a few items, I am most anticipating.
Creators
I would love to meet independent creators who are melding mediums together in ways that have never been done. Spoken Word creation through escape room style puzzle solving, eighth-grade literature adaptations that run backward using dance and technology — if it’s blending like a smoothie — I want to hear about it!
For marquee creators — I would cry a little if I met any/all of them! Disney Imagineers, Meow Wolf, Tension Experience, Dreamscape Immersive, Carne Y Arena — the list is phenomenal.
Personal Learnings
I want to dive into the narrative development of anything and everything. I am especially interested in blending gameplay with the narrative design. As well as being able to reach and provide a holistic journey for the range of highly extroverted to highly introverted audience members.
Burning Questions I Have
Are VR + AR technologies more successful than the old fashioned face to face?
Are there any standardizations when it comes to language, procedures, ethics etc.?
Is there a key ingredient to the most successful experiences despite how wildly different they all are?
Following the Immersive Design Summit will be like donning a Sleep No More mask for the first time. I am ready for it to blow my mind.
Friday, February 22, 4:00pm
Wow! The energy is tangible in the air. My favorite part is seeing the smiles that break on people’s faces when they see fellow immersive peers from days past. When Gabe and Noah open the show to a ginormous round of applause.
Keynote Speaker Ida Benedetto took the stage with a centered energy that enraptured the audience. Her highlights consisted of sharing the term writing down to the metal, an ode to the multi-threading aspect of coding. Asking participants to stand, find partners, and partake in a shaman journey to find their power animals as she played a percussive instrument.
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A splash of vibrancy took the stage with Mycotoo’s Fri Forjindam, who opened with a satirical Never Have I Ever Disclaimer Edition. In the body of her candid presentation, she covered the topic that theatrical productions are not the best for business ventures based on its sometimes not-scalable and not-modular forms, for the magic of being personal and spontaneous. In conclusion, she left the audience with four ingredients for disruption:
- Ingredient #1: Bold Blurs
- Ingredient #2: Awkward Tango: among the artist, brand, and corporation,
- Ingredient #3: Paradox
- Ingredient #4: Unicorn Essence
I stayed back in the the large auditorium during the workshops to catch Ethan Stearns, who discussed the importance of the cold room in Oscar award-winning VR Carne Y Arena to prep guests for the heat of the desert and the intensity of the headset. His newest experience Chained is also heavy on the installation design and world-building before the VR portion of the experience. Though focused on VR, I believe that any and all experiences should have the correct preparation for its guests to feel safe and to become embedded in the story.
In my opinion, the final session before lunch had one of the most tangible and candid presentations for the attendees, featuring the escape room and immersive theater sandwich of Strange Bird Immersive’s Haley E.R. Cooper & J. Cameron Cooper. They covered ten points hypothesized before beginning their experience and how after a successful run those hypotheses have been proven both successful and unsuccessful. Items like puzzles vs actors and how to balance their cross conflict for the guest to focus by placing acting scenes as vignettes between chunks of gameplay, as well as the idea of the 100% win and how that means the escape room aspect of the show is not easy…it’s well-clued.
Friday, February 22nd, 11:00pm
Lunch allowed me to catch up with some amazing fellow NY-based artists, such as Jae + Yvonne from Wildrence and Lance Weiler from Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab. I also met new friends, like Kent Bye of Voices of VR and XR creator Veronica Flint.
At the conclusion of lunch, I made my way down into the Cafe Du Nord venue into a speakeasy-esque space to hear from Samantha Gorman and Tanya Soto from Tender Claws for an immersive and interactive writing presentation. It felt oddly holy the amount of content the two shared from Tender Claws’ iconic works, such as Pry, Tendar, Virtual Virtual Reality, and their newest work The Under. Images flashed on the boards from timelines, mind maps, story design diagrams, and other complex script outtakes. Tanya and Rachel were both passionate and realistic in the happenings and findings of their story-explainings. Samantha shared she even had to write some aspects of her script in a coding program for her developers. The conclusion of the presentation ended on an extreme high with the duo debuting an in-depth look at The Under, a brave step into home theater based VR that utilizes remote live performance.
The next part of my journey led me to stay within the embrace Cafe’ Du Nord to listen to the co-founder of UK-based avant-garde theater company named Shunt. Gemma Brockis commanded the stage with effort and ease, even as her power point presentation would not cooperate. She pulled through the gamut of performances that Shunt had created over the years and explained the important rule of how the company always begins with the space. Working with the downfalls and gifts of the variety of spaces in London, she explained the reasoning behind choosing the odd story of the marooned soccer team as a showcase of both for their love and hate of the iconic Shunt space hidden in a railway arch. She spoke of their piece Tropicana in the London Bridge and the importance of the reveal of space utilizing a elevator and its doors as a curtain. In conclusion, a performance is in harmony when exactly the right performer is position in exactly the right area at exactly the right moment.
The evening ended with ice cream names and sprinkle pool swimming, as attendees made their way to the Museum of Ice Cream for Day 1s closing event. Mintchip Mochi overflowed as tours wound their way through rainbow unicorn rooms, gummy bear gardens, and millennial pink diner bar. The event host, Daniel Matsuomo — ice cream name Chip — urged the guests to move past just the selfie craze and take time to make a connection with someone through the imagination and sweetness caused by ice cream. This was reinforced by connection cubes given to everyone. The connection cubes were an additive layers to the tour that played like bingo with light activities that ranged from high five ten strangers, share your ice cream name with someone you have never met before etc. At the conclusion of the event, the energy and conversations happening around the space could have been sustained for at least a few more hours.
Michaela Holland is an Emmy, Webby, and Sheffield Doc/Fest award-winning experience designer and immersive storyteller. Follow her on Twitter at @midgehollandt.
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