Tribeca had some beautiful AR and VR experiences accompanied by smart physical installations that created a wonderful entry-point to the different virtual worlds.
Here are some of my favorite experiences, accompanied by 360 photos of the pieces.
Queerskins: A Love Story Interactive Spatial Experience
Created by a nurse who treated terminally-ill AIDS patients, it is raw but respectful and shows a deep knowledge and dedication to the story. The set design of the late young man’s bedroom is meticulous with every item personalized, from hand-written postcards to a transcribed journal.
Mixing photogrammetry, volumetric video, and game design, the experience transports you to the backseat of a devoutly Catholic couples’ car as they drive to the cemetery where their son, who died of AIDS, is buried. Interacting with the box of her son’s belongings, you learn about who he was and see the vibrancy of life from his perspective.
Terminal 3 Augmented Reality
Walking in to a bare customs facility, you sit behind a desk and don a Hololens and headphones. Another customs officer informs you via audio that someone needs secondary screening and you ask to bring them in. A person appears seated on the stool in front of you via a volumetric scan, which flickers between line and full color to interesting effect. You can choose between different questions ranging from “Are you religious?” to “Can you tell me about a time you danced to Pakistani music?”
Then, you can decide whether they should be let into the country or not. Once you are done, you are told to walk into the other room.
SPOILER ALERT!
In the other room, the REAL person they interviewed for the scan is sitting there in person. It is one hell of a surprise, and reminds you that you ARE accountable for your actions — always a good reminder.
Dinner Party 360 Linear Narrative
Dinner Party tells the mind bending story of a couple that are abducted by aliens while driving home. The experience begins at a dinner party the Hills are hosting using stereo 360 video with moving camera. When Betty Hill pulls out a recording of a hypnosis session and the Hills fall into a trance and remember their encounter with the aliens, it switches to volumetric capture of the actors, expertly shaped to show how their energy was effected by it. For Betty it is a beautiful experience, but Barney’s point cloud is ripped apart, mimicking his pain.
The exhibit is a lovely little mock-up of their kitchen, with some photos of the real Betty and Barney Hill pinned on the walls, and the iconic cassette deck lying on the table.
objects in mirror AR closer than they appear! Augmented Reality
This is a great art installation because it does what great art should do; make you see beyond the surface level and look like a total fool! If stumbling around and peering inside boxes with a lampshade on your head doesn’t make you happy, you aren’t human. (Inside the boxes are triggers that pop up memories of the man who’s boxes of antiques these were.)
Not enough creators are leveraging Gear VR for AR, which frees you from the limitation of hologram technology, like having black in your objects. Another wonderful AR app for Gear VR is Lucy for a different spin on AR for Gear VR.
The Day the World Changed Interactive Spatial Experience
A memorial for survivors of nuclear weapons, this experience takes place inside of a photogrammetry model of the Hiroshima Peace Dome, which was right underneath the detonation. Archival footage is projected on the walls of the dome and objects from the Peace Memorial tell the stories behind them. At the end, you watch as the many weapons of the world melt away. This was particularly uplifting after today’s news of the Peace Accord between North and South Korea.
Subjectivity Alert: I helped produce this project, so it’s a little unfair for me to be calling it one of the best. I was pleased with the results however.
Hero Location-Based Spatial Interactive
Last, but certainly not least, is Hero, a location based experience in a courtyard in Syria as a bomb is dropped. Two Syrian refugees welcomed me into this experience, gave me an computer backpack and headset, and led me, blind, into a space. They placed my hand on an object that felt like a tire and left me. Soon, a courtyard materialized around me with kids playing and a dog running around. Indeed, there was a jumble of tires at my feet.
Then, I heard and felt a helicopter approach and a saw a bomb fall. Then, in a rush of heat and wind, followed by a chaotic smoke, the bomb detonated. As the smoke cleared, many people were dead but the door behind me had opened and I heard a voice. I rushed through the awning and made my way through the bombed out building, along a ledge that I physically felt with my foot. In a room, a father was trying to free his child from a pile of rubble blocked by a pipe, and I had to pull the pipe up to free her. I felt her hand grasp mine for an instant, real human touch, nothing virtual beats that.
After the experience was over, my Syrian docents led me into a room to decompress. I needed it, I was shaken up. A strand of cloth was waiting for me to tie on to a slab of wall, as pictured below, showing all the others before me who had done the experience.
