Voices of VR

Kent Bye

Designing for Virtual Reality. Oral history podcast featuring the pioneering artists, storytellers, and technologists driving the resurgence of virtual & augmented reality. Learn about the patterns of immersive storytelling, experiential design, ethical frameworks, & the ultimate potential of XR.

  1. 1d ago

    #1788: Curatorial Overview of Venice Immersive 2026 & Celebrating 10 Years of Immersive Storytelling

    The 2026 edition of Venice Immersive marks their 10-year anniversary, and I interviewed the co-curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac about this year's selection that includes 30 projects in competition, 9 Best of selections, 3 Biennale College Cinema – Immersive projects, 26 VRChat worlds, as well as a special immersive event. Rosenthal and Reilhac talk about how the structures and forms of immersive storytelling have really matured, and how they're still really novel and compelling ways that artists are using XR and the affordances of immersive design to tell really compelling stories. The diversity and comprehensive scope of the selection each year reflects a vibrant creative exploration that is being grounded into more and more viable revenue streams through "location-based entertainment" or LBE. Be sure to check out the 121-page IDFA DocLab Immersive Think Tank Report 2026 that I wrote for more details on this emerging indie XR distribution ecosystem. Rosenthal and Reilhac talk about the latest trends of immersive storytelling, but also what keeps them coming back to this emerging medium. To me, it's one of the most vital and interesting aspects of the XR industry, and it is also where I'm seeing some of the most intersting innovations for the medium. I've now published 692 episodes on Immersive Storytelling on the Voices of VR podcast since 2014 with many more unpublished in my backlog yet to come. This accounts for over a third of all my coverage as it's a really great testing ground for really understanding the affordances of the medium as it is used to tell so many different types of stories across many contexts, and using many different combinations of disciplines. Check out my previous episode #1787 for some of my philosophical musings on "Blending the Elements of Experiential Design."I'll be attending this year's edition of Venice Immersive to both see the program and to interview as many of the featured creators as I can, and last year I topped more than 30 hours conducted onsite. I will update this post here once I post all of my coverage from Venice Immersive 2026. Selected Projects that You Can Watch at Home Right Now If you won't be able to make it Venice Immersive, then there are a number of Best of Selections that are available on the Oculus store, that are very much worth checking out. Spymaster Crafting Crimes: The Mona Lisa Heist Hotel Infinity The Amusement Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes All but one of the 26 VRChat worlds in the VRChat World Gallery are already publicly available, and I'll leave a list of links down below if you'd like to get an early start on worldhopping. There will be an official Hub world in VRChat with portals to all of the worlds published on September 2nd by the VeniceImmersive user account, and if you're onsite, then I'd highly recommend checking these out as a guided tour. Celestium by Lavryou Memory by LeraNibiru_art Blumea… by TontonDemon Frozen Signal by Lavryou The Antikythera Mechanism by Thrill, PHIAbunny Come Home by Aruse Arkani A World Of My Own by 襟草たぬ Demonhour – Chapter 1 by Kitsunaki [Jan Köster] Dawn Beyond… by TontonDemon Noctiluca by LuminaPalette {黒熊１３} I Feel Small by Fewiix Veiled Dark by Dean`, Karl Kroenen Patriki VR by DrMorro Specularium by jasper ｡ Spatialography by VoxelKei Limitless Pt․1˸ Enter The Void by HILL JR Fractured Winter by Lavryou town of connection by haruki_haru Vertical Horizon ⁄ 361 Degrees by Inloco Gallery Tokogrammetry Museum by Tokoyoshi A Wonderful Thing To Realize by Screaming Color [not currently public] Volare by Juice … Break 25: Sinto Feliz by PK Half Empty by yuri_ts Forgotten Empire by 3D Master Liminal Nightmares by ∗Lotus∗ [Autumn Boyd] To sign up for Venice Immersive, then check out these logistical details as well asl accreditation process. If you are already signed up, then these are the four dates to pay attention to for booking experiences: Thursday, August 27th at 2.00 pm CET to book for September 2nd-4th Saturday, August 29th at 2.00 pm CET to book for September 5th-7th Monday, August 31st at 11.00 am CET to book for September 8th-10th Friday, September 4th at 6.45 am CET to book for September 11th-12th And be sure to check out my write-up from last year for more tips and tricks for attending Venice Immersive. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  2. Aug 11

    #1787: Blending the Elements of Experiential Design & Process-Relational Foundations of the Elements

    I gave a lecture about "Blending the Elements of Experiential Design" on Saturday, June 6, 2026 at Seattle XR in Seattle, Washington. (PDF of Slides]. At the end, I run through some examples of the types of interdisciplinary fusion that I see within the context of immersive storytelling and immersive art. This lecture also digs into the process-relational philosophical foundations, as well as how I'm gaining additional inspiration from Empedocles, Aristotle, and the Classical Quadrivium (Four Arts) of Math, Music, Geometry, and Astronomy. For my 30+ hours of coverage of Venice Immersive, then I apply this archetypal framework to help describe the context, quality, character, and story of each of these projects. You can see an overview of how I've been using this framework in this PDF on "Venice Immersive 2025 Archetypal Categorizations" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01M5NcOYzx0 One of goals of this talk was to further define the archetypal nature of the elements, and how I'm conceiving of them as a possibility space of design tradeoffs (C.S. Peirce's "Firstness"), but also as the concrete decisions that an experiential designer makes ("Secondness"), and then finally how these decisions are experienced more from a phenomenological experience as the audience as we feel, sense, act, and make sense of these experiences, and what they might mean ("Thirdness"). I do not actually dive into Peirce's concepts of Firstness, Secondness, or Thirdness in this specific talk, but I wanted to elaborate on these concepts in this write-up as these have been crucial concepts to help translate the overall abstract Firstness quality of my talk, and ground it into the Secondness of something that is a bit more practical and pragmatic. For Peirce, his semiology is grounded into a triune theory of actualization that goes from a non-Boolean possibility space as Firstness, and then grounds into a Boolean actualization of secondness, and then an interpretant mediates from the concreteness of the Secondness object back to the Firstness of the fundamental archetypal qualities or meaning. I find speculative philosopher James Bradley's summary of the Peirce's triune semiology to be the most easy to digest in his essay titled, "Beyond Hermeneutics: Peirce’s Semiology as a Trinitarian Metaphysics of Communication." I can also recommend this article on "Peirce's Theory of Signs" from the The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for a comprehensive recap, and there's also this excellent YouTube series primer by Philosign's Markus Raninen titled The Basics of Semiotics. But here's Bradley's description of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness, which I find myself coming back to again and again. "Within the fundamental speculative triunity of activity, difference and order, or firstness, secondness and thirdness, semiology is an analysis of order or thirdness… Thirdness is analyzed as idea or sign, as the exchange of information between individual entities, and as interpretation; in other words, thirdness is itself a threefold of sign, object and interpretant. Here, sign occupies the position of firstness because it is the potentiality for interpretation; object occupies that of secondness because it is determinate; and the interpretant occupies that of thirdness because the interpretant has the sign-interpreting or sign-ordering role, and so has the status of a third. [24] Thus for Peirce semiology is the analysis of the triune relation of sign, object and interpretant." It's still a bit obtuse, and one way that I like to think about it is through the experience of communication. You have a possibility space of meaning you want to convey (Firstness of the sign/potential), then you choose specific words that convey that meaning (Secondness of the object), then someone listens to those words and phrases, and then connects those words back to a meaning space (Thirdness of the interpretant mediating between the two). For Peirce, each of the Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness can also refer to themselves, like you can have a Firstness of Thirdness or Secondness of Firstness. It gets a little bit confusing, but I found the following graphic from Collected Essays in Speculative Philosophy (2021) by James Bradley and edited by Sean McGrath to be very useful. Within the context of immersive storytelling, then it's a semiotic process of communication of meaning where you're able to use all sorts of affordances from game design, literature, social dynamics and relations, music, film, lighting, architecture, dance, theme park design, sensory design, and embodiment. My Elemental Theory of Presence attempts to simplify this into the following: Fire Element of Active Presence: Interactivity, Agency, Game Design Air Element of Mental & Social Presence: Meaning, Semiotics, Language, Possibility, Form, Relationality Water Element of Emotional Presence: Experiential Processes, Story, Film, Music, Cycles, Time Earth Element of Environmental & Embodied Presence: Sensory, Immersive, Worldbuilding, Space I elaborate on the various philosophical frameworks that I'm leaning up within this talk that I gave on June 6, 2026, but since then I've been diving more into Peirce and his Triune Metaphysics and Semiology of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness, which has been a helpful framework as I've been applying the elements to my Venice Immersive Coverage and categorizing the elemental center of gravity for each of the nearly 40 projects that I covered. Again see this framework in this PDF on "Venice Immersive 2025 Archetypal Categorizations" to see how I have been thinking about each of these projects. I used this approach in the introductions for each of my podcast episodes from Venice (see the links down below). Firstness of Fire: Creativity, Novelty, Intention, Purpose, Goals, & Aristotle's Final Cause Secondness of Fire: Interactivity & Core Gameplay Loops Thirdness of Fire: Agency & Will For Active Presence Examples of Fire: Game Design, Locomotion Options: No Movement, Automatic movement, Teleportation, or free roaming. The LIVENESS of the Live, To what degree does the experience encourage the expression of will and agency? And to what degree does that alter how the narrative unfolds (narrative agency vs participatory interactive moments that customize and flavor the experience)? Adventure, Exploration, Creativity, Novelty, Freedom, Will, and Collective Action. System Dynamics, & iterative feedback loops Firstness of Air: Peirce's "Sign," Intended Meaning, Pattern & Form, Archetypal Possibility Spaces, Relationality, & Aristotle's Formal Cause Secondness of Air: Peirce's "Object" Within A Triadic Semiotic Process (i.e. a specific action, word, harmonic, or action that points to a larger meaning.) Thirdness of Air: Peirce's "Interpretant," Sensemaking Thoughts, Expectations, & Social Dynamics For Mental & Social Presence Examples of Air: Literature, Language, Semiotics, Communication, Symbols, Abstractions. Single Player vs Multi-Player, Suspension of Disbelief and Plausibility, Social Dynamics, Anticipation of the Future, Possibility Spaces, Types of Choices. Realms of Speculative Imagination, How is meaning communicated? Dialogue amongst characters, voice-over narration, environmental storytelling, non-verbal associative dream logic. Mental friction from puzzles. Rules & Mechanics. Use of certain types of AI and Conversational Interfaces with Virtual Beings Firstness of Water: Time, Cycles, Harmonics, Value, & Aristotle's "Material Cause" (in Whitehead's event ontology, then base reality is processes, relationships, and possibilities of value & not Substance) Secondness of Water: Experiential Processes That Provide Contrasts Thirdness of Water: Feelings for Emotional Presence Examples of Water: Cinematic Film Tradition, Music, Harmonics, Rhythm, Pacing, Editing, Contrasts, Emotion, Memory, Dreams, Images, Soul, Psyche, Symbols, Lighting, Mood, Collective Unconscious Firstness of Earth: Space, World, Context, & Aristotle's Efficient Cause Secondness of Earth: Environment & Worldbuilding With Situated Perspectives in that Context Thirdness of Earth: Sensory Perception & Sense of Place for Embodied & Environmental Presence Examples of Earth: Worldbuilding of a spatial context & culture. Architecture, Theater, Theme Park Design, Dance, Are you a ghost or an embodied character? Sensory Experience: Touch/Haptics, Hearing/Spatial Sound, Smells, Vision. Relation of Immersive Tech to Environment as either VR, MR, or AR. Virtual CGI vs Cinematic 180/360 Video, Again, check out this PDF on "Venice Immersive 2025 Archetypal Categorizations" to see how I've ranked nearly 40 projects from Venice Immersive 2025 on the relative elemental center of gravity. Some projects feel more like a cinematic immersive film, which would be a bit more biased towards the Water Element. Some projects are more focused on the experience of a world that was build, and more focused on the Earth Element. Some projects are asking you to Read a book together with other people, which is more focused on the Air Element. And then other more game-like experiences are focused on using interactions as their primary mode of engagement, and so they're more focused on the fire element. There are 64 total combinations of the elements in terms of the first, second, third, or four centers of gravity, and you can see the comprehensive visualization here: Technically, all four elements are always happening all at once all at the same time. However, in experiential design, then creators can emphasize and blend elements together. So I find that ranking the elements can be helpful in determining an overall center of gravity, and that looking at the first two centers of gravity can achieve a sufficient job of creating some ad hoc, immersive and "elemental genres....

  3. Aug 10

    #1786: Collective Reading Experience of “Constantinopoliad” Provokes Discussion on Defining “Immersive”

    I interviewed Sister Sylvester about Constantinopoliad on Friday, September 12, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for Constantinopoliad: "Constantinopoliad is a collective reading and audio work. A response to the archive of the poet Constantine Cavafy, the story is inspired by the blank and torn-out pages in Constantinopoliad, an Epic, the journal the teenage Cavafy began when he and his family fled Alexandria; by lost and missing queer archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: The exploration of identity [1] as a person has moved from his home [4], and into a distant land [9] with some feelingsof being exiled [12], but also the implication of homosexuality [5] within the context of having to remain hidden or taboo [12]. It's dipping into the vast archive [9] of Cavafy's expressions of identity [1] and poetry and art [5], and recontextualizing as these universal experiences that are still very much relevant today [9]. Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: collaboratively reading together - narrative distillation of an archive. You listening to the audio narration, but you have to negotiate how to co-read this "book" object together. The form of this "book" also deviates from normal book where it is part pop-up book, but also a flat stage to be explored with the other person. This externalized book becomes a bit of an abstracted theatrical stage for the story as it unfolds, but there are also more explicitly architectural elements to this "book" object as well. The piece also creates an implicit invitation to connect and talk with your audience partner afterwards about the piece2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: AMAZING MUSIC + time-based narration + lighting. There's some amazing synchrony between the music, the timing of the reading, as well as the lighting. It really gives a strong sense of time. The reading of the story almost feels like a narrative podcast of sorts, but is mostly a matter of convenience of recording of the live performance so that it could be toured at immersive festivals without the burden of paying for all of the performers and musicians.3rd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Book like object as an architectural artifact, and has a whole spatial journey. The installation also had tables with lighting effects, but also there were projctions that were happening within the space as well. Most of the focus of spatial experience happens within the context of the architectural nature of the "book" object, but the other theatrical elements of the environment definitely help to cultivate an overall mood.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Explore the story through various interactions. There's no narrative agency per se, although one could deviate from directly reading along with the text. There's an implicit contract to stay on course with your actions since you're negotiating the experience with another person. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Exploration of the "lost and missing queer archives through time; and by the ghosts, both erotic and historical, that visit the older Cavafy in his poems" Artist Statement: "My favorite response to this work was an audience member who described it as 'making love to a stranger through a book'. The work invites audiences into a sensual and concrete encounter with Cavafy’s life and poems: fingers making contact with history; illumination revealing images from between the pages; sounds conjuring the ghosts of 19th century Alexandrian cabarets. With words by sister sylvester, score by Nadah El Shazly, and illustrations by Efrîn Özyetis, Constantinopoliad is a multi-sensory encounter with the past, and with forgotten stories that can haunt us into new imaginings for the present." You can see the projects I covered at Venice Immersive 2025 categorized in this image: Below, you will find links to my 30+ hours of my coverage from Venice Immersive 2025 across 39 episodes. I've categorized the experiences according to these "elemental genres," which is looking at the top two elemental centers of gravity. You can listen to this episode or watch the video version of "The Blending the Elements on Experiential Design" YouTube on for more details. #1650: Sneak Peak of Venice Immersive 2025 Selection with Curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac #1750: Doug Liman's "Asteroid" Short Immersive Film with Google Gemini Story Extension + Kickoff of Venice Immersive 2025 Coverage #1751: "Ghost Town" Narrative Integration in Puzzle Adventure with Exquisite Worldbuilding #1752: Blending Embodied Game & Narrative Genres with "One True Path, Part 1" #1753: Mixed Reality Town-Building and Sim Game "Wall Town Wonders" #1754: Screen Life Thriller "LILI" about Surveillance Fuses Game Design, Film, and MacBeth Adaptation #1755: Hand-Tracked Sign Language as Story Beat Triggers in "Eddie and I" #1756: Exploring Narrative Potential of Generative AI in "8pm and the Cat" #1757: Embody a Geranium in Immersive Comedy about Boredom in "The Great Escape" #1758: Reckoning with Mental Health Taboos in Japan with "If You See a Cat" Immersive Animation #1759: Mother-Daughter Team Explore Personal Challenges with Depression and Anxiety in "Mirage" Immersive Animation #1760: Immersive Fairy Tale about Automation with "The Sad Story of the Little Mouse Who Wanted to Become Somebody" #1761: Unpacking the Immersive Orchestral Mix of "1968" with Massimiliano Borghesi #1762: Fusing Experimental Immersive Animation with Cutting-Edge Orchestral Spatial Audio Mix in "1968" #1763: Blending Theater and 360 Video in "Re-Launching-Luigi-Broglio" #1764: Mixing Hand-Drawn Animation with 360 Video in "The Time Before" #1765: Immersive Action Thriller "Mulan 2125" Pushes the Edge of Graphical Fidelity #1766: Formula 1 LBE Experience "Black Cats & Chequered Flags" is an Immersive Biopic of Alberto Anscari #1767: Immersive Journey through Special Effects Pioneer Carlo Rambaldi's Paintings in "Alien Perspective" #1768: Symbolic Journey through Lithuania's Artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' Paintings in "Creation of the World" #1769: Mixed Reality Musical on Avatars and Identity in "First Virtual Suit" #1770: Eastern Philosophy-Inspired Fusion of Theater and XR with "Mnemosyne" #1771: Environmental Storytelling in "The Great Orator" VR Diorama with Generative AI Experiments #1772: Climate Change Spatial Montage "Out of Nowhere" Aspires to Move Towards Rewilding Prevention #1773: "Collective Body" Assigns Elemental Avatars Based Upon Archetypal Dance Movements #1774: Combining Live Dance and Music in Immersive LBE Performance "L'ombre (The Shadow)" #1775: The Continuous Spatial One-Shot of Backlight's "La Magie Opera" LBE #1776: The Spatial Grammar Innovations of Dialectical Contrasts and Abstraction within "The Big Cube" #1777: Active Imagination, Associative Dream Logic, & Embodied Interactions in "Sense of Nowhere" #1778: Collaborative Social Game and Story of "Happy Shadow" #1779: "Heartbeat" Immersive, 1-on-1 Biometric Synchronization and Involuntary Collective Agency #1780: Recap of VRChat Worlds Gallery at Venice Immersive 2025 with Mike Salmon #1781: Winner of Venice Immersive 2025 "The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up" Innovates on Gaussian Splats & Spatial Storytelling #1782: "A Long Goodbye" Wins 3rd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Emotionally-Moving Story on Dementia and Spatial Grammar Innovations #1783: "Less Than 5gr of Saffron" Wins 2nd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Spatial Poem Quill Animation #1784: The Incredible Spatial Transitions of "Dark Rooms" with Radical Consent Innovations #1785: The Landmark Achievements of "Blur" in Fusing Theater, Montage, Mixed Reality, and LBE VR #1786: Collective Reading Experience of "Constantinopoliad" Provokes Discussion on Defining "Immersive" #1787: Blending the Elements of Experiential Design & Process-Relational Foundations of the Elements This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  4. Aug 10

    #1785: The Landmark Achievements of “Blur” in Fusing Theater, Montage, Mixed Reality, and LBE VR

    I interviewed Craig Quintero & Phoebe Greenberg about Blur on Friday, August 29, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for Blur: "Blur presents a new myth for the modern age, where science has changed how we think about life and death. With cloning and advances in resurrection biology, we have obscured the boundaries between the living and the dead — the natural and the artificial. This extended reality theatrical production unfolds as a dreamscape, shifting between real and virtual, taking participants on a journey of reflection on grief and eternality." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Some fundamental questions around LIFE [1] and DEATH [8]. Blur born out of a "desire to explore the emotional and ethical terrain where science, loss and imagination collide." Philosophical and ethical implications [9] of the science human cloning [9] as explored through the main story of a mother [4] who's child [5] has died [8]. Explores a speculative and imaginal space of scienced-based possibilities [9] with imagery reflecting these moral and ethical dilemmas [9] around these hybrid entities [Combination of [1] Self with [7] ]. Also the implications of taking extinct animals [8] like the Wooley Mammoth or Dire Wolf, and resurrecting them through science [9], and bringing them back to life [1]. Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Blend of Immersive VR, CGI, Cinematic 360 video, 180 video, Mixed Reality. With specific architectural modulations, live performance, and integrations of your embodiment. Some Generative AI around your representations of embodied identity. There's also a LOT of invisible spatial choreography that is happening behind the scenes in order to move a number of human bodies through a physical space without colliding into each other, whilst also creating a seamless virtually-mediate spatial journey that is also A LOT MORE VAST than the constraints of the physical space. So it really feels like being taken on an expansive journey through space and time within this piece.2nd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Constant perversion of expectations and experience of having the "rug pulled out from underneath you." Symbolic Dream Logic, and Theatre of the Absurd. There's a lot of abstract and semiotic associative linking that Quintero describes as a "Rauschenberg-like collage" blending and blurring together lots of various archetypal forms to communicate their message. There's definitely a narrative to be parsed, but you have to sort of piece it together as there's a lot of symbolic communication, as well as expectation-perversion that either creates a deep sense of awe and wonder, or it can also be confusion for some where the overall plausibilty throughline and suspension of disbelief results more in a break in presence from a "I don't get it" experience rather than a deepening of awe from an unbounded possibility space. Overall feels a bit like waking from a dream, and then trying to parse it. There is also a moment of a theatre-for-one encounter, and then later more of a collective experience.3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: LIVE PERFORMANCE of theatrical actors. There's some constructed locomotive agency within bounds to replicate wandering. Some more interactive parts near the end. No real agency to change the flow of the narrative4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Cinematic VR, but also a specific cadence and pacing of the narrative. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Blur explores "fundamental questions of identity and selfhood, and what makes 'me' me?" The strurctures of our society and science mashed up against the dissolving and dissolution of the boundaries between the science and humanity bringing questions around the archetypal qualities that make us uniquely human. The idealized image of the human form from evolution, then gets dissolved through hybrid combinations, that is also amplified by the actual blending and blurring of communication media from MR to VR to Invidual and Collective Theatrical Performances to Architecture with bit of magic thrown in. It's a seamless use of the forms of immersive and experiential to amplify the overall themes of the piece. What is Imaginal / Virtual / Synthetic / Artificial / Eternal? vs What is Real and Mortal? Life vs Death in the context of Scientific Truths and Technological Advance. "With cloning and advances in resurrection biology, we have obscured the boundaries between the living and the dead — the natural and the artificial." Artist Statement: "Blur was born from a shared desire to explore the emotional and ethical terrain where science, loss and imagination collide.Meeting in Venice, we recognised a deep alignment in poetic storytelling and a fascination with questions raised by cloning, bioengineering and de-extinction. The work examines the human urge to transcend death and the consequences of reshaping life. Combining immersive theatre, motion capture, passthrough, VR and AR, we invite audiences into a sensorial and surreal journey — where AI, myth and grief intersect. Blur is both a cautionary tale and a meditation on fragile humanity: a boundary-pushing experience that challenges perception while grounded in universal emotions." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXTon0-tQ0 This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  5. Aug 10

    #1784: The Incredible Spatial Transitions of “Dark Rooms” with Radical Consent Innovations

    I interviewed Mads Damsbo & Laurits Flensted-Jensen about Dark Rooms on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for Dark Rooms: "Dark Rooms is an exploration of human psychology through the prism of sexuality. The viewer and two other participants are invited to explore four inner spaces, each one a private, intimate story told and co-created by real people. A unique, embodied experience, guiding the users step by step into the heart of human desire and the shadows it casts. Dark Rooms is a sensory, site-specific and immersive installation that confronts the audience with their own bias and boundaries, exposing our deepest longings and the forces that may shape our sexual identities." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Alternative and non-normative sexualities [5] that are usually hidden or taboo [12]. Exploring the culture of these Dark Rooms [11], the connection to personal identity [1], but also past and various familial traumas.[4]. Watch both as an invisible ghost [12], but also moments as an embodied character [1] to mimic being a part of this alternative culture [11]. Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Immerse yourself into the spatial architecture of these dark rooms. You're mostly a ghostly observer, but sometimes you do swtich into having an embodied role as a character within the narrative that's unfolding. But more to embody the form rather than to communicate or fully participate. More to evoke some embodied memories than to truly participate. The spatial transitions and overall spatial journey within this piece was one of the best jobs that I've ever seen. Feel like truely being taken on a spatial journey that I locomote through using my body and walking, but there's a cinematic quality to the spatial editing and rhythm of storytelling that's mirrored and amplified by embodied movements through space.2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Sense of awe, excitement, and wonderment. Listen to the oral history stories of these main protagonists, but in a way that's like walking through a spatial film, a waking dream, and a montage of memories. We see the stories of 3 different protagonists told sequentially.3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Walking through a spatial architecture to tell a story. There's instances where you become a character who is play acting in the scene. No real narrative agency4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Voice over narration is the primary mode in which the story is being told, but you're also embedded into these various spatial contexts and environments, and so there's also additional aspects of environmental storytelling happening. This experience allowed 3 people at a time to see it, and you see the other people as avatars who are also exploring these worlds. There was an AI-enabled offboarding pilot where you would start to debrief and talk about your experience, but it didn't necessarily have a clear stopping point as it would sort of endlessly ask questions. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: exploration of human psychology through the prism of sexuality especially the "queer and non-normative sexualities." Also intends to "step into the heart of human desire and the shadows it casts" & "wish to open the doors to the darker spaces of our protagonists’ sexuality." Embodied radical consent within the production of the process where participants had more control and agency over how their story was being told Artist Statement: "Dark Rooms was born out of a shared playfulness and curiosity. Laurits, coming from classic documentary, and Mads, from immersive storytelling, began a collaboration based on the idea of a virtual reality experience that would allow the audience to explore unknown territory through the prism of sexuality. Early on, Anne Sofie was connected to the project, and through her eyes and experience with queer and non-normative sexualities, the project grew into its current form. Dark Rooms is not only a reference to the unknown and the sexual — it is also a wish to open the doors to the darker spaces of our protagonists’ sexuality. Under the maxim of “nothing about us, without us”, Dark Rooms was developed and designed through an intimate co-creation process with the protagonists, to help expose their journeys in a form that the audience would embody." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV7H0mn_BPU This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  6. Aug 10

    #1783: “Less Than 5gr of Saffron” Wins 2nd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Spatial Poem Quill Animation

    I interviewed Négar Motevalymeidanshah & Gwenaelle Clauwaert about Less Than 5gr of Saffron on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for Less Than 5gr of Saffron: "Golnaz is a young Iranian immigrant trying to adjust to her new life in Germany. One evening, returning from her job (as an assistant at a migrant reception centre in the Berlin suburbs), she is starving, and her refrigerator is empty. She decides to go to the nearest supermarket. The supermarket has just received a new product: saffron. Even though it is very expensive for her, she cannot resist: she buys a packet of saffron. Emotions overwhelm her. She feels the need to cook a home-cooked meal to help her overcome her homesickness. She prepares rice and adds saffron, a comfort food from her past. But she never expected that this moment would plunge her back into the most traumatic events of her life. Most notably, three years ago, she survived a tragic drowning that took her family while traveling illegally by boat." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Exile and being a refugee [12]. Takes place in a new [4] home far from home [9] whose memory of family who died [8] all brought back through the embodied experience of food and saffron [1]. "The project evokes our capacity to identify profoundly with a survivor by placing her in a universally familiar-preparing a meal." Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Quinitessential and paradigmatic example of spatial storytelling taking through a variety of immersive and spatial contexts with seamless transitions and edits. Also switches between 3rd person and 1st person POV2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Like living within a Lucid Dream, very dynamic, poetic. It's cut to music, and so it very much has a music video type pacing and rhythm. Some really elegant spatial transitions, and powerful moments that use metaphors that were just extremely visceral and moving. The piece very much relies upon flashbacks and memories of traumatic moments of escaping authoritarian contexts. So you start off in the mudance context of a kitchen from a first-person POV, but then upon smelling the saffron spice, then it immediately transports you into these violent memories of being an exiled refugee. It's also farily brief, and so short and sweet.3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: No words, Poetic Dream Logic. Meaning is discerned through the poetic interpretations of the juxtaposition of a visual and spatial storytelling lanuage. Very powerfully done.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: No narrative agency or any embodied Interactions Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Connections to flavors and smells of food to memory. Sadness, harshness, limitations, constraint. Sudden and unexpected trauma -- "she never expected that this moment would plunge her back into the most traumatic events of her life" Artist Statement: "Less than 5 Gr of Saffron tackles a subject we think we’ve already seen too much of: the often tragic circumstances under which many migrants flee their home countries in search of a better future. A hundred times, stories of shipwrecks and the numbers of those drowned have filled our screens, anonymous people who disappear from our memories with a snap of the fingers. The project evokes our capacity to identify profoundly with a survivor by placing her in a universally familiar-preparing a meal. In today’s extremely violent context, this empathetic experience helps to rekindle within us a common humanity, whether we have experienced such trauma firsthand or not." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7VtxTHx_H0 This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  7. Aug 10

    #1782: “A Long Goodbye” Wins 3rd Place Prize at Venice Immersive with Emotionally-Moving Story on Dementia and Spatial Grammar Innovations

    I interviewed Kate Voet & Victor Maes about A Long Goodbye on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for A Long Goodbye: "A Long Goodbye tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida’s shoes. We experience a day in her life, as her reality is fading. The apartment, where she spent a lifetime with her beloved husband Daniel, first feels empty and undefined. When we interact with objects and play the tape recordings of her husband, her playful world gradually comes to life, as if drawn in paint before our eyes. Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself. But we also discover Daniel’s struggles, as he hopes to stay connected and realises their remaining time together may be short. A Long Goodbye is a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Self and Identity [1], and the loss [8] of memory [1]. All the ways that we capture and record our identity [1]. "Like pieces of a puzzle, memories and conversations help Ida to rediscover herself." Artifacts of shared experiences and memories shared within the spatial context of a home [4], Husband [7] caretaker [7] of the main character with Ida, "72-year-old pianist living with dementia." Music [5], wihch was a part of her career [10], and the various adventures they had together [9] Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Emotional Presence: Narrative-driven, animation with lots of immersive & interactive components. The pacing is gated with interactive actions, and the movement of your body seamlessly blends into various things like change blindness edits. An incredible score with different themes for different characters, and the world starts to change and dissolve as the main protagonists memory also fades giving you a sense of time, and unfolding processes. Victor is also a cinematographer, and so there's lots of canny translations of cinematic grammar into an emerging spatial grammar. VERY EMOTIONALLY IMPACTFUL2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: An incredibly transportative world with a very distinct water coloreque aesthetic. Lots of embodied movement through this piece. Also some mashing up of contexts between these worlds that is reminescent of Meow Wolf. There's quite a lot of void space to help direct attention, but also makes excellent use of available space. There's physical movements paired with virtual locomotion. And the physical installation with post-it notes also helped created a strong magic cirlce for the piece. You are also embodied as Ida - as you learn about yourself as she has to do each and every day. From their artist statement, Kate and Victor said, "When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story."3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Interactions that gate the narrative in order to help modulate the pacing of the story. Free to physically move within space, but also paired with virtual locomotion. They aspired to allow people to be able to wander through the story and you get a bit lost along the way. So TRUE!4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Dialogue amongst the characters, and also tape recording. Nice blend of metaphoric memory and dream logic with an amazingly well-written script. But also a puzzle-like structure as you piece together the story. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Memory. Loss, Grief, Death. The slow dissolving of the structures of memory as reflected within the sparse void-like architecture of the piece itself reflecting this slipping away into liminality. The love that they share within their partnership. "a poetic experience about the impact of dementia, but above all it is about love and the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together." So talking about the details of the condition, but also the caretaker / partner who is living with this condition "A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection." Artist Statement: "When we put the VR headset on, the first questions that come to mind are: Who am I? And where am I? This confusion is exactly what our protagonist is dealing with and this became the starting point of the story. We were drawn to this theme because of Victor’s grandfather who lived with Alzheimer’s disease, and whose health declined rapidly after Victor’s grandmother passed. The experience of having witnessed this emotional transformation close by, made us explore how dementia is experienced and how it influences the relationship with your past, with yourself and with your loved ones. A Long Goodbye is at once a personal and a universal story about human connection. It serves as a reminder that people are always so much more than their illness. Instead of focusing on what is lost, we need to stay close and hold on to shared affection." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-kttoua1PA This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

  8. Aug 10

    #1781: Winner of Venice Immersive 2025 “The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up” Innovates on Gaussian Splats & Spatial Storytelling

    I interviewed Singing Chen about The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up on Monday, September 1, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy. Here is the story synopsis for The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up: "After the sudden death of his wife, Guan discovers her unfinished novel — a tale intertwining the endangered clouded leopard and the Rukai tribe’s sacred origin myth, which tells of their descent from the elusive animal. Grief-stricken and seeking connection, he sets out on a surreal journey into dreamlike scenes — a maze of the subconscious, mistshrouded forests, ancient tree hollows and symbolic inner landscapes. Adapted from a short story by acclaimed Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi, The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up is a single-user, free-roaming VR experience that blends literature and memory into an intimate exploration of love, loss and self-reflection." Here are the contextual domains that are explored: Exploration of indigenous myths [9] as the protagonist goes on an epic journey into these imaginal (or real) realms [9]. It's a husband whose's wife [7] has died [8], and he's picking up clues from her work [10] as a writer as he explore her office [10], gets lost within a maze [12], and then he embarks on this adventure [9] deep into nature and the forest [4] Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity: 1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Blends a number of different spatial capture techniques from traditional CGI modeling to Gaussian Splats. Very high resolution spatial capture. Lots of theme park type of feel whilst exporing the maze portion, and recreated a spatial journey where you feld like you had some wandering agency. But it was all still very contained and constrained, but felt like a bit of using your body movemnt to edit and pace through the piece. You're mostly an invisible ghost without any embodiment, although there are some scenes where you have agency to move around, but there's other scenes where you're more of an invisible audience. Some incredible technical breakthroughs to fuse it all together.2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Very narrative and story-driven overall, with a lot of influences from the cinematic tradition, especially during the first half. There's some cinematic cut scenes inspired from film. Some spatial embodied movement of spatial storytelling, The last half involves more of theatrically staged dialogue, where the overall spatial context stays static, and so the experience of time is more like being at a thearical play. Having volumetrically captured actors actually makes a huge difference in communicating the subtleness of emotionality via their facial expressions that is much harder than how emotions are captured on film. This piece stands in the volumetric capture techniques, fused with traditional CGI as well as with Gaussian Splats.3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Based upon a book, and so it has quite a literary feel, but also some scenes with extended dialogue. Overall, it's a bit of a mystery as the husband investigates the research archives of his wife, who was digging into an indigenous myth, and he comes to find out that it is completely TRUE. So there's lots of elements of magical realism, but also poetic dreamlogic and spatial storytelling. The maze scene has some post-it notes that deliver voice over. It's a single-player experience, but you share spatial contexts with some volumetrically-captured performances.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: No real narrative agency, but there's a chance to explore a room of objects, but also the maze scene gives the experience of a lot of agency as you can chose how you move through and at what pace. Archetypal Themes and Character Explored: Grief from a death and loss, and going on a spiritual adventure, to find connection. From the description about the book author that inspired the piece, they say, "he weaves dreams, memory and multiple dimensions of time and space has long inspired me." Turning inward to explore spatial contexts that symbolically represent an inner journey of discovery. "Grief-stricken and seeking connection, he sets out on a surreal journey into dreamlike scenes — a maze of the subconscious, mist-shrouded forests, ancient tree hollows and symbolic inner landscapes" Artist Statement: "Wu Ming-Yi is one of Taiwan’s most influential contemporary novelists. The way he weaves dreams, memory and multiple dimensions of time and space has long inspired me. When the chance came to adapt The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up into VR, I knew it would be a daunting yet necessary journey. Wu’s writing evokes vivid imagery, spatiality and bodily presence — qualities that resonate with VR’s immersive nature. Through free-roaming exploration, I aimed to recreate a journey of loss, memory and Indigenous mythology. This project is a dialogue between literature, technology and emotion — one that seeks to spark empathy across cultures." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEUki2mN-ps This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

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About

Designing for Virtual Reality. Oral history podcast featuring the pioneering artists, storytellers, and technologists driving the resurgence of virtual & augmented reality. Learn about the patterns of immersive storytelling, experiential design, ethical frameworks, & the ultimate potential of XR.

Information

  • Creator
    Kent Bye
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    200
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Voices of VR

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