This year the Sundance Institute celebrates the 10th anniversary of its New Frontier program, supporting independent artists working at the convergence of film, art, media, live performance, music and technology. The institute has now announced six projects for the 2016 New Frontier Story Lab taking place on 19th – 24th May at the Sundance Resort in Utah.
The six participating projects are:
Aria End – Peter Burr and Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Part science fiction videogame and part installation, Aria End tells the story of Aria, a trans woman with cyborg intestines who works in a subterranean mega-ruin.
The Art of Dying Young – Shawn Peters and Barry Cole
The Art of Dying Young is a film installation and new media bike tour that examines the lives, local histories and place-making initiatives of the Brooklyn neighbourhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant and South Williamsburg told through the lives of two young men who have been memorialized through murals.
Happy – Josephine Decker and Jess Engel
Happy is a live-action VR exploration experience, looking into the architecture of mental illness, where Madeleine shows up for Kazie’s birthday, the other guests and she discover Kazie curled up, half-dressed on the shower floor. But everyone is looking at Madeleine?
Hue – Nicole McDonald and Rob Auten
Hue is a haptic interactive story centred on Hue, who’s life has lost its colour.
The Passengers – yako (Jean-Christophe Yacono), Ziad Touma and Nicolas Peufaillit
A VR fictional series set from the different point of views of strangers on a train, where you enter their subconscious to journey beyond the image they project.
Seeing-I – Mark Farid, John Ingle and Nimrod Vardi
Artist Mark Farid will wear a VR headset for 24 hours a day, over 28 days, through which he will experience life through another person’s eyes and ears.
The weeklong Lab includes individualized story sessions, discussions about key artistic, design and technology issues, and case study presentations from experts. It’s all planned by Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Founding Director Michelle Satter and Kamal Sinclair, Director of New Frontier Lab Programs.
Satter commented in a statement: “The massive virtual reality revolution now underway signals a broader shift towards increasingly immersive storytelling forms. Our New Frontier Story Lab positions artists at the forefront of this technological evolution and allows their new stories and ideas to lead us into the future.”
VRFocus will continue its coverage of the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Story Lab, reporting any further announcements.
