2024 Venice Immersive was filled with fantastic VR and XR experiences; here are all the Virtual Reality projects we watched at Venezia 81!
One of the many reasons to attend the Venice Film Festival is their Venice Immersive strand, located at the picturesque Lazzaretto Island and comprising a huge selection of virtual reality projects. The 2024 VR and XR program was just as good as it’s always been, made of a total of 26 experiences in competition and 36 out of competition. In this latter category, 7 were from Biennale College Cinema Immersive, 9 from a “Best of Experiences” strand dedicated to the best works shown at other festivals, and 20 were gorgeous Worlds to explore. Just like every year, we wanted to experience every single one of Venezia 81 VR projects, but, just like every year, we were only been able to watch a few. Here are the 6 Virtual Reality projects we watched at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, in alphabetical order!
1. A Simple Silence
VENICE IMMERSIVE: COMPETITION
Director: Craig Quintero
Producer: Riverbed Theatre (Su-Ling Yeh)
Runtime: 12′
Type of experience: Virtual Reality, 360 Video
If you asked me to tell you what A Simple Silence is about, I don’t think I would be able to sum it up in words. This 360 VR film – the last in director Craig Quintero’s “Just For You” Trilogy, which began with All That Remains (2022) and Over the Rainbow (2023) – is one of those experiences that you’ll only begin to appreciate the moment you stop trying to understand its story and simply go with it. If you haven’t seen the first two chapters, you’ll be impressed by how stunning it is, with a theatrical feel that can be perceived throughout and transitions that seamlessly take you from one scene to the next, leaving you with a very specific feeling that will haunt you and make you feel seen.
I would highly recommend watching the previous chapters though, which are not only as visually and technically impressive as A Simple Silence is, but also essential to understand what the trilogy conveys as a whole. To me, it was all about how relationships change as we take it in turns to become our partners’ parents, children, carers, and patients and our bonds, our needs, and even love itself evolve. What’s fascinating about it is that, at the end of it all, I couldn’t tell if its overall message was bleak or hopeful: it’s probably a mix of the two, in the best possible way. Regardless of what you’ll get from it – and I’m sure it will speak to every viewer in a completely different way – it’s a must watch for the technical craft on display.
2. Ceci Est Mon Coeur
VENICE IMMERSIVE: COMPETITION
Directors: Stéphane Hueber-Blies & Nicolas Blies
Producers: a_BAHN, Lucid Realities & Phi Studio
Runtime: 35′
Type of experience: Projection, Haptic, Installation
What you’ll immediately love about Ceci Est Mon Coeur (This is My Heart) is being wrapped into cozy blankets as soon as you enter the experience, and marveling as they come alive in pastel color shades, as you experience this installation with a crowd of silent blanketed participants, each watching from the solitude of their dark corners. The blankets were the best thing about Ceci Est Mon Coeur for me, and it’s not only due to how absolutely freezing its space in the Lazzaretto Island was. This colorful touch imbues the whole area with warm hues of light that, combined with visual projections on transparent panels all around you, make this installation memorable.
The story at its core is about the reconciliation of a child with his body, though I have to say that it didn’t really get to me. For 35 minutes, you’re sitting in a room and listening to someone recount their own tale while their words and various drawings show up on the panels around you, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. It was still a stunning installation to experience, but I personally didn’t find it very immersive: it felt to me almost as if I were listening to an audiobook, and given the length of its project, I kind of wished I was, as I would have been at home, in the warmth of my own blanket instead. Still, there is something here, and I’m sure a different room and a shorter runtime would really make its message come across in a more immersive way.
3. Earths to Come
BIENNALE COLLEGE CINEMA IMMERSIVE – OUT OF COMPETITION
Director: Rose Bond
Producer: Rose Bond Moving Pictures
Runtime: 13′
Type of experience: Virtual Reality, Installation
Have you ever meditated as soon as you woke up in the morning, and found yourself living in your own bubble of peaceful, positive energy for the rest of the day? This is exactly what Earths to Come – my favorite experience at Venice Immersive 2024 – felt like to me. This one-of-a-kind project is only in virtual reality from a visual standpoint, as the sound comes from a dome that’s all around you, making it as immersive as it gets.
Story-wise, the premise is an untitled Emily Dickinson poem catalogued as “I have no life but this,” which director and animator Rose Bond turned into gorgeous, hand-drawn sketches that beautifully come alive with the colorful, ever-changing world designed by experimental animator Zak Margolis, telling a story about humanity. But what makes this experience the masterpiece that it is is the combination of this mesmerizing worldbuilding with an incredible soundscape that’s made mostly of human sounds, thanks to the work of composer inti figgis-vizueta and Grammy award-winning vocal band Roomful of Teeth. The result is something that goes beyond simple storytelling and becomes a visceral experience that will hit every single person in a different way. Not to be missed.
4. Free UR Head
VENICE IMMERSIVE: COMPETITION
Director: Tung-yen Chou
Producer: Very Theatre
Runtime: 30′
Type of experience: Virtual Reality, Installation, Live Performance
Free UR Head was such an intriguing project! If you take a look at the video above, you’ll see that what director Tung-yen Chou has created goes beyond the idea of Virtual Reality you might have in your head. Yes, you’re sitting in a chair and wearing a VR headset, but you’re surrounded by other people taking that same experience with you, and watched by an audience as you perform for them by simply moving in unison. Tung-yen Chou does the experience with you, standing and dancing in front of you as a sort of orchestra conductor. What you see in your headset is not Chou, though; instead, you’ll watch a colorful world transform as you’re asked to follow a ball with your eyes, which is what makes your head move in the same direction as everyone else’s.
To complete it all is infectious music (Liao Hai-Ting – NTUA Center for Sound Arts and Acoustics Research, Taipei) that almost makes you want to dance. It’s a shame that the only one who’s actually dancing in Free UR Head is Tung-yen Chou, while, as a participant, all you actually do is moving “UR head”. But this is a Virtual Reality work with potential: I can only imagine what it could become if only the team behind it can figure out a way to make us move our entire body, and possibly even move around in the room. There’s a fascinating concept at the core of Free UR Head –the idea of putting on a collective performance for an audience at the same time as you’re experiencing it – and I really hope it’s developed into something even more impressive.
5. Turbulence: Jamais Vu
BEST OF EXPERIENCES – OUT OF COMPETITION
Directors: Ben Joseph Andrews, Emma Roberts
Producer: Pernickety Split
Runtime: 10′
Type of experience: Virtual Reality, Installation
The concept at the core of Turbulence: Jamais Vu is also a compelling one. XR artist Ben Joseph Andrews lives with vestibular migraine, a chronic condition that affects his perception of the world, making him lose his sense of balance and motion and feel constantly detached from reality. As someone with chronic migraines, I was eager to find out how Andrews and co-director/producer Emma Roberts would find a way to visually represent this very specific feeling.
Turbulence begins with you sitting at a real-life desk, which becomes black and white as you put on your headset and everything around you, including your own hands, turn into a negative version of the world. Soon, Andrews’s voiceover begins, describing his condition and asking you to do things as everything grows more distorted and the tasks become harder to complete. On paper, this should be a fantastic way to describe a feeling that only those with this condition have ever experienced, and raise awareness of this rare condition. The issue I had with Turbulence, though, is that it’s not actually that hard to complete these tasks.
What Andrews and Robert have done, here, is simply inverting reality in a mirror-like way, in the sense that, if you move your right hand, you’ll see your left hand move, and so on. Since you figure this out pretty much as the installation begins, you’re able to complete all these tasks right away, with the extra burden of nausea induced not by the feeling the creators were trying to conjure, but by virtual reality sickness. It’s a shame, because Turbulence: Jamais Vu means well and had a lot of potential. I really hope the team behind it continues to work on it, to make it the innovative, nausea-free experience it could turn into.
5. Uncanny Alley: A New Day
VENICE IMMERSIVE: COMPETITION
Co-Creators: Stephen Butchko & MetaRick (Rick Treweek)
Asst. Director: Deirdre V Lyons
Producers: Ferryman Collective & Virtual Worlds Company
World Animation, FX, Music & Sound Design: Screaming Color
Run Time: 60’
Type of experience: Virtual Reality, Live Theater
If you’ve attended Venice Immersive in the past, you might remember a VRChat world called Uncanny Alley, made by South African director/creative technologist Rick Treweek (aka MetaRick) and Raindance Film Festival Winner of “Best Immersive World.” This year, MetaRick teamed up with live performance in XR team Ferryman Collective, who were behind beloved, award-winning projects like Welcome to Respite and Gumball Dreams. The result is Uncanny Alley: A New Day, which takes you on a journey to fight for the freedom of this gorgeous dystopian world‘s adorable inhabitants.
It’s a story with a heart, and a highly immersive one: you definitely won’t perceive its 60′ runtime as it’s just so enjoyable to spend time with these characters, and the technical craft on display is undeniable. This was such a rewarding experience for me: read my full review above and check out Uncanny Alley’s official site for the names of all the talented creatives involved in it!
2024 Venice Immersive, the Virtual Reality strand of the Venice Film Festival, took place on the Lazzaretto Island of Venice Lido on on August 28 – September, 7 2024.
