NYC Welcomes Virtual Reality @ Tribeca Film Festival

This week at the New York Tribeca Film Festival's Interactive Playground and Virtual Arcade, I amped up my creative and tech spirit exploring some cool new virtual reality experiences, along with multi-player and learning game installations. Most of the best works at the festival utilized the HTC Vive with hand controllers. As the Vive system is built with light room tracking technology, you have the ability to actually walk around and interact within a virtual space versus just observing from a singular position. Although 360 video is often referred to as VR, I believe truly immersive virtual reality is experienced when there is a need to move physically and engage directly with the virtual content (i.e. actively participate versus observe).

Here are some of my favorites from the festival:

PLAYTHINGS: You are in a virtual music playground set on an island filled with colorful, life size gummy bears, cheeseburger drums, floating donuts and magical portal mirrors. You can use your hands, via virtual instruments and golden tongs to create magical music. It feels like a candy-land cartoon world! Creators: George Michael Brower, Always & Forever Computer EntertainmentCRYSTAL REEF INTERACTIVE: The experience starts aboard the deck of a small ship in the middle of the sea with gentle winds and sun surrounding. As you face the ship's steering wheel, directions are provided for your upcoming scuba dive. My stance was a bit unbalanced at this point, because I truly felt like I was afloat in water and not on stable ground. The scene then shifts to under water where you can use your arms to virtually swim and examine marine life. It’s both an adventure and learning experience about climate change and ocean acidification. Creators: The Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), Key Collaborator: Stanford University. Directed by Jeremy BaelensonDRAGONFLIGHT: It’s as if you are Khalessi in Games of Thrones, seated on top a massive dragon (a chair in the real world) and virtually flying on the dragon over mountains, castles and valleys. By using the controllers, you can blast fire outward onto your enemies. Awesome experience, however I would have liked to be able to navigate the direction of the dragon to feel a total sense of flight. Creators: Blackthorn Media, directed by: Michael Conelly, Lyndon Barrois, Will Telford, and Keith Goldfarb

OLD FRIEND: Big smiles for this super fun psychedelic dance party! It kicks of with amarching bandleader and a cast of funny looking characters dancing wildly. As the colors change, so do your rubbery hands and you can create rave like motions to the music. Old Friend offers a bright new future for music videos. Creators: Tyler Hurd/Wevr

INVASION: A spaceship hovers over threatening the security of planet earth, and its inhabitants, which are fluffy white bunnies, one of which you embody. As the aliens attempt to infiltrate, the bunny hops around you looking in disbelief. I guess bunnies can ward of the evil, because the spaceship leaves planet earth. A cute experience, although limited in terms of first person interactivity. Creators: Eric Darnell, Maureen Fan/Baobab StudiosFORMA: I was one of four participants in this multi person VR experience, as we all entered into an ancient world together by standing equidistant from each other in a circle, mirroring our positions in the real world. I was not able to interact with the other participants, but I could see their shadowy like presences in the space, as we all watched a gigantic stone-like figure unearth itself from the ground to rise high and then crumble. I believe they are evolving this work, and eventually there will be more interaction. It was captivated throughout, as it was quite a beautiful CGI rendering. Creator: Fake Love, with premiere original choreography by Jonah BeakerQUINN: This was by far one of my favorite non-VR experiences, because I could play the role of super tech hacker! In my mind, I was Darlene from Mr. Robot. It’s an interactive real world game in which you enter a small room laboratory and are tasked with bringing an artificial intelligence system back online to assess its viability after its inventor has mysteriously disappeared. You and your partner have 5 minutes to figure out a series of complex tasks while searching for the truth behind the A.I. and the room. They equip you with a phone and a pair of headsets, and to enter the room you need to scan a QR code. You connect wires, enter codes and do all sorts of fun stuff. Unfortunately, I was not such a great technician/hacker, as we didn't solve the challenge in 5 minutes. I totally want to go back and try this one again. Creators: Shaun Axani; Key Collaborators: Story by Shaun Axani, Marshall Axani, and David HallSKIN DEEP: As an oil painter for many years, I was immediately attracted to this 3D art experience. While painting on a piece of paper in the real world, my strokes were replicated onto a 3D projected face in front of me. Ideally, the user would be able to first create the projection and then paint it, however for this experience the projection was already done. It was pretty awesome, and something I would be eager to try again. Creators: Alon Chitayat and Rosalie YuBRAINVR: I discovered this demo within the Games for Change section of the Tribeca festival, as part of a brain neuron-mapping project. You can explore the eye from different angles to understand the intricacies’ under the surface. Although a bit minimalistic in terms of first person interactivity, I think the potential for VR learning is huge, and look forward to seeing work like this evolve in format and function. Creators: EyeWire & Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT Media LabThere were many other experiences I did not get to see, particularly ‘Allumettte’, a 20 minute VR film that has received lots of accolades. I hope to see that before the festival ends!Whats’s Next? As VR experiences become more immersive, fully navigable, and multi-sensory, I believe the next evolution for VR will be cognitive-based. Imagine VR and AI integration – whereby the system learns and responds according to each unique participant, customizing the experience to enable user transformation.