UK-Canada Immersive Exchange
The UK-Canada Immersive Exchange is a new talent development and co-production programme for UK and Canadian creatives and producers, who wish to work with immersive technology. The programme is supported by an international partnership between StoryFutures Academy, the National Centre for Immersive Storytelling (run by the National Film and Television School and Royal Holloway, University of London) and Arts Council England in the UK, and the Canada Media Fund, Canadian Film Centre and the Canada Council for the Arts in Canada.
These following prototype projects are developed as part of the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange.
Acorn is a prototype developed as part of the UK-Canada Immersive Exchange. Acorn AR is a form of enchantment that immerses us into the wonder of nature through connection. Players are bewitched by the simple action of planting a single acorn & experiencing the fullness of its life as it grows to an ancient Oak. Acorn is an AR experience inspired by The Promise, winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year by Nicola Davies & Laura Carlin.
Alone Together is a means to meet and engage with virtual beings while navigating what's real. This self-generated performance combines augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and hologram production. It mixes them with theatrical storytelling and user interactions. Inspired by the concept of family rental agencies that provide fake family members to lonely people seeking companionship, Alone Together offers surprising, seemingly spontaneous narratives. Brief yet emotionally arresting, innovative yet oddly familiar, it is accessible and inclusive in ways that traditional culture sometimes fails to be.
Enter an experience between light & darkness, between rave & ritual, between digital & physical realities - The Gloaming, a 1 hour immersive live performance. Two groups gather on opposite sides of the world, one at dawn and one at dusk, each in a multi-sensory art installation. Making their way through the set, the audiences are given VR headsets allowing them to conjure new ways of interacting with each other, exploring virtual & physical touch. Their guide, a live motion-capture dancer, who brings the two audiences together at dawn and dusk across the globe in this multi-reality adventure in togetherness.
An app-based ghost-hunt that transforms Malls into fantastical spaces, and uses binaural sound & multi-player game design to encourage playful collaboration, physical activity and ethical consumption, inspired by the Japanese concept of Tsukumogami - a Shinto belief that every object has a spirit (hidden voices in the supply chain). Played in groups of 3, a team of ‘hunters’ capture the ‘ghosts’ hidden in products and broadcasts their stories via DJ Iva Taguri’s Radio Ghost. Players’ choices shape the physical journeys of other players around the mall, against an 80’s soundtrack - back where it all began.
