Kent Bye is the man to speak to when it comes to all things immersive journalism. Back in 2016, a friend pointed his podcast out to me and I've been following it since. Although I've been lucky enough to be added to his write-ups especially as a participant in XR film festivals, I've never had the chance to just sit with him until now. Thank you Kent for helping me to fill my bucket list every time I am in search of 'wonder'. Your thoughtful approach to life embodies the gentle rub of a philosopher’s stone.
In the last 5-6 years since I've been painting in VR, I've seen my career move from painter to educator and then creative lead for my own dance choreographed XR projects. It's always been a dream of mine to work in VR but alas, many of us occupied niches that never really took off at the rate that we expected. Yet and still yet, we *persisted* in the work of creating new experiences, new activations and new ways of imagining the world with a lens directed at augmenting realities and dreaming up of visions that we could only see with our inner eyes; visions that slowly made its way to brands, marketing, games, installations and spectacled experiences.
In my interview, I talked about the things that influenced me and what I felt worked for me over the last few years. I didn't just create worlds and installations... I 'pioneered' them.
A few Features:
2019 Jingle Ville - first world representing an exhibit destination offering hand-painted architecture using tiltbrush as the medium. Added first training modules based on a sequence of 'play while you learn' while offering the ability for people to collect souvenirs from the world using photos of people in the world to encourage re-visits. A world where we designed sensory experiments using the power of suggestion + storytelling to induce cold/warm sensations.
2021 Awaken the Giants - use of gaming and poetry to move people around space + design of perpetual scale and new representation of how art can exist in a VR environment. Incorporated a finding feature via interactive tracking device that enabled people to visually locate others in the world.
2023 - 2025
Introducing the concept of 'themeparks' and entertainment pods within spaces to highlight how interactivity can serve story metaphors.
Design of artwork on giant projector screens in the real world.
Physical + Digital experiments using touch technology and choreography / dance as inspiration
Integration of visual art style into game demos
Continuation of live VR art painting to bring value to the art community.
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Contact Kent: If you would like to listen to more Voices of VR podcasts, please consider donating to his patreon link here: https://www.patreon.com/c/voicesofvr/posts
