Recalibration and gaining perspective

Keeping on keeping on

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So...here we are. Any spring fantasies about the pandemic vanishing with warm weather have evaporated. For many of us in the US, it shows no sign of abating—and only continues to worsen long-standing inequities.

To grapple with these stark realities, we bring you an issue focused on recalibration and gaining perspective:

Editor-at-Large Sarah Wolozin investigates the tectonic shifts in models of sustainability for immersive media makers.

Paisely Smith checks in with with creators around the world about how they're changing their practice and exploring new business models—see interviews with Raqi Syed and Areito Echevarria, Nancy Lee, Diego Galafassi, and Stephanie Dinkins.

Kent Bye, who hosts the Voices of VR podcasts, explores how the film festivals and museums that have been key hubs for distributing immersive work are remaking themselves by going virtual.

Plus: What can we learn from the ways in which previous epidemics have been represented and have reshaped media?

Pamela Cohn speaks with Illya Szilak—an interactive storyteller who works as a part-time physician at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility—about the latest chapter of her Queerskins project. Spanning text, installations, VR, dance, and soundscapes, this evolving experience draws participants into the story of Sabastian, a young gay doctor who died of AIDS in 1990.

Contributing Editor Kat Cizek takes a step back to look at what "new media" meant during the 1918 influenza, and how it was tied to racial terror at the time, spotting unsettling resonances between then and now.

Speaking of stepping back: we hope you all have a chance to take a break and reflect this summer. As much as we love tech, time spent offline in nature is helping the Immerse team get through this!

Want to join the conversation? Please get in touch if you have news, projects, or events you would like us to consider: editor@immerse.news.

If you'd like to support our efforts in publishing Immerse, please donate today.

What we're reading & watching

“There are years that ask questions, and years that answer,” said Zora Neale Hurston. Sonya Childress on how the documentary industry must chart a new path forward.

Skawennati makes space for Indigenous representation and sovereignty in the virtual world of Second Life.

Three practical guides to immersive storytelling for journalism from the Online News Association.

Immersive Audience Journey Report: a must-read for immersive content creators wanting to produce enthralling work and build a better understanding of current and future audiences, how to attract them, retain them, and, importantly, how to grow them.

A newbie to VR spends quarantine learning about the technology, and sees a lot of potential but finds the barriers to entry "surreal."

Immerse editorial board member Julia Scott-Stevenson has published a paper exploring how immersive nonfiction media may offer a scaffold for an ecological imagination.

The show must go online: How immersive performers are adapting.

When the usual rules no longer hold, like in a pandemic, we might find inspiration in the collectivities and working principles of artists.

Nxt Museum to open in Amsterdam on August 29 with immersive installations by pioneering artists, designers, technologists and scientists

For Techno-Colored Girls Who Imagined Afrofutures When Black History Wasn’t Enough is an article exploring projects that embrace new strategies for creative resistance while redefining what art and story can look, feel, and sound like across multiple platforms.

Projects we're eyeballing

What if the Apollo 11 mission had gone wrong and the astronauts had not been able to return home? A contingency speech for this possibility was prepared for, but never delivered by, President Nixon – until now. Watch In Event of Moon Disaster and learn about the power of deepfakes.

The Under Presents: Tempest is a new immersive experience from the amazingly talented Tender Claws. Shows nightly until September. Great to see this covered by The New York Times.

Shola Amoo’s Violence is a provocative virtual reality experience that “re-contextualizes the notions of violence by examining it through the lens of state oppression against marginalized groups.”

The Peabody Award-winning Queerskins: a love story is now available on Oculus.

Gloomy Eyes, an imaginative animated story about a zombie boy and a human girl is available on Oculus.

The New Normal Game is giving players the agency to imagine a better world.

The National Theatre has launched Madame Kalamazoo’s Magical Mail, an online story service that will create customized interactive adventures for children around the UK.

Bored of looking out your own window in these days of lockdown and quarantine? Window Swap lets you open a new window somewhere in the world.

Creator Lucas Rizzotto wore Snapchat Spectacles every day for a year to capture 2019 in VR. Check out his personal time machine.

The Open Source Afro Hair Library (currently in development) is a free, user-friendly, highly curated 3D model database of Black hairstyles and textures.

Before I Forget, a game about living with dementia.

Coming up

Festivals and Events

Electric Dreams, an online festival from July 24- August 16, connects people through the power of art and the internet. Over three weeks, participants can enjoy a curated program of incredible theater, music, games, panels and experiences that are designed for cyberspace. Immerse Contributing Editor Kat Cizek is moderating a panel on deepfakes on July 30.
Allied Media Conference is online July 23-26.

Submission Deadlines

The IDFA DocLab Forum will be online this year. Apply by August 1.
Kaleidoscope has created a number of monthly grants to support artists. There are more since this article was published so check out Kaleidoscope to become a member and find out more.

Immerse is an initiative of MIT Open DocLab and The Fledgling Fund, and is fiscally sponsored by IFP. Many thanks to our other funders: JustFilms | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

Editor and Publisher: Jessica Clark (Dot Connector Studio)
Producer: Ingrid Kopp (Electric South)
Editor-at-Large: Sarah Wolozin (MIT Open DocLab)
Associate Editor: Carrie McLaren (Dot Connector Studio)
Associate Producer: Claudia Romano (MIT Open DocLab)
Founding Producer: Sheila Leddy (The Fledgling Fund)
Contributing Editor: Kamal Sinclair (Guild of Future Architects)
Contributing Editor: Kat Cizek (MIT Open DocLab)
Assistant Publisher: Michelle Polyak (Dot Connector Studio)

Editorial Board:
Zeina Abi Assy (Tribeca Film Institute), Mark Atkin (Crossover Labs), Diana Barrett (The Fledgling Fund), Ruthie Doyle (Sundance Film Institute), Caspar Sonnen (IDFA DocLab), Julia Scott-Stevenson (i-Docs)

Header design by Hayrettin Gunc