Venice Immersive is the XR (Extended Reality) section of the Venice Film Festival, which is dedicated to immersive art and media. It’s been going on for eight years, and just a few months ago the Cannes Film Festival was secretly trying to introduce a space dedicated to virtual reality. Venice immersive experiences have less visibility than the stars on the Lido, but it’s actually a breeding ground for all the next generation of media and entertainment talent. This year’s selection, now in its eighth edition, covers the broadest and most complex projects in the industry, with a total of 63 projects from 25 countries, including 26 competitive projects, 30 non-competitive projects and 7 projects approved by the Biennale Academy. Film incubator Immersive develops projects for new talent. The exhibition, which can be visited by appointment until September 7 — although the foundation’s office reports on the Biennale website that it sold out within hours of its launch — is in Lazaretto Vecchio The island is held just a few hours away.
Featured curators Michel Reilhac and Liz Rosental talk with THR Roma about the emerging trend in immersive experiences and why Lazaretto has become a favorite place for pioneers, experimenters, and innovators in cutting-edge art and media.
What makes Immersion Island so special?
LR: The immersive part of the Venice Film Festival is truly unique. It is the world’s largest space dedicated to art, entertainment and immersive media presentation.
MR: We are very proud to be hosting the immersive competition in Venice today. This is the place for the best immersive experiences in the world.
The Venice Film Festival is the first film festival to launch a dedicated immersive space. Eight years on, how would you sum up the health of the industry?
LR Immersiveness is in better health than ever. This is evidenced by a range of exceptional immersive experiences, highlighting the wide diversity the field has to offer. Some virtual experiences are designed for a single user and can offer extraordinary artistic possibilities. Then, there are multiplayer experiences that allow many people to explore a virtual world together. Additionally, there are experiences that include special costumes with sensory elements, combined with visual elements and environmental projections to enhance immersion.
MR Every year we review hundreds of immersive experiences with Liz, with or without headphones [a virtual reality visor, or VR headset, is a mask that employs 3D displays and location tracking systems to create an immersive virtual reality environment for the user]a selection of 50 or 60 pieces that come to Lazaretto. Every year, we marvel at the power, imagination, and dreamlike qualities of this language, and sometimes, at the fascinating way in which we empathize with and understand the situations of others. Every year we see the power of immersive art growing exponentially, both on an emotional and poetic level and on a documentary level. It is truly extraordinary to see the evolution and impact taking place in this field.
Based on your years of experience, what are the future prospects for these new media?
MR One thing we’ve noticed, especially this year, is the emergence of so-called “mixed reality.” This technology allows us to see the world around us while wearing headphones like glasses and mix it with virtual elements to create a hybrid experience of being in the physical world. But it’s different because it’s changed by adding virtual elements.
Another very important aspect of LZ is the social interaction between multiple people. Together with Michel, we have been excited about the possibilities of social interaction in virtual reality for years. We demonstrated amazing experiences where many people can enter a virtual world together remotely on the VRChat platform, but there are also location-based experiences where many people can explore a space together at the same time. For example, we are competing for a large-scale project called “En soir avec les impressionnistes” designed by Pierre Gable and currently running at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where 200 people can move together in a virtual world.
MR This does represent a big change, because until recently, those unfamiliar with virtual reality have generally accused headsets of isolating users, confining them to the solitude of the virtual world. This is no longer true. Conversely, if you are in Rome and some of your friends are in New York or Africa, you can share the experience with them. VR is becoming a way to share experiences when you can’t experience them yourself. I think this is the future, the revolution VR will bring to our lives.
Beyond the creative, poetic and social aspects, what is the state of the market for immersive production?
LR Regarding the market, we noticed that it is moving towards multi-player experience, which means that sustainable business projects are starting to circulate. Sometimes used independently with headphones [experiences by only one user at a time] Publishing can be challenging, and creating a format where many people interact simultaneously in one place is more sustainable for publishers. Additionally, experiences that go beyond headphone use are emerging. These projects or portfolios of projects involve large-scale screenings, allowing many people to participate in the experience simultaneously in the same space.
MR should add that nowadays it has become more affordable to buy good headsets: for only 400 euros or around 400 US dollars you can buy a device and access all the content of the Metaverse (the virtual environment where you meet and interact with other people) . This brings closer the arrival of a functional marketplace where you can buy event tickets, games, software and stories and share them with friends. The market started to pay off financially, allowing manufacturers to recoup their investments and start generating profits.
Do you think the time is ripe to consider immersive experiences during awards season?
MR: I think immersion is still seen as a bit of an underground, fringe thing in the film industry. For those of us who live and work in it, every day, we see it getting bigger and bigger. So for us, yes, we are part of awards season and we want to attract more and more big-name talent. Actresses such as Tilda Swinton, for example, have been loyal and active participants in immersive experiences. We hope to attract more talents like her.
LR In the Venice Immersion section, from the very beginning we have awarded our projects three prizes: the Grand Prize, the Jury Prize and the Achievement Prize, with a jury of experts evaluating the entries. In addition to Venice Immersion, prestigious organizations such as the Emmys have recently launched awards in multiple categories dedicated to immersive productions, which is a very positive sign. Additionally, the Producers Guild of America and other major organizations are beginning to recognize and consider these new art forms. I have no doubt that over time, more and more institutions will start to focus on immersive experiences.
MR: In this regard I would like to mention Dave Bushore’s If, an immersive storyis one of the projects in this year’s lineup, produced in partnership with Marvel Studios, Disney and Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas Studio. This experience is designed exclusively for Apple Vision Pro, a state-of-the-art headset and a cutting-edge device for accessing virtual environments. This is a sign that big companies are entering the space and producing very popular content under their own umbrella.
How about the Biennale Talent Incubator Biennale University Film Immersion?
MR The great thing about the Immersive section of the Venice Biennale is that we not only showcase the best immersive content, but we also offer projects the opportunity to be funded through our marketplace. In addition, through the Venice Biennale Academy Immersion Programme, each year we select 12 projects that are still in the early writing and development stages and provide them with implementation support. With the help of international experts, we have selected one of the winners of the €80,000 prize [$89,000] From Biennale to completion. Then here is my experience. This year’s award was won by Corinne Mazzoli from Italy, who is from Venice and lives in the Lido, for her work “Chronicles of Gossip”. So we are very happy about this combination.
LR We have six other projects under selection. This year, the focus is primarily on devices that combine headphones with completely rebuilt equipment.
Can you name three titles worth mentioning?
MR: Okay, we could try three title exercises, but it’s hard. We all like them for different reasons, which is why we chose them, but maybe we can point out three of them that are special. The first one that comes to mind is from Taiwan, called free your mindthis is also the first time it has been exhibited outside the island. It’s located on the Marconi Gallery opposite the Garden Room, where you can see 32 people wearing headphones with a light signal in the headphones indicating what movements the head should make, so the audience from outside will see the synchronization dance.
LR I will go back to the Anagram team who won the Grand Prix here in 2021 Goliath: Playing with realitythis year is impulsealso narrated by Tilda Swinton. It is interesting because it is the second in a series of projects aimed at studying the perception of reality in people with cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia and ADHD. This is a truly innovative use of mixed reality, combining the real world with virtual environments in an original way, and also allowing for an empathic connection with the stories of the people involved.
MR The second thing I want to mention is a virtual world that competes with the title Incredible Alley: A New Day Created by Stephen Butchko and Rick Trewick, this is a live performance in which the actors interact with six visitors, changing the course of the story. The audience must work with the performers to achieve goals and solve problems to ensure the success of the story, so it’s incredibly interactive and all live on VRChat, the premier social platform for virtual reality.
LR I will mention this is my heart Authors: Stephane Hueber-Blies and Nicolas Blies. It’s an innovative format because the story is told by six people, all in costume simultaneously, drawing geometric shapes in space with the help of LEDs, sound and ambient projections. These garments also produce sensory stimulation on the wearer’s body. This is the story of an adult’s physical reconciliation with a violated child.
MR Finally, I think it is necessary to talk about the Apple Vision Pro project, called living museumwhich offers the first public opportunity to test the Apple Vision Pro headphones, which are not yet available in Italy and are therefore a real debut that will allow people to test the performance of this tool, one of the top currently available on the market. We are talking about an immersive experience, a museum-like installation narrated by David Attenborough, where archaeological artifacts come to life and can be studied from different aspects: stunning .
LR All in all, however, my choice falls on another new metanarrative transmedia format. In Ripley’s KingdomCreated by Koreans Soo Eung Chuck Chae and Eun Jung Chae, the AI-generated actors interact directly with the audience. At the same time, virtual reality viewers will affect the events unfolding on the screen in real time, changing the visual experience of the audience present. So, in a live performance, everything is interconnected. Definitely not to be missed. We look forward to seeing you at Immersion Island.
