08.16.2023 - By Kent Bye
Emojiii is an immersive social experience for 20 – 200 people by the Smartphone Orchestra where people use their phone web browsers to be guided through a number of interactive games and quizzes exploring how we make meaning and communicate with emojis. Steye Hallema is the founder of the Smartphone Orchestra, which aims to "unlock new possibilities for telling stories and creating unforgettable, large-scale experiences." Hallema identifies as a multi-hyphenate creative director, artist, storytelling, experience designer, and musician, and I had a chance to catch up with him after experiencing Emojiii to get the origin story of the Smartphone Orchestra, how it evolved from distributed spatial musical experiments into exploring group social dynamics and ice breaker experiments that are creating new rituals for connecting.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/830975364?h=c59b6ba66b
Emojiii from Smartphone Orchestra on Vimeo.
This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.
Music: Fatality