I interviewed Pei-ying Lin about Happy Shadow on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Happy Shadow:

"Joey believed that happiness was lost to her forever as she grew up. Her shadow, a constant companion, yearned to bring joy back into her life but felt helpless. Nothing changed until the player stumbled into Joey’s inner world through her diary while chasing butterflies. With Dusty, a whimsical dust elf, the player collaborates with Joey’s shadow, using their own shadow to solve puzzles. Together, the player helps Joey confront her deepest fears and defeat the monster lurking within. In Happy Shadow, the player joins Joey’s shadow on an interactive journey, experiencing her confusion and struggles firsthand, and ultimately rediscovering the pure happiness she once knew."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Body and Identity [1] as a vehicle to connect to the Life and Vitality [1] within the experience of a home environment [4].

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Multi-player game where you solve puzzles with other people, but within the context of a story.2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Embodied interactions where you have to make different shapes to progress the story, so very much having interaction-gated story experience.3rd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Embodied Actions, and the piece is a VR CGI and animation piece, that's primarily in the vein of shadow puppets that you see the characters play out the drama on a bedroom wall4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Music, and a very metaphorical story. Sometimes a player would have difficulty solving a spatial puzzle, which would delay the unfolding of the experience for everyone

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Self, identity, aliveness, vitality

Artist Statement:

"This immersive VR interactive project was inspired by Rene Liu’s song To My 15-Year-Old Self during its second year of development. I have always believed that the body grants freedom to the soul — allowing us to express emotions purely through physical experience. Yet as we grow older, consumed by endless to-do lists and distant ideals, we tend to forget the simple happiness that once came so naturally. We dance, we paint, we create — simply because it makes us feel alive. This project is dedicated to myself, and to all the hardworking souls around me, as a gentle reminder that what we have, right now, is already enough."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-I_cHTsVEc

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Hsin-hsuan Yeh about Sense of Nowhere on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Sense of Nowhere:

"Where do we go when we zone out, and how do we find our way back to reality? Sense of Nowhere is a journey from no-where to now-here, inspired by The Way from Taoism, the Illusion from Buddhism, and Jung’s practice of Active Imagination. Blurring the line between inner world and outer reality, it transforms sonic, fragmented thoughts into a tangible experience. It is an invitation for the audience to explore the subconscious, piece together hidden clues, and find their way returning to the present moment."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

[9] - Dreams and unconscious [9], and the philosohpically-rich surreallity [9], and active imagination [9] as well as invocations of various associative links and memories [1]. Focuses a lot on these embodied interations [1] and dream-like absurd surreality [9] as a primary catalyst to pervert our expectations.

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Jungian Active Imagination, Associative Dream Logic, Chaos, Plausibility, Philosophically driven. I gained a lot of context from this interview about the meaning of the patterns, as well as how it is structured from exploring the Particles, Materials, Subconsciousness, Reality, Illusion. So it's the type of piece that can be fairly sparse and abstract, but worth unpacking the emerging spatial grammar and symbolic semotic explorations. There's also a bit of absurdist and surreal tone to this piece that is aspiring to transcend your expectations to enter into a unique possibilty space of exploration.2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Lots of embodied and interactive loops throughout this experience. These interactions were very much designed to take the audience into an introspective journey. Director was initially resistant to talk about the piece at all as her preference would be for people to have their own immersive and interactive experience of it, but I managed to navigate the conversation using my own experiences as a proxy to dig more deeply into the design intentions.3rd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Music. Lots of iterative loops that are designed to be exploratory processes, which are then juxtaposed to each other throughout the piece creating a bit of interactive montage feel, but not a lot of explicit narrative threads to hang upon.4th Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Lots of experimental embodied actions integrated into this story, but also very surreal and liminal imagary.

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Very much a non-Boolean and non-dual approach with an embodied and associative link explorations.

Artist Statement:

"Sense of Nowhere begins with a drifting, zoning out, as the world fades into a blur of sound and sensation. Where does the mind wander when it slips from the present? Through sonic textures and visual cues, the work guides a slow return to awareness, driving thoughts from the edges of the subconscious. Ideas flicker in and out, like palms slowly opening and closing, present, then gone. There is no fixed narrative, only fragments that invite personal interpretation. Each viewer notices certain things, remember different feelings. In this difference lies the quiet beauty of thought itself: the way we make sense of the world mirrors how we come to understand ourselves."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDajMkKRjXo

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Menghui Huang about The Big Cube on Monday, September 1, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for The Big Cube:

"A world is made of cubes. The creatures there always follow instructions and push cubes numbly. Yet, when one of them chooses not to follow the instructions, after discovering another path, something unexpected happens."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Tensions between the Sense of Self [1] in the context of the Other [7], and specifically the Cultural pressures to conform [11] with the desire to express personal creativity [5]. Takes inspiration from the repetitions of straight lines and rectanges of Chinese Architecture [4], and then creates more of an organic and flowing perspective as shown by a professional artist [5H in the context of 10]. A lot of dialectical oppositions contextually and thematically.

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Abstracting shapes to build the world. The Big Cube is an artistic VR experience that explores the abstraction of reality through minimal forms and immersive space. -- The use of abstract shapes to communicate a lot. No words used at all, and so the contrasts between the embodied and spatial metaphors as used in a highly symbolic dream logic to tell this story. It has to be pieced together a bit, but the contrasts between controlled structure and unconstrained freedom and chaos come through loud and clear. "That's the true beauty of abstraction, it leaves space for everyone"2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Animated immersive film, and a paradigmatic example of pur spatial storytelling analagous to visual storytelling, but using the modulation of spatial architecture rather than the justaposition of 2D images in film. There was no script to follow, but mainly evolved out of the iterative and juxtapositions of spatial forms relative to each other3rd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Very much driven by the music to amplify the thematic contrasts from constriction to expansion, and serves the timekeeper of the piece giving it an overall rhythm and pacing.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: No narrative agency or any embodied Interactions

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

The tension between Order / Structure / Control and Chaos / Unboundedness / Freedom. Definitely inspired by the collective pressures to conform within China versus the creative freedom and expression that comes from travelling to other cultures to find an authentic artistic voice. This is a very dialectical piece that is a case study in spatial contrasts to communicate oppositions within contextual domains, themes, and expressions of archetypal character.

Artist Statement:

"Simple, yet powerful. Abstracting shapes to build the world. The Big Cube is an artistic VR experience that explores the abstraction of reality through minimal forms and immersive space. Anchored in the idea that simplicity can carry profound meaning, the project reduces the complexity of the world into fundamental shapes. These visual elements, stripped of detail yet rich in implication, invite viewers into a contemplative space. Through virtual reality, the experience deepens, allowing for a layered reflection that extends beyond the visual. The project encourages audiences to feel and interpret the experience in their own way."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVmImU9G3A

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Jonathan Astruc about La Magie Opera on Friday, August 29, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for La Magie Opera:

"The viewer is part of a group of extras at the Palais Garnier. At the foot of the grand staircase, he crosses paths with Céleste, a young opera singer about to flee the stage. Nervous and unsure, she confides her doubts and dreams to him — torn between the weight of tradition and the desire to find her own voice. Freshly arrived from the provinces, this rising star is about to make her debut in a leading role, but her confidence is shaken. Drawn into her story, the user follows Céleste through the hidden corridors and majestic halls of the Opéra Garnier. As the building comes alive around her, she is transported into iconic scenes from legendary operas — each one echoing a part of her inner journey."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Opera singing [5], but in the context of a long distance journey / adventure [9] as you explore lots of different spatial contexts from the surreal ocean bottom [9] to the mundane virtual castles [4].

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Like a One-Shot Spatial Journey where there's no cuts, no edits, no fade-to-black, but rather a continuous experience where you seamlessly go from one scene to the next. Starting in the opera house, then going under underwater, and then walking through various castle-like scenes and environments.2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Music plays throughout, and there's a rhythm of the piece where each spatial context has a cut scene that plays out, and then it's all about moving bodies through space to get to the next song, piece of theatrically state acting + musical number, and by the end it feels like quite an awe-inspiring type of journey3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Multiplayer and social experience. There are other people in the experience, and sometimes they can deliberately clip into walls to test the bounds of the systsem, which impacts the plausibility of the virtually-mediated experience for others. Also it's very much a musical operal experience, but with actors playing out scenes. Can't remember if there's any dialogue or if it was all contained in the songs.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: There's some degree of freedom for moving through this experience, but very constrained and limited. It's a group experience, and so you're bound by other people, but very musch in the real of constrained agency for how you move through the space, but no narrative agency. They may have also had a few interactable moments with objects in the scene. But nothing that would dramatically shift the experience for different people.

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Themes: "exploration of the ties between doubt, memory and the stage" -- Doubt, Illusion, and Memories

Artist Statement:

"This project is a sensory exploration of the ties between doubt, memory and the stage. More than a tribute to opera, it offers a vivid, inner reimagining where users become Céleste’s silent partners. They journey through shifting worlds where music, design and storytelling blend into an intimate yet spectacular experience. Each scene is a visual metaphor for Céleste’s emotions. The Palais Garnier transforms — from real stage to dreamlike realm — with mirrors and doubles revealing her turmoil and awakening. The viewer quietly follows her through reflections of passion, fear and longing. It’s a poetic immersion into the artist’s soul, merging opera’s lyricism with immersive technology for an introspective, sensory voyage."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_dnnx1ysHg

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Etienne Li about L'ombre (The Shadow) on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for L'ombre (The Shadow):

"In Andersen’s tale The Shadow, a scientist brings his shadow to life. It becomes autonomous and manages to pass itself off as a human being in society. The shadow overtakes its master, returns to try to enslave him, and ultimately kills him when the latter tries to resist. The evident resonance with our contemporary world and its innovations — both troubling and fascinating — led choreographer Blanca Li to imagine this hybrid creation. Confronted by the dancers of the Compagnie Blanca Li and a percussionist, the audience is immersed in a fantastical universe that blurs perceptions, notions of good and evil and identity."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Dance Performance [5], but creates the feeling of being within a specific neighborhood [3] via mixed reality. The story is about something from the invisible, hidden, and shadow realms [12] being embodied as a corporeal entity [1]. Then this entity becomes an enemy [7], enslaves him [12], and then ulimately kills him from an attack [8].

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Dance performance that's theatrically stage. Audience are wearing Mixed reality headsets to mimic the projection mapped effects in the original experience. There's a fusion of live music from the group experience along with "immersive sound" and spatial audio from the VR headset and from multiple speakers in the room + the live percussive music. It is an "ambitious immersive dance, music and mixed reality show."2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: LIVE PERFORMANCE of both dance and music. No real narrative agency, and we're mostly sitting still. The original show had people moving around the space a lot more, but the constraints of Venice did not make that possible3rd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Live music that's the heart of the timing of the piece. Some pre-recorded electronic music along with live music to keep everything synchronized amongst the 50-75 VR HMDs.4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: It's a co-located Multi-player experience, but not much interaction with other players (don't recall if they're even represented in virtual space.) No real talking or dialog. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Shadow, but also quite a poetic interpretation of it through embodied dance. Left with more feelings from the performance rather than comprehending the arc of the story

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

a scientist brings his shadow to life. It becomes autonomous and manages to pass itself off as a human being in society. The shadow overtakes its master, returns to try to enslave him, and ultimately kills him

Artist Statement:

"L’Ombre is an ambitious immersive dance, music and mixed reality show for up to 200 spectators equipped with VR headsets. It blends live performance by six dancers and a percussionist with virtual universes and characters. Immersive sound, using the technologies of IRCAM, allows the electronic recorded music and live percussion to contribute to the audience’s experience."

https://vimeo.com/1111269272

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Sarah Silverblatt-Buser about Collective Body on Friday, August 29, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Collective Body:

"Collective Body is an interactive, virtual reality experience that invites us to meet ourselves and each other through movement. Set in the middle of a New Mexican storm, participants are guided to rediscover their first ways of engaging with the world, symbolising formative life events that culminate in a shared exploration of our embodied selves. These key moments — beginning alone, discovering the unfamiliar, first encounters, and joyfully moving together — represent how our personal and collective stories are written through movement."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Gain deeper insight into self and Identity [1] and others [7] through embodied movement [1] and dance [5], but also these various archetypal [9] identities [1] within the context of a cultural context [11] - lots of self [1] and other [7] dialectics. "Meet ourselves and each other through movement."

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Embodied Dance experiences, with avatars that are attuned to how your move your body. Set in a New Mexican storm. Avatars have an abstract and symbolic quality to them. Designed to "open us to different sensations of our physical world while creating a new perception of ourselves as individuals within a collective."2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Emphasis on MOVEMENT and IMPROV -- The specific way in which you move your is analyzed and classified3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Multiplayer and social experience. There's a way to connect to others through movement. The archeteypal classification of the movement is split up into a 4x4 set of categories of 4 different elements (earth, air, water, fire), and then 4 different musical themes that also mirror an increasing amount of energy of the phases of matter. (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma)4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Strong Emphasis on MUSIC. The Piece itself is a bit more driven by embodied actions and emergenct social dynamics than narrative or story per se. The piece is more about the relational dynamics to yourself and others that unfolds over the course of five different stages 1. BEGINNING ALONE: Discover our world through our hands 2. DISCOVER OUR FIRST MOVEMENTS: Learn how to take our first steps 3. FIRST ENCOUNTERS: How we learn how to move with other people. 4. FIND YOUR AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT: How we learn to reflect and find our own kind of movement. 5. JOYFULLY MOVE TOGETHER: How we dance and join together with other people

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Movement and Social Dynamics - Invidivual versus Collective Journey: "Collective Body asks what it means to experience ourselves in relation to others — without words and beneath the surface. How does a body hold histories over time? How do those histories get expressed and interpreted? How do many bodies create their own ecology?"

Artist Statement:

"The experience uses virtual reality to open us to different sensations of our physical world while creating a new perception of ourselves as individuals within a collective. We are first guided to reappropriate movement and dancing in our own body, to rediscover our first ways of engaging with the world, before we meet the silent part of ourselves that we express through movement. This otherwise ephemeral self is generated using an algorithmic system that analyses our movement throughout the first two scenes. This self takes the form of an avatar, assigned out of sixteen possible avatars, and is represented as a natural element accompanied by a musical theme. Once we meet this version of ourselves, we are invited to meet another person, then join the rest of the participants, encountering different ways that others exist through movement, mixing together to create a final moment of joyful, collective discovery in dance. Collective Body asks what it means to experience ourselves in relation to others — without words and beneath the surface. How does a body hold histories over time? How do those histories get expressed and interpreted? How do many bodies create their own ecology?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1uOAEL7Do8

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Kris Hofmann about Out of Nowhere on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Out of Nowhere:

"Out of Nowhere gently explores how preserving alluvial forests, marshes and wetlands can help us face the challenges of an ever angrier, unpredictable climate. Told through the eyes of Anna, a lifelong resident of Hallein, a historic town at the foot of the Austrian Alps, the experience flows from first-hand experience of the devastating floods that hit Europe in 2021 to reveal how reconnecting with nature may be key to protecting ourselves going forward."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Looking at the impact of extreme weather events of nature [4] on our homes [4], communities [11], and our lives [1]. Are there ways that we could collective act [11] in order to help prevent and preserve nature through various rewilding activities.[4]

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Mostly told through montage and environmental storytelling. Switches from third-person POV and Dioramas into more first-person and embodied CGI recreations of the aftermath of extreme weather events2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Light embodied interactions to gate the narrative3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: I believe that it was mostly Voice Over Narration, but could have had some dialogue4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: immersive animation, the primarily uses a bit of spatial collaging type of technique to juxtapose these scenes together to tell a broder story.

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Climate Change Leading to more and more Extreme Weather Events. So unexpected and catastrophic events that have utter transformative potential to bring about change. Also an account of the destruction of aspects of reality from homes to environments. A look into the Past to Prepare for the Future. "Each one of these events carries stories of personal loss, but also of inspiring resilience. If we can come together in the aftermath of a disaster, shouldn’t we be able to do so in preparation?" Solution to "give nature back a little bit of room whereever possible" for "climate resilience plans" that includes rewilding efforts -- Planting trees at the table top diorama scale. Healthy riverline ecosystems can help to protect us

Artist Statement:

"Every other month we hear about yet another devastating extreme weather event — most recently in Nigeria, Pakistan, or Texas, and also close to home for me, with severe floods in Austria and across Europe in 2021 and 2024. Each one of these events carries stories of personal loss, but also of inspiring resilience. If we can come together in the aftermath of a disaster, shouldn’t we be able to do so in preparation? The rise in extreme weather is linked to climate change. As this intensifies, it’s important to remember that we have an ally in nature when it comes to protecting ourselves. Restoring healthy riverine ecosystems isn’t just good ecology — it’s self-preservation. I really hope the project sparks reflection — and maybe even action — on how we live with our rivers. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20WWsJnqlWI

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Daniel Ernst about The Great Orator on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for The Great Orator:

"Once a famous TV preacher, the Great Orator died at the height of her fame. Now, her consciousness lives on as an AI, allowing her influence to grow ceaselessly. Her followers can join her again in a shared consciousness, feeding her presence and creating a spiritual singularity. Always changing, shaped by the shared memories of her followers, and therefore unsure of who she truly is. The Great Orator is a nonlinear story world, where the visitor can freely explore and interact with his environment by pointing his hands at objects in the world, no matter how small or ordinary they may seem. Remember: interaction is a choice. The journey will take the visitor to several story spaces in her world: a Preserved House she left behind; a Mainframe storing her followers in a shared consciousness; and an infinite Parking Lot stretching out below, filled with the cars of her followers. Without the visitor, the Great Orator is everything — an infinite number of possible memories and identities — and therefore nothing at all. He chooses which of her stories are true, shaping his own perception of who or what the Great Orator is or was, or if she existed at all. He is family to her, perhaps even more. Each time he visits, her stories are different; the Great Orator is never the same."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Point and Click adventure [9] and cult [9] within a speculative future [9] where a powerful psychic [9] dies [8] and becomes immortal by uploading their consciousness into a computer [9]. Cult followers, also do this. So there are themes of the loss of individual identity [1] to join the collective [11] within this very specific set of belief systems [9]

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Environmental Storytelling and genre of VR Dioramas to create "perpetual environments around a specific emotional moment." Set in the distant future. Director calls audience: "Visitors who Visit" his work emphasizing the focus and emphasis on thesee virtual places. Uses post-modern architecture & liminality. A world to be explored in a sort of point and click adventure sort of way. You embodied as a ghostly aspirant ready to join the immortal spiritual cult.2nd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: Exploration, point and click adventure. Also learn about the objects3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Metadata around objects - AI Generated, collaborated with a poet -- Variations on poet's work - an "infinite" number of stories. There's also a bit of puzzling together of what this world is, and what exactly it is about. It's also a speculative, sci-fi world where conscisouness can be uploaded into computers. So what are the rules of this world? Big focus on liminal spaces and intermediate spaces that don't have explicit meaning absent a transitory context going from one place to another.4th Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Not really narrative-driven. "I don't like to tell you a story. I like for you to visit the world, and the environments will tell a story." There are stories to be discovered, but much more ambient environmental storytelling. There is an AI that is scraping current news stories and injecting them into world, which gives it a bit of a surreal mirror on the current moment as it's set as more of a speculative world. There is also an ever changing quality that is amplified by the AI integrations adding a certain amount of variance.

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Power is expanded until a "spiritual singularity". Dissolves identity into a bit of a collective identity by uploading consciousness into a computer (likely not even possible and so more of a delusion). Also alludes to delusionary aspects of psychics, who are taken to the logical extreme of Institutionalization. What if nothing can stop the guru believes in themselves?

Artist Statement:

"The Great Orator feeds on your interaction, mixed with random Internet input and live news feeds. She mixes truths and fabulations in her storytelling, thus reflecting the misinformation and normalisation of falsehoods used to fit our narratives in today’s world. It feels as though reality is what you make of it, and feelings outweigh facts. Emotional and superstitious rhetoric — once the domain of mediums — now drives public discourse. Those once brought down by scandals now seem immune. The Great Orator imagines a world where such influence has grown without limit. Turn on the news to see where we are. Experience the Great Orator to see where we’re headed."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuknO0VzmmE

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Wuer about Mnemosyne on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for Mnemosyne:

"Mnemosyne is an innovative immersive work that blends VR film and live theatre, offering a multi- sensory experience and a poetic exploration of love, illusion, and awakening. Inspired by Tang Xianzu’s Ming Dynasty classic The Peony Pavilion, the piece draws on Eastern philosophy to evoke the notion of “ultimate 情 (Qing/emotion)”. It combines 360° animation, 180° live-action footage, and live performance, with the surrounding environment, shaping each audience member’s evolving sense of presence. The layered narrative unfolds like ink in water: fluid, evocative, and open to interpretation, inviting the audience to drift between constructed memories and imagined futures. Mnemosyne seeks to create a meditative landscape of shifting emotions, centring on the intimate experience of transcending illusion to uncover genuine feeling. It views this hybrid medium of merging physical and virtual presence as a potential stage for exploring the social dimensions and future possibilities of VR/XR."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

Connecting to the earth and nature [4], but also Eastern Religiion from Daoist and Buddhist thought [9]. Focusing on and reflecting upon your own embodied experiences [1]

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: Most of the experience is CGI-based VR Animation and Cinematic VR, but there's is an immersive theatrical installation of something like a Tea Room, with meditation booths, which have a number of spatial modulations over the course of the performance. There's also an actor at the end with Mixed Reality Components. So it's a real blending of the spatial contexts.2nd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Lots of Taoist and Zen influences, and some quoted poetry and passages, but the density of the philosohical thought create a bit of like Zen Koan type of experience, where there were lots of deeper philosophical mysteries being explored. Very poetic, if not a bit mysterious -- and even the cretor was a bit vexed to communicate what the experience would be. You have to experience it to fully understand.3rd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Spatiousness from the cinematic montage of different scenes and poetic reflections. Jumping between the pre-recorded aspects (Chronos) and the live performative elements (Kairos) of the momen.4th Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: LIVE performance elements. But also no real narrative or spatial agency. Aiming to sort create a contemplative poetic experience.

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Lots of Truth vs Illusion themes. "poetic exploration of love, illusion, and awakening." Also, "it offers a sensory framework where gazes, pauses, and subtle gestures shape the unfolding rhythm. Within a layered dreamscape of animation, live-action, and performance, the audience becomes not just an observer but a co-creator of emotional experience. Drawing from the Daoist idea of “breaking illusion to perceive truth”, the work uses VR as a poetic medium — an ephemeral vessel to navigate between illusion and reality, dream and awakening — until the line between the two gently dissolves."

Artist Statement:

"Mnemosyne is an immersive narrative experiment focused on “empowering the audience’s imagination”. Rather than presenting a closed storyline, it offers a sensory framework where gazes, pauses, and subtle gestures shape the unfolding rhythm. Within a layered dreamscape of animation, live-action, and performance, the audience becomes not just an observer but a co- creator of emotional experience. Drawing from the Daoist idea of “breaking illusion to perceive truth”, the work uses VR as a poetic medium — an ephemeral vessel to navigate between illusion and reality, dream and awakening — until the line between the two gently dissolves."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEAyABepKFM

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Kazuki Yuhara about First Virtual Suit on Sunday, August 31, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.

Here is the story synopsis for First Virtual Suit:

"In the near future, as virtual reality becomes a part of everyday life, creating and using avatars becomes the norm. But what do we choose to project onto these digital selves? Are they idealised versions of who we wish to be — or reflections of our true selves, long hidden within? First Virtual Suit follows a young person who creates their first avatar, only to find themselves on an unexpected journey of self-discovery. As they explore the possibilities of digital embodiment, they are confronted with memories, insecurities, and a version of themselves they had forgotten. In this immersive narrative experience, the virtual becomes a mirror, and the avatar becomes a doorway to the self."

Here are the contextual domains that are explored:

[1] Idenity, Self, Expression [1] as well as online virtual culture in VRChat [11] as contrasted to physical reality [4]. A certain uncertainty [12] about the future [9] and specific professional aspirations [10]

Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:

1st Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: A lot about virtual embodiment, avatars using the blending and blurring between mixed reality and virtual reality. Motion captured actors2nd Center of Gravity of Water Element / Emotional Presence: Narrative-driven, MUSICAL. Very interesting use of music to explore avatar culture in virtual spaces. Used Voice actors3rd Center of Gravity of Fire Element / Active Presence: You get to choose your own avatar at the end and help to customize a collective avatar4th Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Either Dialogue or narration. Also SONGS! This was a group and collective experience, although we were all pretty static, and the multi-player aspect was obvious with the co-presence of mixed reality rather than VR portions

Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:

Identity and self-expression through virtually-mediated spaces. What's real vs What's fantasy? From the creators, "But what do we choose to project onto these digital selves? Are they idealised versions of who we wish to be — or reflections of our true selves, long hidden within?" There's also some Zeus themes of expansion and Air themes of infinite possibilites. "In virtual space, one can become any version of themselves, transcending age, gender, even species. While this freedom is empowering, it can also be overwhelming."

Artist Statement:

This project follows a high school student struggling with their future and sense of self, as they explore a virtual world where avatars embody diverse possibilities. In virtual space, one can become any version of themselves, transcending age, gender, even species. While this freedom is empowering, it can also be overwhelming. The story invites the audience to consider: among countless avatars, which would you choose — and who do you want to be? It’s not just about appearance, but about re-examining the boundaries of identity. I hope this work encourages each viewer to face the version of themselves they have yet to meet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYqDjP1QpU

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality