Andrew Schneider’s "NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars)" absolutely blew me away, and it was a story-driven, immersive art exhibit at the University of Texas Performing Arts Center that opened at the end of SXSW. It uses a cube of 4000 LED lights in a dark theater space to create a visual spectacle, but also to hide an incredible magic trick. There was an array of 392 speakers hidden on three different walls creating one of the most complex and nuanced spatial audio storytelling experiences that I've ever heard. I was profoundly moved by the themes of grief, loss, and our place in the cosmos as he uses the low-bit visual experience to amplify the richness of the audio storytelling featuring beautiful biomimicry moments, large movements of abstract shapes, as well as allusions to stars and constellations. It's an experience that transcends my ability to fully communicate how incredible it was, but I did have a chance to have an in-depth chat with Schneider to talk about his journey in creating it. From theatre-maker to NYU ITP, Schneider does a brilliant job of mashing up data inputs with novel outputs, but all serving the larger journey he's taking us on as a master storyteller.

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Music: Fatality

Wayne Powell is the Global Artist Relations Manager for d&b audiotechnik, and he's been getting more and more interested in how independent artists and musicians are using spatial audio. He was in Austin, Texas with an array of 13 speakers enabling a spatial audio mix for Roman Rappak's annual Ristband mixed reality live performance. I had a chance to catch up with Powell to learn more about his journey into the immersive audio realm, why spatial audio storytelling experiences are currently capturing his attention, and some of the other trends, exciting immersive artists, and immersive audio hotspots around the world.

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

Music: Fatality

On the last day of immersive exhibitions, I saw Roman Rappak's latest RISTBAND mixed reality live performance experiment, which now has a 4-year streak going at SXSW. This year he added an array of 13 d&b audiotechnik speakers that used wave field synthesis to create a spatial audio mix that was added to his mixed reality performance. I have Rappak recount the evolution of this MR live performance (not using Pico HMDs), and see my interviews about unpacking previous live performances from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Rappak shares that adding immersive art to a live musical performance leaves audiences searching for a story, and if he didn't provide one then people would make one up. He's been adding voice-over narration to more deliberately guide the story he's telling, but also experimenting with spatial audio mixes using high-end speakers. I had a chance to catch up with both Rappak and d&b artist relations manager Wayne Powell (in episode #1536) about his latest spatial audio innovations.

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

Music: Fatality

The Polyphonic Spree band founder Tim Delaughter was looking for innovative ways to get people to listen to the entirety of his latest album called Salvage Enterprise. He was driving around a lot of speakers in his van and setting up pop-up listening parties around his home town when he thought there should be a better way to coax people into listening to his entire album, which is something that's a lot more rare in today's fragmented media ecosystem. He worked with Scott Berman as his long-time collaborator on visuals to recruit a number of different animators and filmmakers to create a dome version featuring his entire album called RESOLUTION: A CINEPHONIC RHAPSODY FOR THE SOUL. It's the first time SXSW has been able to curate a dome experience (which showed on the main showroom floor), and it was one of the experiences that was able to quickly fill up their 20 available slots per hour across their six showings a day. It ended up taking home the Audience Award for the XR Experience Spotlight, and was one of the hotter tickets of the exhibition with people rushing to sign up as soon as the doors opened. I had a chance to speak with Director Scott Berman, Polyphonic Spree Founder Tim Delaughter, and Producer Ryan Hartsell about the process of putting this dome experience together.

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Music: Fatality

Web developer Pete Adams created seven different really cool WebXR worlds for his songs featured in the A NUMBER FROM THE GHOST experience. His music was really great to listen to as I explored his abstract open worlds that were being modulated by different three.js effects. It's tough going to make it as an independent musician today, and so Adams was thrilled to take part in SXSW to feature his intersection between art and technology. These experiences also led to him being commissioned by HTC's VIVERSE to continue to develop these WebXR musical immersive experiences for their platform.

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

Music: Fatality

Tenderclaws debuted their first piece in competition at SXSW with a short called FACE JUMPING, which was a surreal, seemingly open world experience with a number of interactive experiments leveraging eye tracking in novel ways. Tenderclaws has consistently pushed the edges of locomotion in everyone of their interactive narratives, and FACE JUMPING is no exception. If you lock eyes with another character for long enough, and you'll have an opportunity to swap perspectives with them, which allows you to progress through various different vignettes. There's a deeply poetic story that's unfolding, but I found that I needed a lot of decoding of the dream logic, metaphors, and allegories within my conversation with Samantha Gorman and Danny Cannizzaro. But it's the type of experience that I wanted to play again and again to continue to explore this world, and all of the novel eye tracking experiments that I missed. FACE JUMPING was my second favorite piece of the festival, and it ended up winning the Audience Award for the SXSW XR Experience Competition, and it was also one of the hottest tickets during the festival.

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

Music: Fatality

IN THE CURRENT OF BEING is a powerfully-told story about electroshock conversion therapy using haptics, mixed reality, and a free-flowing dream logic structure paired with a documentary interview of a survivor. It was a deeply moving experience, and won the new Agog Social Impact Award at SXSW (more on that below). The director is BODY OF MINE's Cameron Kostopolous, who continues exploring embodied storytelling about a very timely topic. There were a handful of politically-themed pieces this year, and this was particularly prescient considering that the Supreme Court announced during SXSW that it would hear arguments about Chiles v. Salazar that challenges the constitutionality of Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. Kostopolous is telling the story of trauma from conversion therapy, and hopes to be a part of an impact campaign that bans conversion therapy in at least one state. However this may be impossible if the Supreme Court declares conversion therapists a free speech right, even if there's little evidence that shows any merit that conversion therapy even works and is considered by Kostopolous to be a form of torture.

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

Music: Fatality

There is a six-month exhibition titled "Other Worlds Are Possible" featuring a retrospective of a dozen different immersive storytelling pieces that will shown at the Le Pavillion in Nemur, Belgium from March 22 to September 21, 2025. The exhibition was curated by independent immersive curator Ana Brzezińska, and will also feature other AR pieces, screen-based work, but also an exhibit detailing a brief history and evolution of immersive art and immersive storytelling from different design disciplines. I had a chance to catch up with Brzezińska to get a bit more context on her design intention for this exhibition, to talk about the current state of immersive art and storytelling, as well as her current focus on brining this work to traditional cultural institutions that are reaching out to mainstream audiences.

Here's a list of different immersive storytelling pieces that will be featured over the next sixth months (with links to my Voices of VR podcast interviews with the creators).

NOTES ON BLINDNESS (2016)

SPHERES (2017)

BATTLESCAR (2018)

GLOOMY EYES (2019)

TRAVELING WHILE BLACK (2019)

THE HANGMAN AT HOME (2020)

GOLIATH: PLAYING WITH REALITY (2021)

PLANET CITY (2022)

PLASTISAPIENS (2022)

EVOLVER (2022)

FROM THE MAIN SQUARE (2022)

ALL THAT REMAINS (2022)

OVER THE RAINBOW (2023)

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Music: Fatality

The SXSW XR Experience Selection runs from March 9-11 and contains 15 pieces in competition and 16 pieces in the spotlight, and I had a chance to chat with SXSW's XR programmer Blake Kammerdiener about each of these pieces. He provides some highlights from the XR Track Sessions at SXSW, and also mentions that there is an immersive piece called NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars) that is showing on March 11th & 12th. See down below for some more links to different SXSW events.

Here is a list of the XR experiences being shown at SXSW, and I will update this post as I post my Voices of VR podcast interviews as I've featured a dozen projects in my previous coverage.

UPDATE (March 29, 2025): I've now added links to all of my subsequent coverage at SXSW down below. And be sure to check out this Linked article: Recap of All SXSW XR Experiences Including Voices of VR Podcast Interviews with Every Artist.

SXSW XR Experience Competition

[Overview of all of the SXSW 2025 XR Experience Program] - #1529: SXSW 2025 XR Experience Selection Sneak Peak with Programmer Blake Kammerdiener

1906 Atlanta Race Massacre - #1548: 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre Uses Phone-Based AR to Volumetrically Tell a Forgotten History

Any War Any Enemy - #1490: “Any War Any Enemy” is a Beautiful Anti-War, Immersive Poem About Nuclear Annihilation

Cosmos in Focus - #1554: Cosmos in Focus Contextualizes James Webb Telescope Images in Educational Immersive Planetarium Experience

Currents - #1556: Currents Boldly Defines a New Era of DIY 180-Degree Immersive Filmmaking with a Kit Under $5k

Face Jumping - #1532: Tenderclaws' "Face Jumping" Explores the Frontiers of Eye-Tracked Locomotion in Poetically Surreal Short

Honey Fungus - #1549: Honey Fungus Cultivates Intimacy with Nature through Embodied Actions Inspired by Fungi and Queer Ecology

In the Current of Being - #1531: In the Current of Being Uses Immersive Haptics to Tell the Story of Electroshock Conversation Therapy

Proof As If Proof Were Needed - #1543: Proof As If Proof Were Needed Enables Audiences to Collaboratively Edit Video Feeds via Embodied Movements

Reflections of Little Red Dot - #1539: Wandering in Open World Doc Archives in Mixed Reality with SXSW XR Jury Prize Winner "Reflections of Little Red Dot"

Shelter - #1545: Shelter Observational 360 Documentary Shows Intimate Side of War via Ukrainian Citizen Bomb Shelters

[The Choice Chapter 1] - #1075: Stereoscopic Compositing Innovations & “The Choice” Interactive Documentary Exploring Reproductive Rights in Texas

The Choice - Chapters 2 and 3 - #1547: Simulating One-on-One Conversations about Abortion Experiences to Change Minds with "The Choice - Chapters 2 & 3"

The Last Practice - #1542: Exploring the Paradox of Narratively Critiquing AI While Also Using AI to Make "The Last Practice"

The Secret Life of Monsters - The Gateway Experience - #1538: Mixed Reality Calibration Innovations Hidden within "The Secret Life of Monsters: The Gateway Experience"

Traces: The Grief Processor - #1544: Traces: The Grief Processor Immersive Documentary Invites Groups to Learn About Grief

Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History - #1546: How Indigenous Storytelling is Changing Non-Proliferation Narratives in "Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History"

SXSW XR Experience Spotlight

Address Unknown: Fukushima Now - #1438: Honoring the Memory of Abandoned Ghost Towns with “Address Unknown: Fukushima Now”

All I Know About Teacher Li - #1452: Immersive Documentary about Chinese Censorship “All I Know About Teacher Li” Tops Venice Immersive Audience Favorites Survey

Ancestors - #1507: From Selfies to Virtual Offspring, “Ancestors” Turns Strangers into Family and Intergenerational Speculative Futures

Anouschka - #1334: “Anouschka” Wins IDFA DocLab Digital Storytelling Award with AR Narrative Game about Cultural Heritage

[Oyrza from DocLab 2024, but also some more discussion about Anouschka] - #1540: Hacking...

The Theater application for the Apple Vision Pro by Sandwich Vision launched in June 2024 with the spatial livestreaming of John Gruber's live interview of Apple Executives at WWDC. They have been collaborating with independent producers of spatial video to distribute rentals and purchases of immersive content spanning across stereoscopic 180-videos to educational planetarium content to more experimental dome content as well as stereoscopic captures of live music performances (I can highly recommend checking out Fungi: Web of Life by K2 Studios). Users can also connect their private collections of movies via Plex Media Servers to enjoy their own private movie collection in a virtual home theater experience with a number of different theater options. They're also currently implementing social features, and may start having live screenings of classic movies with potential collaborations with independent movie theaters.

I had a chance to catch up with Sandwich Vision co-founder Adam Lisagor to hear a bit more about his journey into the XR space, how he's blended storytelling and technology throughout his career, as well as his hopes for what might be a new renaissance of spatial video content given Apple's emphasis of on 180-degree spatial video rather than the VR filmmaking era of 360-degree videos.

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

Music: Fatality