IMMERSION 2.0: "Emplacement" VR Lab
July 7 - July 27
Cucalorus, Wilmington, NC
Tuition $1200 *includes food, lodging and technical support for VR production | tuition and travel subsidies available
This summer, The School of Making Thinking will run IMMERSION 2.0, in which we will develop site specific and emplaced immersive works. This session will explore at once the philosophical implications of immersive experience and emplacement – as sensual, embodied, social, historical, and colonial – as well as the implications in art making practices and art forms. The first week of the session will be devoted to these investigations as well as workshops, group conversation, and production planning. In the second week, employing our research as source material, we will create immersive pieces of performance and Virtual Reality in chosen locations throughout the city. The third week will be devoted to post production of the Virtual Reality pieces created, building a place-based platform for our work in collaboration with ToasterLab.
What layers of historical, cultural, colonial, personal, oppressive and social fabrics layer our movements in a space? How might we engage these realities actually, and virtually? We will conduct micro research projects within Wilmington in order to develop context and content for the pieces produced. We will engage the history of our surroundings, wonder about the standing communities, observe architecture and local lore, acknowledge the original caretakers of the land, and the legacies of cultural production that make Wilmington what it is today.
In 2017, The School of Making Thinking led our first IMMERSION Lab at Cucalorus in Wilmington, North Carolina. In partnership with ExpectVR, we provided residents access to 360° cameras, intensive workshops on the theme of "immersion”, and curated structures for collaboration. The Virtual Reality video pieces that emerged were tremendous: work born of intensive collective experience, focused idea incubation, and participation in challenging conversations in community.
Prior experience with VR cameras and technology will not be required. Session participants will have access to Virtual Reality cameras as well as technical support. Pieces created at the residency will be the centerpiece of the VR Expo at the Cucalorus Film Festival in November. Residents will be encouraged to return to participate as exhibiting artists.
What layers of historical, cultural, colonial, personal, oppressive and social fabrics layer our movements in a space? How might we engage these realities actually, and virtually? We will conduct micro research projects within Wilmington in order to develop context and content for the pieces produced. We will engage the history of our surroundings, wonder about the standing communities, observe architecture and local lore, acknowledge the original caretakers of the land, and the legacies of cultural production that make Wilmington what it is today.
In 2017, The School of Making Thinking led our first IMMERSION Lab at Cucalorus in Wilmington, North Carolina. In partnership with ExpectVR, we provided residents access to 360° cameras, intensive workshops on the theme of "immersion”, and curated structures for collaboration. The Virtual Reality video pieces that emerged were tremendous: work born of intensive collective experience, focused idea incubation, and participation in challenging conversations in community.
Prior experience with VR cameras and technology will not be required. Session participants will have access to Virtual Reality cameras as well as technical support. Pieces created at the residency will be the centerpiece of the VR Expo at the Cucalorus Film Festival in November. Residents will be encouraged to return to participate as exhibiting artists.