IMMERSION 6.0: VR Creation Lab
May 18-31, 2025
Wilmington, North Carolina
Tuition - Sliding Scale $750 - $1200 * includes food, lodging and technical support for VR production | travel subsidies available by application
Photo credit: still from Ivy Nicole-Jonet's VR piece "the waters whisper sweet solace" made in residence in 2023.
The IMMERSION Lab is a combination of a virtual reality creation residency and an invitation for artists to engage the racial history of America within the context of a southern city: Wilmington, North Carolina. Through this residency, artists will be supported to develop and execute a 360 video project, collaborate with other residents on production, live well in community, and learn about Wilmington’s racial history and how it shapes the present. Bringing multiple meanings of immersion together, this residency is an opportunity to dive deep and put critical thinking into practice through immersive media projects.
Building on the belief that meaningful work is born out of a deep sensitivity for the context from which it emerges, we will immerse ourselves on every level. We will build group rapport through collective agreements, embodied workshops, intimate collaboration and co-mentorship of creative processes. We will engage the history of Wilmington through curated film screenings, local tours, conversations and readings, allowing our research to inform our projects and process. The tools of virtual reality have created a new space of exploration for the vanguard of immersive media and performance. The IMMERSION program asks: How do we root our virtual realities within the political and social realities from which they emerge? How do we resist the escapist trends of immersive media and deepen our relationship to place and to each other through immersion? What layers of historical, cultural, colonial, oppressive, personal and social fabrics map onto our movements in a space? How might we engage these realities actually, and virtually? And, as technologies evolve, how do artists adapt?
Some workshops will take place in advance of the in-person session that will focus on orientation, project conception, and basic technical instruction. The in-person residency will focus on group and site introductions, developing technical proficiency with 360 cameras and footage, creating immersive media projects with our co-residents as collaborators and crew, and beginning post-production. Some subsequent online work sessions after the in-person residency will be available to support project post production. Pieces created at the residency will be exhibited at the VR Salon at the Cucalorus Festival in November 2025. Residents will be encouraged to return to Wilmington for the festival to participate as exhibiting artists.
We are seeking participants who have capacity to engage in an intensive production schedule, interest in developing skills and familiarity with immersive media and 360 video, and a desire to do anti-racist work within media production. Prior experience with 360° cameras and technology will not be required. Session participants will have access to 360° video capture cameras, training in how to use these cameras, as well as technical support during the filming and editing process. Please note that IMMERSION 6.0 has access to limited computer workstations, and participants should be prepared to work from their own laptop and hard drives if they have access to them.
This residency is made possible through a partnership between The School of Making Thinking and Cucalorus Film Foundation, through sponsorships from Pomp&Clout and Toasterlab, and through a Media Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This program is accessible to all. No prior familiarity with Virtual Reality or 360 image capture technology is required. Accommodations for accessibility needs can be made by request.
Building on the belief that meaningful work is born out of a deep sensitivity for the context from which it emerges, we will immerse ourselves on every level. We will build group rapport through collective agreements, embodied workshops, intimate collaboration and co-mentorship of creative processes. We will engage the history of Wilmington through curated film screenings, local tours, conversations and readings, allowing our research to inform our projects and process. The tools of virtual reality have created a new space of exploration for the vanguard of immersive media and performance. The IMMERSION program asks: How do we root our virtual realities within the political and social realities from which they emerge? How do we resist the escapist trends of immersive media and deepen our relationship to place and to each other through immersion? What layers of historical, cultural, colonial, oppressive, personal and social fabrics map onto our movements in a space? How might we engage these realities actually, and virtually? And, as technologies evolve, how do artists adapt?
Some workshops will take place in advance of the in-person session that will focus on orientation, project conception, and basic technical instruction. The in-person residency will focus on group and site introductions, developing technical proficiency with 360 cameras and footage, creating immersive media projects with our co-residents as collaborators and crew, and beginning post-production. Some subsequent online work sessions after the in-person residency will be available to support project post production. Pieces created at the residency will be exhibited at the VR Salon at the Cucalorus Festival in November 2025. Residents will be encouraged to return to Wilmington for the festival to participate as exhibiting artists.
We are seeking participants who have capacity to engage in an intensive production schedule, interest in developing skills and familiarity with immersive media and 360 video, and a desire to do anti-racist work within media production. Prior experience with 360° cameras and technology will not be required. Session participants will have access to 360° video capture cameras, training in how to use these cameras, as well as technical support during the filming and editing process. Please note that IMMERSION 6.0 has access to limited computer workstations, and participants should be prepared to work from their own laptop and hard drives if they have access to them.
This residency is made possible through a partnership between The School of Making Thinking and Cucalorus Film Foundation, through sponsorships from Pomp&Clout and Toasterlab, and through a Media Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This program is accessible to all. No prior familiarity with Virtual Reality or 360 image capture technology is required. Accommodations for accessibility needs can be made by request.
Deadline to apply is Wednesday, January 15th, 2025, at 11:59pm.
