Experiential art, cloud gaming, and a mind-altering mirrored dome
A weekly digest charting developments across live performance, technology, and the emerging Metaverse
New Forms and Audiences
Superblue's Experiential Art Center to Open in Miami
Superblue, a new enterprise focusing on experiential art, announces the launch of its first venue in Miami in early Spring 2021 with a group show featuring works by Es Devlin, teamLab, and James Turrell. While some have claimed that 2020 marked the beginning of the end of the experience economy, Superblue and many others point towards a coming proliferation of large-scale immersive exhibitions.
A cross between immersive theatre and an illegal rave
What does it mean to stage an "illegal rave" in the age of virtual platforms? The music industry continues to contend with the role of nightlife as physical venues struggle to stay afloat. An interactive online experience described as Bandersnatch meets Boiler Room, BBL CLB (pronounced "bubble club") will feature live DJ sets and launches on February 11, 2021.
Tech and The Metaverse
Cloud gaming’s history of false starts and promising reboots
Cloud gaming is the new thing in the media industry, but has been in development for quite some time. The most recent company to enter the market, Parsec, raised $25 million in Series B funding and is expanding beyond its initial effort to help gamers access their PCs from other devices and into streaming tools for remote work and production. Parsec shows that emerging cloud gaming technology could have compelling uses outside of the gaming industry.
When will virtual reality take off?
Greg Linden, former data scientist at Microsoft, says VR has not yet reached beyond early adopters and enthusiasts and has struggled to bridge the physical and digital realms in any substantial way. But, the infrastructure has been built, and Linden says what VR is missing is a "must-have" experience.
Entangled Histories
The 1970 Pepsi Pavilion in Osaka
This week we're looking back to the 1970 Pepsi Pavilion in Osaka, an extraordinary collaboration between the arts, sciences, and commerce resulting in a mind-altering mirrored dome that took the idea of the total work of art into a whole new dimension. Prefiguring what is now being termed "experiential art," lead engineer Billy Klüver, together with the artistic director Robert Breer, set out to create a laboratory, not just for the artists and engineers but also the visitors, immersing them in an experience—an artwork—in which they would be active participants, not just passive observers, and exposing them and their senses to new kinds of working relationships and new stimuli (from Sebastian Schumacher, 2014).
We're taking a couple weeks off. See you in the new year!
Part aggregator, part independent journal, Scenospace is a weekly digest charting developments across live performance, technology, and the Metaverse. Scenospace is delivered every week to your inbox.
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