FIVARS had the pleasure of showcasing ‘A Vocal Landscape’ – a thoughtful, nuanced work that takes its time to allow an organic conversation to unfold, disrupting a more common urgency found in immersive works. To understand how this unusual and unique piece came together we chatted with co-creator Omid Zarei:
What led to the creation of this piece?
The idea originated from a real audio recording and our fascination with the complex and ambiguous dynamics that occur within a conversation. We connect or disconnect with each other and ultimately associate through the lens of our respective prior experiences.
Unlike listening to an audio-only recording, real conversation is a bodily experience. As we constantly read each other’s body language, react, and let our thoughts wander, we unconsciously develop a bodily sensation with the experience of having that conversation.
VR is inherently a bodily experience with the full scope needed to recreate that phenomenon.
What was the production process for you and your team? What did you learn?
There has been a lot of trial and error. We have mostly learned and implemented what we’ve learned, then scratched it and started over.
We tried many techniques regarding both sound and visuals. It was very important how we captured the voice, so we had many sessions just testing different microphones. Anne, being the audiophile between us, led that quest. We ended up with a setup consisting of a particular kind of dictaphone held mid-air under the chin with a harmonica holder. It captured the voices with a timber and a sense of intimacy that sounded just right.
With visuals, we knew we wanted to go with volumetric capture and not mo-cap. There’s something inherently warm and familiar about seeing actors captured with vol-cap, even on the lower end. We experienced everything commercially available, starting with the hacked Kinect v1-v2 and later to Azure and so on, which went on for months and led to the development of the early prototypes.
Then we won an Epic MegaGrant and a prize at VIFF for a partnership with Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture Studio a few weeks apart; it was a huge level up. After that, there were months of preparation for the volcap in San Francisco, rewriting, and rehearsing as we had to be very efficient on the recording day. The Microsoft team was great to collaborate with, and even before the shoot, we had sample assets to experiment with in Unreal Engine. We had a wonderful time at the recording and composing it in UE for the months after.
In the final editing round and world-building process, we removed much of the content and made things more minimal. Leaving more empty space for the spectator to wander outweighs the benefit of any cosmetic content we would keep.
Overall, we learned that there is no handbook for XR, and that’s why we love the medium and the experience of creating in it. We started somewhere, learned a lot, and, for the most part, built our own way to somewhere else that was completely unimaginable to us when we started.
How did you become an immersive media content creator and why?
Immersive media is a sweet mix of all the mediums and experiences we are passionate about. Anne comes from audio storytelling and musicology. I (Omid) come from a film background. My first experience in VR was in 2015 when I was still in film school in Paris. I got curious about the medium and created a workshop in Helsinki to have people experiment with creating VR content. After that, I got increasingly involved in VR production, and on one of the projects, Anne and I worked on a prototyping competition making a VR project for the Finnish Opera. Our project didn’t win the funding, but we created an XR company, Superposition, to continue that path of exploring an immersive medium. That eventually led to the production of A Vocal Landscape.
What is the VR/AR industry like in your region?
It has ups and downs. Sadly, some of the pioneers in the narrative or experimental side have left the scene in the past few years. Although we have strong film and game grant programs, funding for immersive projects is ambiguous and out of reach. These organizations usually neglect and even mock immersive projects. Applications get passed around between different departments in the bureaucratic machine until they wear out. There are a few actors on the business side of XR, and they seem to be going strong.
What do you have planned for the future?
We have started working on a new piece during the past year and are very excited about it. It’s called Tuner. It’s an augmented reality experience that creates a tailor-made close-encounter experience in your own living room. You get to interact and be part of an experience with non-human entities, and your surroundings and level of engagement determine how deep the rabbit hole goes.
We’re developing this project in the Artizen Fund and presenting the WIP in the Artizen Showcase in Detroit in late September. We’re also running with the project in the CPH:LAB development bootcamp from mid-October to further develop it, and we aim to have a prototype in time for next year’s CPH DOX.
What would you like to share with fellow content creators and the industry?
We want to humbly share what we have learned: No one really knows what XR content is, should be, and will be good for. No one also has a real guaranteed working business model for it yet. It’s only safe to say that it will inevitably thrive and exist in the same shape or form available to the masses at some point.
We invite all fellow creators to stay true to their vision, be brave, and experiment. The XR:101 handbook is still being written, and you’re in it. “Do not go gentle into that good night…”
Do you think VR festivals like FIVARS are important?
100%. I first heard about FIVARS on Kent Bye’s Voices of VR podcast, and I’ve been extremely intrigued by it. FIVARS is at the forefront of showcasing the creators pushing the envelope on what this medium can do. It’s wholesome, personal, and all-encompassing. It reminds me of the concept of the Exposition Universelle, but it’s XR and welcomes indie approaches. We hope that one day, events like FIVARS will be ubiquitous and frequent.
<A Vocal Landscape> plays at FIVARS 2024 Festival October 3rd through October 8th.
Directors:
Anne Jeppesen
