FIVARS has always loved and benefited from showing live VR performances of every kind. This year, we feature Rowan Wood’s amazing living world, ‘Liminal.’ We had a chance to chat with the creator in advance of the FIVARS 2024 10th Anniversary festival.
What led to the creation of this piece?
LIMINAL is part of the ongoing materialization of my Life Work and the themes explored therein.
It is a narrative framework that expresses a literal interpretation of how the Metaverse is synonymous with higher-dimensional spaces — dreams, the mind, the collective subconscious, the flow of time — and how XR links these levels of consciousness, how the Metaverse is a microcosm of a higher reality within reality. How we embody ourselves within it and form culture and relationships through it, finding the brief moments of joy and beauty in the wonder and melancholy of existing.
LIMINAL shows how one can create “something” out of “nothing” within the alchemy of the digital world and how it quantifies material creation. How the Universe and the Metaverse are mirrors of each other and also a part of one another. How any incredibly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic — and how we are intrinsically connected to the magic of all that is.
What was the production process for you and your team? What did you learn?
As I am a single-person team, the production of LIMINAL was a deep meditation and a satisfying challenge.
The most difficult part of the entire process, by far, was creating the Wanderer. It is a full-body avatar I made entirely from scratch. It is completely original, and its production utilized almost every practical skill I have as an artist and animator. It took me the better part of eight months to finish.
The Wanderer is the centerpiece of the work and my personal embodiment within the performance. His creation required a certain level of perfection and accuracy in all aspects to be a living, breathing being within the virtual space. As you visit his pocket of reality, he is naturally present in his environment. The audience encounters him as a creature that actively exists and goes through his daily routines.
It’s incredibly endearing when people first encounter the Wanderer. These initial reactions are a highlight for me as the artist. Some people are afraid, some are in awe, and some assume he’s a bird—until he gets close.
On an interaction level, I’ve been told by audience members that it is highly startling to see an avatar so “alive” and that they could swear they were interacting with a genuine entity. Many people think that he is AI-generated, pre-animated, or a stock model with mocap. He is not. He is entirely a creation of my own, whom I embody, and he is integral to the piece overall.
How did you become an immersive media content creator and why?
It was out of necessity; however, in hindsight, it was fate.
Originally, I’d wanted to be a classical animator — but the bottom fell out of that industry just as I was exiting school. I needed something to fall back on, which was 3D development and game design. I’d been involved in the Metaverse since 1997 — starting with primitive text-based worlds known as MUD/MUCK(s) and moving on to more complex platforms like Second Life. I needed to develop my new career, so I began a business on Second Life and remained active on the platform for 15 years.
Once XR began to evolve and the technology improved, I wanted to take my knowledge developing for Second Life and evolve that into more complex experiences that integrated the abstract philosophical and spiritual subjects I wanted to explore.
In 2015, I received a grant from the Canadian Media Fund to produce a prototype for developing narrative interactions within XR. I melded that with the experience garnered from an Alternate Reality Game I developed and ran from 2016 to 2018.
I then got involved in the creative social Metaverse platform: Resonite. There, I somehow managed to find myself on the Board of Directors for a Metaverse-centric non-profit called Creator Jam, in which we build worlds in the Metaverse every weekend.
LIMINAL’s early development began around 2019. I received a grant from the generous Canada Council for the Arts to complete LIMINAL in 2023 — and here we are!
What is the VR/AR industry like in your region?
As far as I know, the XR industry in my area is quite developed and robust.
What do you have planned for the future?
While LIMINAL is an ongoing production, the next facet of my work will be “BLACKWOOD” [working title]. While it is an entirely separate entity from LIMINAL in terms of substance, it will add dimension to the narrative of LIMINAL and focus on the darker themes contained in my work. It will involve the creation of a new avatar with even more complexity that will require articulate quadrupedal puppeteering alongside complete embodiment. I’m very excited about getting that started.
What would you like to share with fellow content creators and the industry?
Whatever it is you want to do — do it. Do not hesitate. Don’t waste too much time thinking about whether or not it would be the “right” thing to do. Just do it. Don’t worry too much about where you might find the resources you need, or the time, or the money to complete your project. Just do it. Just start. It might take a few weeks, or a few years, or even a few decades — but you’ll get to where you need to be. Just do it.
Do you think VR festivals like FIVARS are important?
Festivals such as FIVARS are extremely important — especially when they involve these developing technologies and fresh storytelling methods.
People have yet to entirely realize XR’s potential in creating storytelling frameworks. Stories that jut from standard linear timelines and envelop the individual in an experience that is wholly their own. Meta-narratives where we exist tangentially in multiple realities. Living, breathing worlds with histories of their own. The slowing-down of the speeding-up where human beings can absorb a slow, spoon-fed story with complexities that complement their intelligence within the human experience and give room to think and breathe.
Stories that not only entertain but allow us to remove our minds from ourselves — if only for a moment — to embody a not-us and reflect on the nature of our everyday corporeal existence.
We need spaces to introduce people to these (sometimes extremely abstract) concepts. Festivals (such as FIVARS) provide that space.
LIMINAL plays at FIVARS 2024 Festival October 3rd through October 31st.
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