“Which one would you like to try?”
“’Come?’ I think that’s it.”
She looks confused.
“The porn one.”
“Oh, okay,” she replies, adjusting headphones and a Samsung Gear Virtual Reality (VR) headset over my face. Titles appear, and I begin.
For many, the Sundance Film Festival conjures images of fur coats, Robert Redford, or weird indie films, but virtual reality is already becoming part of the buzz. Critics, industry professionals, and fans alike rush up the stairs to the New Frontier VR exhibit as Colorado College alum Andy Goldstein leads our class to the main floor. His creepy VR doll horror story, Sisters, is already available as a smartphone app. I still haven’t made it to the end.
Demos range from narrative films to point of view world experiences. Some are like normal video installations, such as Escape Pod, a looped animated film following a gold deer through surreal deserts or endless stairs (one bizarre sequence even involves emerging from inside the deer through its rear, a pulsing butthole). Another demo is a two-screen loop of contemporary Compton, Calif., set to music by Kendrick Lamar, or a slow-motion performance of a stunt man setting himself on fire. More elaborate exhibits have wait-times up to four hours, including “The Holo-Cinema,” in which you can interact with holographic worlds of Star Wars, Jurassic Park, or “The Martian VR Experience,” where you can play through scenes of The Martian as Matt Damon’s character, Mark Watney.
I finish my first experience, “In The Eyes of An Animal,” created by a collective called Marshmallow Laser Feast. Four black, futuristic helmets hang from the ceiling, adorned with different colored grasses; it looks like an art installation itself. Thankfully, it’s only a 10-minute wait, as I slip on my headset and buckle a backpack across my chest. The VR simulates the worlds of four animal species: a fly, dragonfly, frog, and owl. My vest buzzes, simulating wings as I explore pixelated, shifting green canopies below me in 360-degree view. I crawl along bark, and trees pulse in black and white as I look for prey. I even hear leaves blow around me, and I’m reminded of my physical body only because my butt is sliding off the chair as I look around excitedly.
Some take all day to try, such as “The Leviathan,” an exhibit that uses motion sensors to pair physical touch with virtual images. Another demo involves a multi-person, avatar experience, where you explore a crypt with a friend, interacting with each other and digital objects. In others, you choose your own adventure, like the history of Cuban dance or an animated music video based on Alice in Wonderland.
I head upstairs to the Samsung Gear VR lounge; unfortunately, the headsets use only Samsung phones. Experiences range from social issues of minorities, from living among a rural tribe in Kenya to futuristic sci-fi, such as waking up after a 30-year cryogenic freeze. I start with “6×9: An Immersive of Solitary Confinement,” produced by the Guardian. Of course, I’m alone. A voice prompts me to memorize my cell.
I look down at my twin cot, and then I see a desk, stool, and toilet. I hear actual prison recordings as inmates describe their psychological experiences of solitary. Scrawled handwritten words appear on the wall, such as “depression” and “suicide.” The headphones aren’t noise cancelling, so I can still hear the voices of others around me; still, the environment is convincing. One inmate describes seeing his cell from above one day, and I begin to float toward the ceiling. It’s uncanny.
I wanted to try “Notes on Blindness,” an experience of being blind, but hearing the man next to me talk about a porn one, I had to try it. “Viens!” begins sitting in the middle of a plastic tarp. People surround me, and I realize they are all naked. Suddenly, they start touching each other, and I’m looking down on a moving, mass of bodies. Some perform oral sex, but most are in such a tangle that I can’t immediately attach hands with bodies. It’s not overtly sex; it’s more intimate and uncomfortable. My perspective shifts as I look at the bodies from afar or upside down; unlike porn, I get to choose my “scene.” By the end, everyone is staring up at me as they disappear under the tarp, hidden again. Creepy.
Of course, Sundance has more exhibits than anyone could experience at home, but already virtual reality is commercially available. Companies like Oculus Rift sell upscale headsets for $600, but Google’s Cardboard, a DIY cardboard set, sells for as low as five dollars. Cutting edge VR is still expensive (one prototype, the Microsoft HoloLens, is $3,000), but products like Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR ($99) are consumer friendly. Oculus Rift even has multi-player VR shooters, and Sony Playstation VR is launching a PS4 headset this year, boasting ultra-real 120 frames per second gameplay. HTC Vive Pre, a PC Steam VR, is also set to hit shelves in April.
VR is still in development, and like 3D it will take time to address motion sickness and eye fatigue. But, the potential for immersive, interactive storytelling already has filmmakers and artists boggling, with Sundance leading the way.
Plus, Andy Goldstein and Robyn Tong, co-founders of Otherworld Interactive, will be part of Cornerstone Arts Week. Make sure to visit them to experience “Sisters” yourself, Feb. 26.