Since we started our activity, we worked and collaborated with such amazing artists. From each one we learned something so valuable and unique that we strongly felt we should share their experiences and insights in a series of short interviews.
What is VR for you, Ioana Mischie?
To me, VR seemed at first a form of “expanded consciousness” as Gene Youngblood used to name expanded cinema innovations. I believe through VR we can actually re-wire our collective imagination and question it from angles that were unseen before. It is a telepathic journey facilitated mechanically at the moment, however its medium term evolution could lead to noetic epiphanies, if handled for altruistic purposes. To me VR is not the end goal of an art form, but rather a facilitator for achieving advanced multi-layered human thinking. It questions our definitions of reality and art at an unprecedented level. I tend to us it lately for its ability to allow us to imagine alternative societies and to be able to choose urgent actions with more care in our virtual and real surroundings.
VR for Good – how can it be used for social impact?
There are already emerging examples of VR projects used for therapy, education, health, mindfulness purposes, however countless examples of VR projects used for addictive purposes too: FPS, over-conflictual narratives, escapism. We need to develop immersive wisdom as artists and explorers and to promote gradually more
game-changers with a stunning influence in society on the short, medium, long term. Carne y Arena is wonderful example of transmedialized VR where you inhabit characters in the most sensorial manner. Psychic VR developed at MIT is a stunning demo of neuro-VR. Tree VR emerged as a manifesto against deforestation. VR for Good is to me, the only VR that is valid and worth-expanding. I have been archiving good practices of VR in my first book, Cinema Infinit. In there, I have prototyped a new audio-visual genre called noe-fi (noetic fiction), aiming to envisage future led by the advancement of human consciousness and not by the advancement of tech alone, as in sci-fi. I believe VR for Good is an entry point into noetic thinking.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this field?
Everything is often a challenge in immersive storytelling: from innovative concept creation, to developing VR projects in the absence of production support, to overcoming the ephemerality of technology, to creating educational infrastructure in order to match tech minds with artistic minds in an organic manner. To me, the biggest challenge is, perhaps the fact that artistic VR is not yet democratized, given the emerging technology, and very often most of our work remains unwillingly secret. Still, as one of my good friends in LA used to say, I believe we are witnessing a technological shift that only happens once in a century and therefore I consider myself lucky for having the chance to deal with these challenges and find new aesthetic and ethical grammars for the medium. The beauty and the impact of VR overcomes the difficulty of the behind-the-scenes and we are truly grateful for having the chance to co-invent this “wheel”. I believe VR can become, like folklore, specific to one’s country, yet in the same time, equally universal. So I am looking as forward to co-imagine the future of meaningful VR and I do hope it will succeed to escape the over-commercial pressures of our times and propose new grounds for human advancement.
What is Projection Mapping for you, Dorel Naste?
Projection mapping is a creative medium where video projectors are used to show an audio-visual narrative on the surface of irregular 3D objects such as buildings, theatrical stages, and almost any surface. We use projection mapping as an artistic, entertaining, or advertising tool, to impress the audience with extra dimensions, optical illusions, and notions of movement onto previously static objects.
Projection Mapping for Good – how can it be used for social impact?
Projection mapping is used most of the time for outdoor events. This involves projections on big buildings, in a planned event, or even as a guerilla project. Due to the big projected images, the impact on the viewer is very powerful. ENLIGHTENMENT SOLIDARITY PROJECT is a recent projection mapping initiative that aimed to send a message of hope, love, encouragement, and support to those involved in the recent events in Ukraine. The project took place in more than 30 cities worldwide.
Link: ENLIGHTENMENT SOLIDARITY PROJECT
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this field?
One of the biggest challenges we had was a collaborative dome projection show made for the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. For this project, we had to create a very detailed animation and high-quality rendering at 10.000 x 10.000 pixels. It was challenging both in terms of creation and execution of the 3D assets, but also in terms of rendering. The projection surface was more than 2500m2, projected by 30 pieces of 21.000 ANSI lumens bright projectors, and its dimensions make it the biggest permanent dome projection in China to date.
What are NFTs for you, Mihai Dragan?
Simply put, they are digital certificates of ownership. Their authenticity is not connected to one single authority but is stored on a decentralized network (a blockchain). In a larger sense I think they represent a new way for society to trade and share value. The value that can be traded and shared can range from art, to real estate to temporary ownership of goods and services.
They are an example of where the world is headed: a more decentralized way of creating and accessing value.
NFTs for Good – how can it be used for social impact?
I think there are many ways we can use NFTs for good. Some of the examples we’ve seen from creators using Oveit range from creating and selling art for charity purposes to helping NGOs raise funds from the blockchain community.
One of the dearest examples is the world’s first movie released as NFT frames, The Wishing Tree. The movie was produced by Hospice, the leading palliative care NGO and released as NFT to increase awareness and raise funds. Every NFT is a movie frame and is valued at the cost of one palliative care visit.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this field?
The biggest challenge is explaining the potential the blockchain technology and the concept of NFTs have to improve our society. The crypto world has transformed from a hacker-friendly subculture to what is probably the biggest technological and societal change of our time.
One other thing we have noticed is that things have gotten a lot easier for the end user. Opening a crypto wallet is a lot easier than it was say 5 years ago and concepts such as art NFTs make everything much more friendly and attractive.
What does this industry mean to you?
It means the future. When I think of gaming I think of the medium through which my child is going to experience a whole lot of new things and emotions, have fun, learn in, and more, I also think of amazing technology and innovation which will spill over to other domains and enhance our life for the better.
Games for Good – How can they be used for social impact?
Games ARE good. Games are a tool for so many amazing things, they can be used in education, they make people happy, they create entire communities (online but also offline), and they can be a way in which parents and children can communicate better. But we do need to do more, as an industry together with other actors in the community to communicate that games can be used FOR good. If you use them right, of course.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this industry?
I guess what first comes to mind when I think about what I most struggle with in my day-to-day job as a community organizer is convincing indie game devs to do stuff that is good for business 😊 the indie community needs a lot of entrepreneurial education and what’s most frustrating is they don’t really think they need it. How to make games that actually sell, how to make money making games, how to finance your game, how to manage your team, all these things are vital subjects for video game entrepreneurs but are not sexy enough for them to really treat them seriously. It takes a lot of 1on1 talks and discussions and efforts to convince them otherwise. The second biggest challenge is to make big and small companies in the industry look at the long-term game. Investing time and resources in education in order to make sure you have a talent pool that will satisfy your growing needs is something everyone wants to do on paper but it is very hard to find the time to look at the long term when the game dev industry is so demanding day in day out.
What is Game Art for you?
It is the art where you can shine if you put in honest work.
Game Art/Games for Good – How can it be used for social impact?
Using real tough subjects and themes in the stories. Make people think while playing.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this field/industry?
The biggest challenge is finding the team that will commit to complete, but I guess this is the biggest challenge in every industry.
Follow Olga on artstation.com
What is Love Lost for you?
Love Lost is an exhibit of objects related to love and loss. It crowdsources objects from residents of its community, helping these seemingly ordinary items to come alive as deeply personal artifacts with the help of their accompanying narratives.
Relics of unfinished romances and broken bridges, deserted homelands, and missed opportunities, endured trauma, dodged bullets, and peaceful resignation – through them, Love Lost becomes a communal mosaic colored with shares of sadness, anger, gratitude, even humor. Bringing forth a deep aspect of our collective emotional story by uniting us in a shared moment of release, communal grief, remembrance, and joy.
Love Lost for Good – How can it be used for social impact?
We want to fight the loneliness epidemic. In a world that has never been more connected, people feel more alone than ever, especially after a global pandemic. Lacking social connection was found to be devastating to a person’s overall health increasing mortality risk by 29% and 32%. Creating a sanctuary to honor and let go of those memories that shape our shared human experience transforming the notion of oneness into wholeness. Meaning that nothing is ever lost and that we are never alone in our journeys.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced with Love Lost
The biggest challenge of Love Lost is to find the right way to honor all the submissions appropriately and with a lot of love and compassion.
What is Love Lost to you?
The project is a communal mosaic of the human experience, colored with shades of heartbreak, love, anger, fear, hope, gratitude, even humor. Through relics of unfinished romances and broken bridges, deserted homelands and missed opportunities, endured trauma, dodged bullets, and peaceful resignation, it takes on shared meaning by showing us a whole that is much, much greater than the sum of its parts.
Love Lost for Good – How can it be used for social impact?
Love Lost aims to bring forth a deeper aspect of our communal emotional story by uniting all of us in a shared moment of release, communal grief, remembrance, and joy. Given that we are living through an increasingly and alarmingly polarized time, not just politically but socially, and that humanizing/connecting to others is at the core of softening into empathy, compassion, understanding, we hope those who engage with it see their pains and their joys reflected back to them across lines of difference.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced with Love Lost?
Surrendering! The exhibit is dynamic and responsive, so we rely on the submissions of a particular year to curate the objects and stories in each exhibit. We don’t have control over what kinds of stories are submitted, by whom, etc, so it is a great lesson and an opportunity every time.
What is Love Lost for you?
From day one Love Lost has been an opportunity to dig deeper, on a personal and communal level. In a world where there’s endless possibilities to connect, many feel disconnected. So Love Lost is a space that was created in the hopes to build bridges – human to human – in a raw and vulnerable way. Here you’ll feel accompanied, part of something bigger; something cathartic, healing and transformative.
Love Lost for Good – How can it be used for social impact?
As a collective, we tend to bury our stories away in the dark nooks of our minds, to be lost in the hopes that they’ll be forgotten. But we forget that sharing our experiences, shining a light on them, widens the scope for others and acts as an invitation to release and liberate ourselves from experiences that may be holding us back. Some fear that mental health is the next global pandemic. “Sharing experiences can be a cathartic and powerful way to help improve mental health. Not only can shared experiences help you to know that you are not alone, they can also inspire and support others in a similar situation.” extracted from the Royal College of Physicians website. As Facundo Cabral once said, “Because one does not live alone and what happens to one is happening to the world.”
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced with Love Lost?
When participants submit their stories, they have a choice to receive their item back or use this experience as a true liberation to never encounter it again. Our challenge has been deciding what to do with those items that now belong to no-one but once carried so much sentiment.
