The Tribeca Film Festival’s Virtual Arcade, and the Tribeca Cinema360, were an extraordinary experience. The Tribeca Immersive banner were very strong this year and the offerings did not disappoint. This year the event was presented by AT&T and viewers who came to the Virtual Arcade encountered some of the most intriguing VR, AR and MR experiences and exhibits yet.
from new and established artists, while the Tribeca Cinema360 features 12 curated screenings in a custom VR theater.
The musicianship of Yo-Yo Ma is featured in “Into the Light,” a AR experience in which he plays Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor.” The interactive musical piece was developed specifically to unfold on site at the Virtual Arcade at the Tribeca Hub. It unfolds over multiple floors, it begins when you are placed into a group of 6 or so participants at the starting point. Each group member is provided with a mobile phone and a set of Bose AR enabled headphones. You then point your devices camera at a marker at station one and a audio track is triggered along with a AR visualization of the music that is being played. You are then taken from station to station, up stairs, around corners, listening and viewing the visualization, until you reach the rooftop of the Tribeca hub where the final movement of the song is played and experienced in AR by the group. I was honored to take the Tour with Max Lauter one of the producers on the project.
Bose AR-enabled headphones have motion sensors embedded in them. This technology enables them to detect your head orientation and body movement. Bose AR-enhanced apps can use this information along with location data from your mobile device to offer you audio content tailored to where you are and what you’re doing. Q Department executed the sound design for the project so that as you walk from station to station a new part of the experience is triggered.
Senior Programmer, Loren Hammonds, stated, “Tribeca Immersive remains committed to the power of new technology as a dynamic vehicle for storytelling,” Film & Immersive for Tribeca Film Festival. “This year’s programming spans a myriad of genres, including many world premiere VR, MR and AR experiences.”
