Immersive Arcade: The Showcase

Welcome to Immersive Arcade. This one-of-a-kind project is the first national collection of 12 of the best examples of virtual reality (VR) and 360 experiences created in the UK between 2000 and 2020.

The showcase will feature the following experiences:

Common Ground

Darren Emerson, East City Films

Common Ground is a VR documentary narrative exploring the history, politics and human face of the current crisis in the UK housing system. Through the brutalist concrete blocks of the notorious Aylesbury Estate, the biggest social housing estate in Europe, audiences will enter its world from its construction to its controversial redevelopment today. This multifaceted VR documentary questions notions of community, examines the dis-enfranchisement and demonisation of the working class, and captures the sense of betrayal that residents feel when they are forced to move on.

The Invisible

Darkfield

Imagine you could make yourself invisible. What would you do with this remarkable talent? Could you resist the temptation to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting? If you cannot be seen, how can you be held responsible for anything? Meet the invisible man and choose your path.

Fly

Charlotte Mikkelborg, Novelab

From a multiple award-winning VR team and Oscar-winning special effects team, Fly enables you to become a time-travelling pilot - from the earliest imaginings of Leonardo da Vinci and his ornithopter, to the Wright Brothers’ success on Kitty Hawk Beach and, ultimately, into one potential future of flight.

Notes on Blindness

ARTE, Atlas V, Archer’s Mark, Novelab

An immersive virtual reality (VR) project based on John Hull’s sensory and psychological experience of blindness released alongside the feature film.

Limbo

The Guardian and ScanLAB Projects

Limbo enables viewers to experience what life is like for many asylum seekers in the UK who are waiting to hear whether they will be permitted to stay in the country. Placing viewers in the shoes of a newly arrived asylum seeker, Limbo uses the voices of real asylum seekers to guide the viewer through the experience - from arriving in an unfamiliar city to the Home Office interview which will decide their fate.

Narrated by actress Juliet Stevenson and compiled through interviews with 12 asylum seekers, Limbo enables a glimpse into their psychological state. They are caught between two lives - that of the place they left and the new life they hope to build.

Main Credits: Matthew Shaw, William Trossell, Shehani Fernando, Francesca Panetta, Nicole Jackson

Vestige

NSC Creative, Atlas V, Kaleidoscope, RYOT

VESTIGE is an award-winning, room-scale VR creative documentary that uses multi-narrative and volumetric live capture to take the viewer on a journey into the mind of Lisa as she remembers her lost love, Erik. Within an empty void, fragments of past memories appear of their life together. As we navigate the space to explore these moments, new memories are triggered revealing new pathways through the story. Over time the memories become entangled with a haunting vision and eventually lead us to the shocking moment of Erik’s death. Every viewing will reveal a different journey towards this moment, revealing the complex world of memory and grief.

Main Credits: Aaron Bradbury, Paul Mowbray, Antoine Cayrol, Jill Basmajian

Lucid

Breaking Fourth

Eleanor is a renowned children’s author and illustrator. A car accident has left her in a coma. Before Eleanor is taken off life support, her daughter Astra is given the chance to undertake an experimental treatment that will allow her to enter Eleanor’s mind, for one last goodbye... Astra’s presence triggers a surprising reaction. Eleanor’s mind comes to life, transporting Astra to the magical world of her famous book series. As Astra explores tree-houses in the sky, stunning ice fields and enchanted forests she discovers the disturbing truth behind her mother’s accident.

Main Credits: David Kaskel, Kenneth Henderson, Pete Short

Somnai

Layered Reality

SOMNAI was a location-based hour-long immersive event at a venue in Central London set over 25000sqft that ran during 2017 that was a theatrical lucid dreaming clinic. It consisted of 35 different rooms each with a mixture of live performance, physically-layered virtual reality, 360° immersive projections, dream-like physical sets and interactive technology. 6 people would go through at a time with the show running daily and every ten minutes.

Main Credits: Carl Guyenette, Connie Harrison

Home: A VR Spacewalk

BBC and REWIND

Inspired by the NASA training programs used by British astronaut Tim Peake, Home – A VR Spacewalk enables would-be astronauts to embark on a spacewalk 250 miles above the Earth’s surface, something only a few people have ever done for real. They are tasked with making a repair on the outside of the International Space Station, before being confronted with a heart stopping emergency situation. Home’s ambition as a piece of VR was to combine a strong narrative and sense of drama with the incredible impact possible in an immersive experience to encourage and enhance the public’s interest in space.

Nothing To Be Written

59 Productions and BBC

During the First World War, millions of multiple-choice postcards were sent home by soldiers from the trenches. Nothing except a signature was allowed to be written on the card – communication could only take place through prescribed phrases. Part artwork, part documentary, Nothing to be Written tells the stories of these ‘Field Postcards’ and is inspired by the circumstances under which they were written and received. Nothing to be Written is a BBC virtual reality experience by 59 Productions, with an original score by composer Anna Meredith, commissioned by the BBC VR Hub.

Flood

Metaverse, Stare at the Wall, National Youth Theatre

Flood is a groundbreaking 45-minute location-based XR drama for up to 8 audience members. It’s a dark, foreboding, cinematic experience, set during and after an apocalyptic climate event, which confronts audiences with a bold and visceral vision of what happens when land turns to water. Audiences are dropped into a beautifully bleak virtual world where they have to work together with the cast to find dry land. Engaging with themes of displacement and exclusionary politics, Flood aims to bring to life the effects of our negligent decisions, the unequal impacts of climate change, and its influence on generations to come.

Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier

Tate and Preloaded

Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier reimagines Modigliani's final Parisian studio, where he lived and worked in the final months of his life in 1919 and 1920. A previously undocumented space, the artist's studio has been brought back to life in VR through more than 60 objects and artworks.

Drawing upon extensive archival materials and new research, the experience provides a unique glimpse into the conditions, work and life of one of the most celebrated artists of the early-twentieth century.

The VR experience was the first of its kind to be installed at Tate Modern as part of a blockbuster exhibition.

-- Head over to the Immersive Arcade website to learn more.