The traveling VR festival with 10 stops across the globe has announced their 2016 Kaleidoscope World Tour award winners.
The Kaleidoscope World Tour showcased some of the best in virtual reality film, art and immersive experiences in some fairly architecturally stunning venues. The tour started off in Paris, France with a final stop in Melbourne, Australia on April 12. Additional stops along the way included Tel Aviv, London, Stockholm, Köln, Berlin, Amsterdam, Pangyo and Tokyo.
With more than 4,000 attendees, the Kaleidoscope World Tour shows the growing global interest from consumers to actually try VR, often for the first time, in an accessible festival format.
As you may remember from the Kaleidoscope North America tour last year, where we visited quite a few cities, Kaleidoscope is very much like a film festival for virtual reality. Rows and rows of swivel chairs are setup, with attendees deciding on which artist’s VR film they would like to experience, being able to vote on their favorites at the end of the night.
Audiences enjoyed the full lineup of experiences on Samsung’s Gear VR, as well as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. In addition, experiences were exhibited using the newly launched Wevr Transport.
So with the Kaleidoscope World Tour having come to a close at their last stop in Australia, the award winners have been chosen. What a great ride highlighting this rapidly developing sector of the entertainment industry and the global community of artists behind it. I can only imagine what the festival will be like next year.
2016 KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD TOUR AWARD WINNERS
Kaleidoscope Grand Prize for Excellence in Cinematic Virtual Reality
TANA PURA (International Premiere)
Director: Mike Tucker
What is it like to die? That is the question at the heart of TANA PURA, an audio-visual exploration of the moments following death and the soul’s transition into the afterlife. With original music composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, TANA PURA draws inspiration from The Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Psychedelic Experience.
CLOUDS
Director: James George & Jonathan Minard
CLOUDS is an interactive documentary portrait of a community of digital pioneers, explored through the lens of code. The project asks questions about the future of creativity at a time when algorithms play an important role in shaping culture. In its hybrid format, somewhere between a documentary, a video game, and data visualization, CLOUDS allows viewers to navigate a web of ideas. It uses a data-driven Story Engine to present an endless ever-changing conversation, where artists co-exist with their code, presented through real-time interactive visual systems and lush 3D environments.
Kaleidoscope Award for Best Live Action Experience
JET LAG (World Premiere)
Director: Pierre Friquet
Due to her expiring visa, Ju, a 30-year long Brazilian woman, leaves India. Hence she leaves behind her lover, Tanushree, a young Indian woman. Separated by continents they start exchanging audio messages. To express their love in the absence of each other, Ju performs an Indian classical dance and Tanushree, a capoeira dance. Via these physical forms they find a temporary union. When Tanushree’s rational side arises, she questions the relationship, sending Ju diving in a poetic world…
Kaleidoscope Award for Best Animated Experience
OLD FRIEND (International Premiere)
Director: Tyler Hurd
Produced by Wevr
Lose yourself in a vibrant psychedelic dance party brimming with joyful insanity. VR creator Tyler Hurd and WEVR present a fun animated VR music video experience for OLD FRIEND by Future Islands. Gaze upon the elegant dance routines and enjoy the blissful absurdity. Unhinge yourself, feel the ridiculousness and dance like everyone is watching.
Kaleidoscope Award for Best Interactive Experience
LA PÉRI: A PRELUDE (World Premiere)
Director: Balthazar Auxietre
Inspired by Walt Disney’s Fantasia, La Péri is a visually stunning pas de deux between two dancers, one played by you! On the stage, you are Iskender, a dying prince, in search of “the flower of immortality”. Finally, when reaching the coveted artifact, you face a guardian spirit, “La Péri” who gradually turns into a beautiful ballerina that bewitches you to prevent you from taking possession of the flower. This is the most beautiful experience I have tried in the Vive yet.
Kaleidoscope Award for Best Experimental Experience
NOTES ON BLINDNESS (International Premiere)
Directors: Arnaud Colinart, Amaury La Burthe, Peter Middleton, & James Spinney
After losing his sight in 1983, John Hull began recording an audio-diary documenting his discovery of “a world beyond sight.” John’s original recordings form the basis of this interactive experience, which uses real time 3D, virtual reality, and binaural sound to explore the interior world of blindness.
Kaleidoscope was founded in May 2015 by entrepreneur René Pinnell and former Industrial Light & Magic technical director Michael Breymann. The startup’s mission is to empower independent VR artists by promoting their work, producing original content, fostering new talent and raising the visibility of VR as the new frontier of film and entertainment.