Field Notes

A collection of posts about conferences, events, shows, and makers forging the future of immersive media

Creating Community in Hybrid Festivals Executive Summary of Creating Community in Hybrid Festivals based on research for IDFA DocLab in 2021/22.

Worlding: Game Environments Meet Climate Futures Five projects and five lenses you ought to know about in 2022

Revealing Reality in Imaginary 3D Worlds - Part 2 A city on water with floating buildings, bridges and gondolas, and canals for thoroughfares, it's fitting that Venice…

Revealing Reality in Imaginary Worlds - Part 1 A city on water with floating buildings, bridges and gondolas, and canals for thoroughfares, it's fitting that Venice…

The Future of the Hybrid Film Festival How should film festivals connect artists, their projects, and audiences in virtual and hybrid spaces? Why does it…

Field Notes: “The Discord is Forever“ — Eyeo’s 10th (and Final) Convening After two years on hiatus due to the pandemic, Eyeo celebrated its tenth festival with an in-person conference in…

Field Notes: Learning Hybridity at CPH:DOX A festival dispatch covering the INTER:ACTIVE symposium and exhibition

Field Notes: Why We Let Our Privacy Bill of Rights Die A brief history of privacy rights and the performance of democracy

Field Notes: Sundance New Frontier 2022 On Sundance’s social VR offerings and New Frontier projects “The Inside World,” “Cosmogony,” “Suga’,” and “Gondwana”

Objects of Reverence How UK arts institutions struggle to address audience exclusions inherent in the model of on-site VR exhibition

Field Notes: Storyscapes at Tribeca Film Festival A dispatch from the 2021 Tribeca Immersive in-person exhibition

Field Notes: Center Stage at the First “BPMplus Showcase” A dispatch from the new VR/AR/XR section of Black Public Media’s annual PitchBLACK Forum

Field Notes: Space-Making at Venice VR Expanded An interview with Vincenzo Cavallo Faras (African Space Makers)

Virtually Confined A maker discusses her work on life in isolation and connecting with others through technology

Field Notes: Models of Sustainability for Immersive Media When I think about models of sustainability in immersive media, the image of tectonic plates come to mind: the people…

Field Notes: New Frontiers at Sundance Film Festival This year’s New Frontier exhibitions at Sundance showcased the explosive creativity that storytellers are tapping into…

Field Notes: The Making of A Vixen’s Tale “A Vixen’s Tale” is a combined physical and augmented reality experience inspired by Leoš Janáček’s opera, The Cunning…

Field Notes: When VR Does Cinema Observations from Festival du Nouveau Cinéma

Field Notes: Why it’s Time for “Retrocycling” How one artist carved a path through obsolete technologies

Field Notes: Robot Remix XR How to make immersive exhibits more welcoming

Field Notes: At Sundance At Sundance, Excitement, Anxiety, and an Ecosystem in the Making

Field Notes: From Here to Where An interactive audio journey from Denver into the foothills of the Rockies…

Field Notes: A Father’s Lullaby Take a breath. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself on a busy street corner as a passerby: cars rushing by, vibrating your…

Field Notes: Pan-terrestrial People’s Anthem I’ve been fascinated with national anthems and how words and music are enlisted to strengthen bonds between people and…

Field Notes: Why We Started No Proscenium, and What You’ll Find There When I started No Proscenium around Christmas time 2013 it was because I needed something like it, and found it didn’t…

Field Notes: Journalism 360 Unconference At the Journalism 360 Unconference this summer, participants seemed to have more questions than answers:

Field Notes: XR Journalism at SXSW Let’s coin a new phrase — XR journalism — because it is needed and might prove useful in the decade to come. It could…

Field Notes: TFI’s Immigration Co/Lab In December, the Tribeca Film Institute wrapped up its Immigration Co/Lab with a beautiful showcase that left many in…

Field Notes: Good Pitch Goes Local Good Pitch Local is an analog immersive storytelling experience

Field Notes: Interactivity at IDFA Big questions, some answers

Field Notes: Photography Expanded Magnum Foundation’s symposium explores collaborative practice

Field Notes: Allied Media Conference 2017 The Allied Media Conference, an annual conference in Detroit, Michigan, had a sense of urgency this year. Resistance…

Field Notes: Codes & Modes Symposium Reframing reality, virtuality and nonfiction media

Banner photo: Michio Morimoto

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Immerse is an initiative of the MIT Open DocLab and Dot Connector Studio, and receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. The Gotham Film & Media Institute is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing emerging nonfiction projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.