2024KFF XR DREAMLAND 10/12-10/27

  Only by considering a painting's method, the practice of its transformation, can we be confident about the direction of its image, the direction of the image's passage towards us and past us. Every painting comes from far away (many fail to reach us), yet we only receive a painting fully if we are looking in the direction from which it has come. This is why seeing a painting is so different from seeing an object.――John Berger, The Sense of Sight Theatrical and Gaming Experiences Across Multiple Dimensions In XR experiences, our senses are primarily impacted by the changes to our visual and auditory perceptions, as well as our sense of space. Although the effects brought about by the sense of time in different XR worlds can be ambiguous and difficult to describe, they are an indispensable part of creating an XR experience. This year, the KAOHSIUNG VR FILM LAB ORIGINAL A Simple Silence and Madame Pirate: Code of Conduct completed production. These experiences each possess a unique spatial presentation: the former utilizes bodies, corridors, and tunnels to depict contemporary interpersonal situations and emotions; while the latter utilizes the spatial dimensions of ship cabins, villages, and oceans to construct memories and present scenes from recent history. Whether through intimate live-action performances or aerial views of collective living, we always seem able to adjust ourselves to these scenarios, as if we are in the same space performing together. In the XR Spotlight section, though the scenes we traverse in Songs For A Passerby are dimly lit, they make the 'characters' that emerge from within the darkness appear more prominent and concrete: the reclining horse, the moving train, the dog that appears and disappears around the corner... However, as users proceed slowly through the experience, our sense of time layers upon itself: though the passersby before us seem to share the same streets and carriages, they seem even more likely to possess their own timelines. The fortuitous joinings and crossings created by this experience form multiple temporal states, superimposed and revealed in what appears to be a real-time generated view, ready to vanish in the next second. Gargoyle Doyle presents the play of time in a different manner. In this experience, gargoyles, grotesques, and other rooftop decorations break from their static, decorative roles to engage in everyday debate and idle chit-chat, humorously discussing the myriad changes undergone by a museum and its surrounding society. This comedy of fallen heroes mocks the tragedy of the passage of time, serving as a microcosmic glimpse of history and offering a condensed interpretation of time. Following the characters' changing moods and the unexpected events they encounter, we are thrown onto an interactive stage where scenes of a fluctuating pace unfold. Van Gogh's Palette unfolds the titular artist's canvases into a three-dimensional universe of paint. But also, through the artist's grasp (or loss) of eternity, it allows us to become Van Gogh's contemporaries in a 'past continuous' sense. Guided by the descendants of the characters in his paintings, we follow the game's voiceover narration into the artworks to deconstruct the symbols and codes inside each frame. In Astra, an attempt to communicate with the deceased aligns with the aforementioned works. In this experience, we take on the role of a child trying to solve a mystery within her mother's relics. In the process, we embark on a journey of outer space exploration with her, looking outward and afar. Our spatial perception varies wildly in scale, ranging from a close-up view of a cassette tape to the vastness of the immeasurable interstellar cosmos. Likewise, the lengths of time traversed in this journey vary drastically, extending from the moment of a newborn's first cries to the sedimentation of ancient minerals. Meanwhile, Deep Ecology and Sen each lead us to contemplate the pace of life in very different ways. The former focuses on the billions of terabytes of information that flow and are generated in society each second, questioning the relationship between humans and technology. The latter uses the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea to teach us the art of returning to the present moment, and of allowing our consciousness to flow free. Aside from the above examples, the XR Competition, XR Taiwan Waves, Sanrio Virtual Festival Project, Villa Formose Immersive XR Prototype Residency and other sections aim to provide an international platform, showcasing newly completed and developing immersive projects and content from around the world while also highlighting Taiwan's creative energy. Fields such as the humanities, technology, and entertainment are not strictly divided in terms of their content and output – members of each field often seek to collaborate, and to imagine suitable vehicles through which to express unique-yet-shareable experiences. This aligns with the message of Tsai Tsun-Hung's article "The Evolution Trend of XR: From Flat Narratives to Spatial Experiences". This article reminds us to view these developments through the lens of technological evolution, to focus on the sense of presence and realism brought about by gaming, entertainment and artistic creations, as well as the enhanced immersive capabilities of each experience and the blending of the real and virtual worlds. Within XR works, we sometimes find ourselves alone in a scene, traversing layers of overlapping history and time periods. At other times, we are present simultaneously, witnessing multiple interconnected thematic zones like those found in a museum. The tasks assigned to experiencers by these XR works bring before us various stages of the past, the present and the future, prompting us to confront the issues they raise and respond to them. In other words, XR is a vehicle for delivering perception, and the perspectives found through the thoughts and vision of its creators. With these countless traversals and collisions, and the participation of the experiencers, these XR worlds become a series of collectively constructed cultural and philosophical experiences.     ❐Buy tickets https://www.opentix.life/topic/1701811373644881921 ❐Kaohsiung Film Festival Official website https://www.kff.tw/film/cate/xr ❐Kaohsiung Film Festival Instagram https://www.instagram.com/khfilmfestival/