VR Arts Lab 2 – 'Ready Player One – Storytelling Simulations in VR'

VR LAB 2

PLEASE NOTE THAT TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT HAVE NOW SOLD OUT

WE ARE OPERATING A WAITING LIST, PLEASE EMAIL INFO@FUTUREARTISTS. CO. UK TO JOIN THIS

VR Arts and Future Artists will be holding its second Virtual Reality
Development Lab in Manchester on Friday November 17th, Saturday 18th, November and Sunday 19th November

the event is running for 3 days (9am until 7pm daily) - lab participants are expected to attend all the days due to the nature of the group production work.

In addition to the 3 day Lab, on Saturday 18th November we will be hosting a Lab open day, which will allow potential future participants, VR Professionals and Industry to better understand the lab. The day will consist of several talks by industry professionals, a tour of the lab, and a chance to try VR and
meet our lab participants.

This lab is a Entitled 'VR Arts – Ready Player One – Storytelling Simulations in VR'

VR Arts by Future Artists is in partnership with Digital Innovation MMU.
Based in The Shed on MMU’s Manchester City Campus, alongside
our technology partners Cooler Master, HTC Vive, CCL Computers and
Unity with support from the BBC, VR Manchester, MMU, Manchester
City Council and the Royal Society of Arts.

Our mission statement at Future Artists is 

'Without Deviation From the
Norm, Progress is not Possible'. We hope our VR Labs embody this.

About the 3 day Lab – 'Ready Player One – Storytelling Simulations in VR'

The lab will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 9am until 7pm per
day, with a show and tell on Sunday at 3pm of the work in progress.
The lab is facilitated by producer Mark Ashmore, who has over 15
years of producing, directing and workshop leadership experience and
has been working in VR/AR for the past 3 years.

Participants in the lab will also be supported by a variety of practitioners in
the fields of: 

creative

writing

illustration

and graphic design

film directing and producing

video games development

animation

performance

VR Development

These practitioners, experts in their fields, will be open to ideas and working with you all.

The lab will follow a structure created by Mark Ashmore and encourage
collaboration, experimentation, and risk taking. The idea of the lab
is to become a continuous support network for VR makers and
participants from the lab will be invited to continue to learn and
contribute outside the lab by joining our free closed facebook group
and become alumni. We share knowledge, videos and information
relating to VR and AR.

The aim of this lab is to use the 2011 published book 'Ready Player One'
by Ernerst Cline as a starting point and inspiration. So all
participants must find time to either read, or listen to the audio
book, to get the most out of the design and storytelling aspects of
this lab.

Further information on 'Ready Player One' -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One

Using Ready Player One, and its abundant references to 1980s pop culture
(which exists as a major plot point) and its exploration into the
fields of VR, the groups in this lab will aim to produce a moment,
scene or situation which is referred to in the book, specifically the
'Gates and Simulations' plot points of 1980's movies and video
arcade games which make up 40% of the books narrative.

Production groups will either make a game, or create a piece of virtual reality
cinema – using parts of the book as inspiration to create their own
narratives. The lab also encourages a transmedia approach to
storytelling, combining the physical book or audio book, with VR / AR
and the use of space.

For example could a new kind of audio book exist while in VR, how much
story is audio and how much visual? and where does this take place?,
at home or in a space created to feel or look like a scene or place
from the book

Groups will be encouraged to explore how VR can be used as an effective and
immersive storytelling tool around an existing well known story or
scene.

As the simulations will be from existing IP this will also enable groups
to source materials online, from images, sounds, video and 3D models
and other assets . This will allow more time to be spent on
storytelling, experience, game play and the overall project.

All groups will present their work to each other on the Sunday and
produce a video record of the work.

Groups will be chosen by the producers of the labs (typically around 3-4 working groups), based on a questionnaire sent out prior to the lab and we will use our experience and
judgement to give each group a balance.

The Lab is equipped with 3 custom built VR studios in association with our sponsors HTC Vive, Cooler Master and CCL Computers, we run a variety of software including Unity, TiltBrush and Google Blocks, in addition to 5 apple mac computers with full adobe premiere and photoshop suites, printers, wifi and kitchen and co-working facilities.

Participants are also required to bring their own equipment in addition to the labs facilities, from computers, laptops, art materials, designer tools etc - all this is explained once you have booked your ticket - any questions, e-mail direct info@futureartists.co.uk  

The lab will take place at The Shed, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD - details and google maps here http://designmcr.com/venues/the-shed-mmu

We understand labs can be daunting if you are coming on your own and you
don't know anybody. We understand this and make sure everyone is
welcome, we are all here to learn and make friends too! 

Everything is being built for non-commercial use, and will be for educational
purposes only, therefore ideas are not limited by copyright law.

Are you ready player one?

Why do this?

At Future Artists we believe that understanding theatre, art
and storytelling fused with computer science, sociology and an
understanding of spatial design are just a few of the key
ingredients needed to make the perfect Virtual Reality
experience – but as this art form is so new, we need to train
the chefs to work together and to explore an ever-expanding
pantry of creative tools.

Who is this for?

The Labs are designed with creative Industry professionals in mind and
for students studying Tech / Art / Film /Performance related subjects
with an interest in VR/AR -
No computer coding experience is required, but an openness and
willingness to learn something new, most certainly is.

How Much does it cost?

Early Bird Tickets are £80 for a limited time, and then a full lab ticket
is £100 (Please note the lab is limited to 30 persons)

Saturday 'Observer and Talk' tickets are priced at £25 (limited to 10 persons)

A little about our pricing – the aim of the lab is to make sure that
everyone has access to an opportunity to learn about VR, we do not
receive any government funding, or soft money in the form of grants
to do this, our generous sponsors have enabled us to deliver this lab
for a price of £33.33 a a day (or £100) – our aim is to deliver
10 labs over the next year, allowing participant to have 30 days (or
1 month in a VR environment) for around £1000 – we believe that
this approach is empowering and creates VR diversity – without our
sponsors, we could not do this.

More info?

Please
e-mail VR Arts at info@futureartists.co.uk
–
subject VR Arts