Cyberdelics
29 March 2016 | Lights of Soho, London, UK
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) can alter our state of consciousness. At least this is the promise of cyberdelics that use external tech-mediated stimulation to evoke out of body experiences and trips. Although the field has been developing over the last 50 years, the recent proliferation of commercial VR and AR devices has driven new attempts to collide psychedelic and consciousness culture of the late-60s with the computer cultures of the 80s and 90s.
Today immersion is fast becoming the key indicator of the efficacy of a virtual reality simulation. Developers are preoccupied with fooling your brain into feeling like you’re actually there. Cyberdelic technologies are fast emerging as an entirely new type of experience. Whilst psychedelics can be unpredictable, cyberdelics offer a curated experience for an altered state – one that can be explored in completely safe and controlled way.
In the Cyberdelic space there is no such thing as a ‘bad trip’ – unless that’s what you’re looking for?
How far can we go using these technologies and techniques to create non-ordinary states of consciousness? How can the sensorimotor data we receive from the outside world affect our brain? Is the VR headset the LSD of the new millennium?
Join those exploring the existence of Cyberdelics for an evening of immersion showcasing award winning creative talent and cutting edge panelists. This Salon is a rare chance to plug-in to the experiences that look set to expand the mind and transport the body.
It’s time to find the others…
Panelists
Ghislaine Boddington, Co-founder and Creative Director of body>data>space and Women Shift Digital (@GBoddington)
Ghislaine is an artist, dramaturg, curator and thought leader specialising in body responsive technologies, Ghislaine is recognised as an international pioneer advocating the use of the entire body as a digital interaction canvas for over 25 years. She has created live telepresence links between thousands of participants/audiences across the world for educational, performing arts and creative industries usage using her work to examine the representation of our physical selves and our identities in virtual environments. A co-creator and director of many art works exploring the hyper enhancement of our human senses through the digital and a lead director of international multi-partner projects, she co-curates Nesta’s FutureFest and is a Reader at CPDA University of Greenwich.
Simon Boswell, BAFTA Nominated Film Score Composer & Composer of PsychFi (@thesimonboswell)
You many not know his name, but if you’re a movie fan you’ll certainly know his music: Simon Boswell is one of the UK’s finest living soundtrack composers, whose work has graced films such as Danny Boyle’s debut ‘Shallow Grave’, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s mind-melting ‘Santa Sangre’, loopy Angelina Jolie cybercrime flick ‘Hackers’ and shedloads of European horror movies by the likes of Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Michele Soavi.
Toby Coffey, Head of Digital Development at National Theatre (@tobycoffey)
Toby is responsible for the creative and technical development of the digital interfaces between the NT and its audiences. Toby develops forms of digital engagement and interaction around the NT and its productions. Relevant areas include online, UX, cross-platform, app development, digital publishing, interactive installations, AR, VR, 360˚ films, transmedia and documentary production. He has 15 years expertise in the digital arena from creative, technical, production and social perspectives.
Carl Guyenette, Sundance New Frontiers (@splicker)
Michael Takeo Magruder, Visual Artist & Researcher
Michael is a visual artist and researcher who works with new media including real-time data, digital archives, immersive environments, mobile devices and virtual worlds. His practice explores concepts ranging from media criticism and aesthetic journalism to digital formalism and computational aesthetics, deploying Information Age technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world. In the last 15 years, Michael’s projects have been showcased in over 250 exhibitions in 34 countries, and his art has been widely supported by numerous funding bodies and public galleries within the UK, US and EU.
Louis Savvy, Founder of Sci-Fi-London & 48 Hour Film Challenge (@scifilondon)
Louis is the Festival Director of SCI-FI-LONDON (the Annual International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film) which he began 12 years ago. He has organised numerous filmmaking events and projects involving thousands of people across the UK. See www.sci-fi-london.com for details of the 48 Hour Film Challenge in particular.
Carl H. Smith, Director of the Learning Technology Research Centre (LTRC) and Principal Research Fellow, Ravensbourne (@behindthebeats)
Carl’s background is in Computer Science and Architecture. He is an academic expert and developer with over Sixteen years’ experience conducting R+D into the application of hybrid technologies for perceptual and cognitive transformation, bringing in over £4 million in funding. He is working on the newly funded Horizon 2020 project ‘[WEKIT] Wearable Experience for Knowledge Intensive Training’ which will use the latest in wearable and motion tracking technology to create ‘wearable experience’ – an entirely new form of media. His research interests include Embodied Cognition, Spatial Literacy, Perceptual Technology, Ergonomics and Human Centric methodologies.
Luke Robert Mason, Director of Virtual Futures (Moderator) (@LukeRobertMason)
VR Experiences
#HackThePlanet
According to the developers, “This electro mind-melting experience uses early experimental samples and code, that never made it into Simon’s ‘Hackers’ EDM soundtrack, and recently discovered on a yellow PsychFi floppy disc.
Take the virtual pill into 90’s cyberdelia 360 sonic world. Catch flashbacks of counter-culture ‘Futique’ pioneer Timothy Leary and watch out for pop culture glitches with some of Simon Boswells YouTube creator collaborators including MCM London Comic Con: legends Ashens, Mr Weebl & Lee Hardcastle.”
fabulous wonder.land
fabulous wonder.land is inspired by wonder.land, the National Theatre’s new musical created by Damon Albarn, Moira Buffini and Rufus Norris, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice in Wonderland. It is the first Virtual Reality experience the National has ever offered its audiences.
Wearing an Oculus Rift, users tumble down the rabbit hole and land in wonder.land’s Sunshine Garden – a vibrant world with a unique soundscape. As the full multicolour brilliance of wonder.land is revealed, the Cheshire Cat hovers above, serenading you to fabulous, an original composition by Damon Albarn with lyrics by Moira Buffini.
A New Jerusalem
A New Jerusalem is an immersive virtual reality installation that seeks to embody the spirit of this prophesised city. The artwork manifests as a beautiful and illuminated metropolis that is based upon Revelation’s architectural descriptions, and can be experienced through two distinct perspectives as witnessed and related by the Book’s narrator, John the Seer.
Unlike other pictorial visualisations of this biblical prophecy that have been created throughout history, the underlying structure of A New Jerusalem is generated solely from the text of Revelation itself that has been translated into a data code form and rendered in four-dimensional virtual space (XYZ plus time). However, the imagined cityscape is also constructed using current Google Maps data of present day Jerusalem, thus offering the possibility that – in the words of theologian Professor Edward Adams – “the new creation is not a wholly unrecognisable place, even if the new Jerusalem is like no city the world has ever seen”. Within this context, the artwork asks viewers to contemplate why we should care about our present society and environment if promises of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21.1) await us.
Meet the Family
“Meet The Family” is a VR experience created by creative director Eric Nyira. The project tests the impact that a headset-powered experience can have on emotions such as pleasure, joy, wonder and fear.
The film-meets-VR experience allows you to interact with different worlds and characters. You might find yourself flying through hoops in the air above an island or exploring secrets in a dark room.
Are you brave enough, to try it standing?
Viens! (Come!)
In this sensually playful, live-action VR, three women and four men, all naked, appear out of nowhere in the white sunny space of a bright room outside of time. They meet, touch, share their energy, and are transformed spiritually; they let themselves become one with the world.(Rated 18+)