Immerse, a Medium publication focused on creative discussion of nonfiction news co-founded by our executive director Jessica Clark, released their latest newsletter. Co-produced by Dot Connector Studio with MIT’s Open Doc Lab, Immerse’s most recent issue tackles the many aspects of the Metaverse.

Here’s a glimpse at their most recent stories:

Shattered (courtesy of Lance Weiler)

Making the Metaverse

  • Read all about the Metaverse in this collection of articles from around the web.
  • Abby Sun and Sarah Wolozin of Immerse tackled various challenges in a pair of panels at the Double Exposure Symposium, featuring insights from Sparsh Ahuja, Voleta Ayala, Robert Hernandez, Jesse Damiani, Kathryn Karaoglu Hamilton, and Andrew Wang.
  • In our new Q&A series, Virtual Production Bulletin, interviewer Srushti Kamat explores emerging documentary techniques and ethics. See the first two installments: on reality TV and gamification with Dark Slope Studios, and 3D models and fictionalized reenactments, with Deniz Tortum.
  • Despite all of the buzz, XR productions are notoriously hard for audiences to access. But, the pandemic is forcing festival programmers and performance spaces to experiment with a wider range of exhibition and distribution strategies. Much more is needed, argues UK-based researcher Richard Misek.
  • Must the metaverse be hyper-commercialized? A new generation of artists, activists and documentarians say no. MIT Open Doc Lab’s William Uricchio reports on how makers supported by IDFA DocLab are forging new forms of augmented public media, from audio, to projection mapping, to mobile apps and beyond.
  • Wildly popular, violent video games have set the tone and terms for building open worlds in the metaverse. But as Dan Schindel writes, activists and researchers are experimenting with ways to turn games such as World of Warcraft and Fortnite into venues for more peaceful interactions. To live and work online, though, we’ll still need better paradigms.
  • Sometimes, the best way to understand the metaverse is just to jump right in. That’s what the Immerse editorial collective did with the crew from Venice VR Expanded. Watch us world-hop through bespoke environments while wearing fanciful avatars, with festival curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac as our guides.
Underworld Radio is a 60-minute high-octane audio experience in near complete darkness.

What they’re keeping an eye on

  • Lance Weiler on using NFTs and the blockchain to aid in the creation of new media work.
  • Authorship takes on an all-new meaning in games where the plot is yet to be written.
  • The year in New Yorker interactive storytelling.
  • Scatter’s James George on expressing our true likeness in the metaverse with volumetric video.
  • Underworld Radio is a 60-minute high-octane audio experience in near complete darkness. A few tickets available, NYC.
  • Secret Cinema currently have tickets available for a virtual live experience of Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer. Available in GMT and EST timezones.
  • The Geography is an ambient video game where you ponder the planet’s future in the company of massive mountains and a great soundtrack.

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