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THIS MONTH’S FEATURES:
• NEW FOST PODCASTS
• MIDJOURNEY AI ART
• IMMERSIVE AUDIO
• THE FUTURE OF SEARCH
• CHIEF METAVERSE OFFICERS
__________
+ FOST COMMUNITY NEWS
+ EVENTS & EXPERIENCES
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NEW FUTURE OF STORYTELLING PODCAST EPISODES
"In a conventional theater, you watch a character change... In this case, that happens, but we also hope that it's the audience that changes as well."
—David Byrne
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David Byrne
The Talking Heads front man and iconic artist shares the insights and aspirations that shaped his newest immersive theater project, Theater of the Mind. Inspired by neuroscience, the new show explores how we see and create our worlds.
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Jenova Chen
The visionary designer of Journey (2012) and Sky: Children of the Light (2019) talks about creating video games that bring out the best in people.
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AI Art Is Here and the World Is Already Different
// New York Magazine
AI art continues to be central in the global conversation, drawing as much criticism and concern as enthusiasm and experimentation. This piece zooms in on one AI image-generation tool, Midjourney, which is a unique upstart among a sea of venture-backed, big-company AI projects. Writer John Herrman logs onto the Midjourney Discord server and speaks to some real-life users: a board game designer, a children's book author, a design director at R/GA, a typographer, and more who are leveraging the tool in the early stages of their creative processes. They are creating moodboards, samples, and prototype designs to demonstrate an idea and earn the opportunity to publish or produce the concept in earnest. Herrman says that people can already command so much into existence with their phones: information, meals, cars, labor, and more. The new AI companies ask, Why not art?
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Deep Learning Could Bring the Concert Experience Home
// Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
This detailed piece from IEEE dives into the 150-year pursuit of hyper-realistic audio that can genuinely replicate the embodied experience of listening to live music. Apple, Sony, Dolby, Netflix, and more are investing heavily into spatial audio—technology that expands bi-directional stereo sound into a 360° surround experience. But IEEE writes that they have invented something even more immersive: 3D “soundstage” audio that reproduces the multi-directional, layered natural sound field. This article is a fascinating exploration of how humans perceive sound and the technical requirements necessary to translate a live listening experience into a pair of headphones, a car, or the cinema.
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Google Is Trying to Reinvent Search — By Being More Than a Search Engine
// The Verge
Google pioneered the question-and-answer search system: a list of links, intelligently ordered, designed to address a specific inquiry. This month, the company emphasized its focus on search as a visual-forward system for exploration, discovery, and multisensory interaction. Google Lens enables users to search with a picture; Immersive View in Maps empowers 3D fly-throughs of places before you visit them. Underlying these changes is the data that younger generations experience the internet in a natively visual way. TikTok has been the great disruptor—the New York Times reported that Gen Z is increasingly using the short-video platform to find basic information.
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What Is a Chief Metaverse Officer and Do You Need One?
// Bloomberg
Matthew Boyle charts the rise of the Chief Metaverse Officer—a title that recently arrived on the payroll of Disney, P&G, CAA, and others. Most brands who are investing big into Web3 aren't really making money now, but Boyle demonstrates that profit is not the point at this stage. Starbucks’s coffee-themed NFTs, Nike’s digital sneakers, or P&G’s BeautySPHERE are signals—these brands do not want to be left behind by the next wave in consumer technology. Chief Metaverse Officers are combining knowledge of AR and VR with sales and marketing expertise. They are creating strategies for a near-future world in which people spend at least an hour per day in the metaverse. The irony is that the metaverse doesn’t yet exist as a widespread consumer reality—so as Chief Metaverse Officers experiment, strategize, and evangelize, they are actively determining what it means for a brand to interact with its customers in an immersive digital space.
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// FOST COMMUNITY
• Secret Cinema, the London-based immersive entertainment company, has been acquired by TodayTix Group for more than $100 million. The deal includes plans for a US tour in 2023 and a permanent location in LA.
• Alexa Meade is opening a new immersive art exhibition in NYC. Debuting on October 7, Wonderland Dreams features Meade’s signature hand-painted 3D style.
• Friends with Holograms founder Cortney Harding has joined the World Economic Forum’s Metaverse Council.
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• Five-time Grammy winner Jacob Collier will teach a new masterclass on music composition on the Skillshare platform.
• Neuroscientist Anil Seth is leading one of the largest scientific studies on perceptual diversity ever undertaken. You can participate in the Perception Census online.
• Punchdrunk, the immersive theater company behind Sleep No More and The Burnt City, has signed with CAA.
• Tony Award–winner Sarah Jones created a film based on her show Sell/Buy/Date, which will open in theaters on October 14.
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// EVENTS & EXPERIENCES
Below, find a list of some of the storytelling experiences and events we recommend this month. Shoot us an email if you come across anything that should be included next month!
Experience David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind in Denver
After listening to the FoST podcast episode with David Byrne, reserve your tickets to his new immersive experience in collaboration with the Denver Performing Arts Center. Over the course of 75 minutes, peer behind the curtain of the physical realm and marvel at the wonders of your mind. Follow your Guide as they revisit key moments in their life in a surreal, 15,000-square-foot installation with a group of just 16 audience members.
Dive into Interaction Design at New MOMA Exhibition
The interfaces we use to access digital worlds—from Zoom to FaceTime, WhatsApp to Discord, Roblox to Fortnite—are visual and tactile manifestations of code that both connect and separate us, and shape the way we behave and perceive others. This exhibition brings together notable examples of interaction design, a field that considers the points of contact between objects—whether machines, apps, or entire infrastructures—and people. FoST community member and MOMA Senior Curator Paola Antonelli organized the exhibition.
Activate New Disney Short Film with Augmented Reality
Remembering is an original short film directed by Elijah Allan-Blitz and starring Brie Larson. It’s the story of a writer who loses touch with her creative essence and the captivating journey one idea takes to reunite with her. In the immersive augmented reality companion app, Disney+ subscribers can become a part of the story like never before. Use an iPhone or iPad to step into this magical world and rediscover the creative spirit that lives within each of us.
Explore Gustav Klimt’s Art at NYC’s New Hall des Lumières
Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion, which opened this month, enfolds visitors in 30-foot (9-meter) high images of his works in the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank building in Manhattan, now the 33,000-square-foot Hall des Lumières. The immersive Klimt exhibition is the inaugural show for the Hall des Lumières—New York’s permanent digital art center located at 49 Chambers Street in Tribeca. The Hall is a joint venture between Culturespaces, the French immersive experience pioneer, and IMG.
Interact with Generative Art at 180 Studios in London
Universal Everything’s largest solo exhibition is now live at 180 Studios. The creative technology studio created 14 moving image artworks, many of which evolve and shift with time and the public’s interaction. The characterful, abstract life-forms draw from the history of visual culture—from Futurist’s attempt to depict the body in motion to Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential 19th century film experiences.
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Got updates? Want to share them with the rest of the FoST Community?
Send us your good news, calls for submissions, humble brags, shout-outs, and more at info@futureofstorytelling.org.
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