This year’s Ars Electronica Festival marks the evolution of a new Prix Ars category, New Animation Art. One of the adaptations that the field of animation has experienced involves a higher degree of immersion. Partly due to developments from virtual reality (VR) technologies, many animated works not only surround the viewer, but also allow for some degree of interaction and an enhanced sense of being part of the work itself. In Fanni Fazakas Missing 10 Hours, you are led on a night out by a big-headed guy with bad intentions. You can make your own choices which have a drastic influence on the course of the narrative. From the Main Square by Pedro Harres brings you right into a diverse and buzzing town, where animosity and conflict coexist with acts of care and solidarity. You witness the rise and fall of a society in a state of disruption. The selection is complemented with two other projects created by students of the University for Applied Sciences.
The Digital Puppetry Animator is a VR-based animation toolkit for puppetry, allowing aspiring animators to create and record an animation using hand-based puppetry techniques and then view it from any angle. The project LiDAR Experience takes place in a dark, intangible world that is only made visible by using a LiDAR-based laser scanner; the resulting point cloud allows you to navigate the space and avoid the menacing reddish form that follows you.
The Immersive Animation Lab is organized by the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus as part of the Animation Festival and Expanded Animation Symposium.
From the Main Square, Pedro Harres (BR) http://pedroharres.net/
Missing 10 Hours, Fanni Fazakas (HU) https://www.missing10hours.com/
Digital Puppetry Animator, Milad Tousi (IR)
LiDAR Experience, Alexander Hödlmoser (AT) & Leonhard Schnaitl (AT)