Founder of LIVING PAGES, Co-Creator of LIVING PAGES EXPERIENCE
A poem born and rendered in Virtual Reality.
In a world where technology is transforming us into collective data, Living Pages explores how we experience art and culture in collaboration with the algorithm.
The first trial of this project was produced in collaboration with Maxime Coton www.maximecoton.net first supported in Ireland by Údarás na Gaeltachta (via SaoiVR), and Galway 2020, European Capital of Culture. Funded in Belgium by SACD, PILEn & Centre du Cinéma et de l'audiovisuel, Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles.
Featuring the work of VR artist Jamil Mehdaoui (a still from one of his immersive artworks is on the cover page) https://www.artstation.com/mehdaouijamil https://www.instagram.com/jam1000/
We’re very excited here at Saoi Media about the next phase of Living Pages in collaboration with Black Gate Productions. More about that soon!
LIVING PAGES - A JOURNAL
In 2016 I began developing a project called VR Poems inspired by my experience creating a 360 immersive poem for the Galway 2020 campaign bid for European Capital of Culture. Poetry as immersive experience is powerful, and I was determined to create the world’s first immersive poetry platform. The following year I attended the VR Creators’ lab in Munich to learn more about the medium, and in the hope of finding a producing partner for my project. I met Maxime Coton of Bruits asbl and we created the first rough prototype of VR Poems under a new project title: Living Pages.
After six months of developing our ideas, Maxime composed a poem of the same title, and we became focussed on one work instead of a collection. I wrote the visualisations for the experience based on the text, and the aesthetic world we had envisioned that was incorporated into the poem. You could call it a positive feedback loop at that stage. Between us, we succeeded in raising funding, first in Ireland and then in Belgium to create the VR poem. We held workshops in Brussels and Paris and were joined by the VR artist Jamil Medhaoui, whose stunning aesthetic worlds became the centre of the piece. Late in the process we were also joined by sound designer Mathilde Lacroix.
An enormous amount of work, time, effort and resources went into creating this work. The most interesting thing was conceptualising the idea, which evolved in parallel with the evolution of the technology.
The first experiment for Living Pages, renamed Living Pages Experience is currently winning awards, accepted by Maxime Coton of Bruits asbl on our behalf.
I look forward to creating new work on Living Pages which I’m proud to say is a groundbreaking project.
A note of reflection. Small arts projects are glued together by trust, understanding, communication and a huge amount of unpaid work. My advice to independent artists is to make sure you work with people you can really trust. They’re hard to find, but hold on to them when you do. When you don’t, say goodbye sooner rather than later!
https://www.facebook.com/VRlivingpages/
Below is an early promo I made after the VR Creator’s Lab. :)