Creator(s): Maria Courtial, Faber Courtial

Synopsis: “2nd Step” is a soaring VR journey through space from moon to mars and beyond. In the film, the viewer gets a very intense feeling of being in the middle of alien, undiscovered worlds far away from earth – and to visit some of the most exciting settings of current and future space missions, such as the landing spot of Apollo 11 and the mysterious “Red Planet”: Mars. The film was produced with expert advice of the European Space Agency (ESA) which provided valuable original data for the reconstructions of the settings. Thus, it shows not only profound scientific basis, but also an unprecedented richness of detail.

Country(s) of Origin: Germany

Creator(s): Lynette Wallworth, COCO FILMS

Synopsis: For the Amazonian Yawanawa, ‘medicine’ has the power to travel you in a vision to a place you have never been. Hushuhu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawa uses VR like medicine to open a portal to another way of knowing. AWAVENA is a collaboration between a community and an artist, melding technology and transcendent experience so that a vision can be shared, and a story told of a people ascending from the edge of extinction. Using a technology that the Yawanawa feel enables them to share their story and visions, this immersive work presents flourescent and bioluminescent specimens in previously unseen colors from the forest world, to create a vivid, luminous vision. AWAVENA is made at the invitation of, and in intimate collaboration with, the Yawanawa people during a time of both peril and potential for people, their forest, and the connected ecosystems that drive the planet. The film aims not to provoke empathy for the Yawanawa people but is rather a gift from them, to those who will virtually visit their forest and receive this transmission — a gift that can shift our consciousness, changing the way we perceive the world and the decisions we make.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia

Creator(s): Volker Kuchelmeister, UNSW

Synopsis: The project explores mental health and healing from an Aboriginal perspective. Created by the acclaimed Uti Kulintjaku, formed from the Ngangkari traditional healers and artists of the NPY Women’s Council, the collective addresses community issues of mental health from both Aboriginal and Western perspectives. Working with UNSW felt Experience and Empathy Lab (feel), the team have created a virtual reality work, sharing their healing practices through creative visualisation. Waumananyi: The Song on the Wind is an Anangu-led response to the experiences of constraint, entrapment and depression through the traditional story of The Man in the Log. The virtual reality experience asks what is it really like to be physically and mentally trapped in a space that you can’t escape from? In this case you can see through holes in the log and you can see people you love and people in your community, but you can no longer connect with them. A profound metaphor for incarceration, separation, addiction and that sense of powerlessness that many people in aboriginal communities experience.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia

Creator(s): Maria Courtial, Faber Courtial

Synopsis: “2nd Step” is a soaring VR journey through space from moon to mars and beyond. In the film, the viewer gets a very intense feeling of being in the middle of alien, undiscovered worlds far away from earth – and to visit some of the most exciting settings of current and future space missions, such as the landing spot of Apollo 11 and the mysterious “Red Planet”: Mars. The film was produced with expert advice of the European Space Agency (ESA) which provided valuable original data for the reconstructions of the settings. Thus, it shows not only profound scientific basis, but also an unprecedented richness of detail.

Country(s) of Origin: Germany

Creator(s): Lynette Wallworth, COCO FILMS

Synopsis: For the Amazonian Yawanawa, ‘medicine’ has the power to travel you in a vision to a place you have never been. Hushuhu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawa uses VR like medicine to open a portal to another way of knowing. AWAVENA is a collaboration between a community and an artist, melding technology and transcendent experience so that a vision can be shared, and a story told of a people ascending from the edge of extinction. Using a technology that the Yawanawa feel enables them to share their story and visions, this immersive work presents flourescent and bioluminescent specimens in previously unseen colors from the forest world, to create a vivid, luminous vision. AWAVENA is made at the invitation of, and in intimate collaboration with, the Yawanawa people during a time of both peril and potential for people, their forest, and the connected ecosystems that drive the planet. The film aims not to provoke empathy for the Yawanawa people but is rather a gift from them, to those who will virtually visit their forest and receive this transmission — a gift that can shift our consciousness, changing the way we perceive the world and the decisions we make.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia

Creator(s): Volker Kuchelmeister, UNSW

Synopsis: The project explores mental health and healing from an Aboriginal perspective. Created by the acclaimed Uti Kulintjaku, formed from the Ngangkari traditional healers and artists of the NPY Women’s Council, the collective addresses community issues of mental health from both Aboriginal and Western perspectives. Working with UNSW felt Experience and Empathy Lab (feel), the team have created a virtual reality work, sharing their healing practices through creative visualisation. Waumananyi: The Song on the Wind is an Anangu-led response to the experiences of constraint, entrapment and depression through the traditional story of The Man in the Log. The virtual reality experience asks what is it really like to be physically and mentally trapped in a space that you can’t escape from? In this case you can see through holes in the log and you can see people you love and people in your community, but you can no longer connect with them. A profound metaphor for incarceration, separation, addiction and that sense of powerlessness that many people in aboriginal communities experience.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia

Creator(s): Maria Courtial, Faber Courtial

Synopsis: “2nd Step” is a soaring VR journey through space from moon to mars and beyond. In the film, the viewer gets a very intense feeling of being in the middle of alien, undiscovered worlds far away from earth – and to visit some of the most exciting settings of current and future space missions, such as the landing spot of Apollo 11 and the mysterious “Red Planet”: Mars. The film was produced with expert advice of the European Space Agency (ESA) which provided valuable original data for the reconstructions of the settings. Thus, it shows not only profound scientific basis, but also an unprecedented richness of detail.

Country(s) of Origin: Germany

Creator(s): Lynette Wallworth, COCO FILMS

Synopsis: For the Amazonian Yawanawa, ‘medicine’ has the power to travel you in a vision to a place you have never been. Hushuhu, the first woman shaman of the Yawanawa uses VR like medicine to open a portal to another way of knowing. AWAVENA is a collaboration between a community and an artist, melding technology and transcendent experience so that a vision can be shared, and a story told of a people ascending from the edge of extinction. Using a technology that the Yawanawa feel enables them to share their story and visions, this immersive work presents flourescent and bioluminescent specimens in previously unseen colors from the forest world, to create a vivid, luminous vision. AWAVENA is made at the invitation of, and in intimate collaboration with, the Yawanawa people during a time of both peril and potential for people, their forest, and the connected ecosystems that drive the planet. The film aims not to provoke empathy for the Yawanawa people but is rather a gift from them, to those who will virtually visit their forest and receive this transmission — a gift that can shift our consciousness, changing the way we perceive the world and the decisions we make.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia

Creator(s): Volker Kuchelmeister, UNSW

Synopsis: The project explores mental health and healing from an Aboriginal perspective. Created by the acclaimed Uti Kulintjaku, formed from the Ngangkari traditional healers and artists of the NPY Women’s Council, the collective addresses community issues of mental health from both Aboriginal and Western perspectives. Working with UNSW felt Experience and Empathy Lab (feel), the team have created a virtual reality work, sharing their healing practices through creative visualisation. Waumananyi: The Song on the Wind is an Anangu-led response to the experiences of constraint, entrapment and depression through the traditional story of The Man in the Log. The virtual reality experience asks what is it really like to be physically and mentally trapped in a space that you can’t escape from? In this case you can see through holes in the log and you can see people you love and people in your community, but you can no longer connect with them. A profound metaphor for incarceration, separation, addiction and that sense of powerlessness that many people in aboriginal communities experience.

Country(s) of Origin: Australia