Great news! Collective Wisdom: Co-Creation Media for Equity and Justice will launch at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) in November as the Recommended Book of 2022. IDFA will gift the book to all invited filmmakers and artists.
If you can’t be at IDFA you can still join MIT Open Doc Lab/CoCreation Studio for a virtual celebration on November 1st with most authors and coauthors present.
You can also preorder the book from your local bookstore or at any of these links:
MIT Press | Waterstones | Indigo | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
If you are ordering in the U.S. you can use the code BIGIDEA20 at Penguin Random House for a 20% discount + free shipping.
If you’d like to get a taste of what the book covers, read this conversation with Katerina Cizek and Thomas Allen Harris on co-creation as a democratic act.
The latest in Immerse:
Deniz Tortum looks at AI-Restoration in the Film Archive.
Dan Schindel covers The Untapped Potentials of Documentary in Augmented Reality and perspectives on shooting, editing, and managing documentaries in the pandemic in Documentary Production’s New Normal.
Sarah Wolozin asks how film festivals should connect artists, their projects, and audiences in virtual and hybrid spaces in The Future for the Hybrid Film Festival.
Sunayana Mohanty explores the interactive web project, Zeki Müren Hotline, in A Mosaic of Collective Memory.
There’s still time (just!) to pitch us for our Dreaming Disability Justice issue. Deadline November 25.
What we’re reading and watching
AI art: how we work - even think - changes when we can instantly command convincing images into existence.
We’re very sad there will be no Sundance New Frontier in 2023 but looking forward to what comes next. Also, in case you missed it, read Ruthie Doyle on five lessons from the Art of Practice: The Sundance Interdisiplinary Program that was short lived but had so much potential.
The Africa XR Report gives a great overview of some of the exciting things happening and the website includes a handy directory of XR creators on the continent.
Another industry report, this time on the UK, the 2022 Immersive Economy Report.
Frontline in Focus is helping local journalists use VR and AR to cover the war in Syria.
How augmented reality documentary illuminates the politics of place.
Shallowfakes are rampant so tools to stop them must be equally accessible.
The age of algorythmic anxiety. Oh yes, we know that feeling well.
Projects we’re eyeballing
Image: Bottom of the Ocean
Bottom of the Ocean. An immersive theater show currently on in Brooklyn. Sold out but more tickets available soon.
Theater of the Mind. Inspired by both historical and current neuroscience research, the show takes you on an immersive journey inside how we see and create our worlds. Denver until December 18.
Coming up
Image: Once A Glacier, Jiabao Li
Festivals, courses, and events
Raindance Immersive runs October 26 to November 26. The Raindance Summit takes place October 27 but if you are not in London there will be lots of virtual fun to be had at the Raindance Embassy in VRChat.
IDFA runs November 9-20. A bunch of us from Immerse will be there, mostly doing DocLab things so we very much hope to see you there!
Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design. Exibition at MoMA until July 16, 2023.
Submission deadlines
World Heritage Futures Lab: Southern & Eastern Africa Edition. Call for creative technologists based in Southern or Eastern Africa. Deadline October 30.
Another opportunity for Africa-based folk: apply for the AR/VR Africa Metathon (this consists of training, in-person and virtual hackathons, and a 3-month bootcamp for the winning teams).
The PHI Immersive Residency is an eight-week program with PHI Studio in Montréal (Canada) focused on the development stage of a proposed project. Open to anyone but you will need to cover your own travel and accommodation for the duration of the residency. Deadline to apply November 3.
Biennale College Cinema - Virtual Reality: La Biennale di Venezia is looking for 12 VR international concepts of up to 30 minutes duration that can be made with a €75,000 budget and completed for exhibition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival in 2023. The training will be project led and applicants will be expected to apply in director-and-producer teams. Deadline to apply November 3.
Tribeca Immersive official deadline is December 7.
The Brown Institute at Columbia has two new full-time staff positions available — a Director of Creative Research and an “Impact Fellow.”
Immerse is an initiative of MIT Open DocLab and Dot Connector Studio, and receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. The Gotham Film & Media Institute is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing emerging nonfiction projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.
Publisher: Jessica Clark (Dot Connector Studio)
Managing Editor: Julie Fukunaga
Editorial Collective: Sarah Wolozin (MIT Open DocLab), Ingrid Kopp (Electric South), Kat Cizek (MIT Open DocLab)