Gilles Jobin has created the first-ever choreographic work in immersive virtual reality.

With VR_I, the choreographer invites the audience for a unique sensory experience. Equipped with virtual reality headsets, five visitors at a time freely navigate a real world inhabited by virtual dancers.

LOCATION BASED SOCIAL VR:

A contemporary dance piece in Immersive Virtual Reality

For the first time ever, a choreographer combines dance with immersive virtual reality in a work that provides viewers with a unique sensory experience. Blending art with technology, VR_I resulted from the encounter between Gilles Jobin and the founders of Artanim, Caecilia Charbonnier and Sylvain Chagué, motion capture technology experts and virtual reality pioneers in Switzerland and abroad. In association with them, Gilles Jobin developed VR_I, a work in which the creator questions our perception of reality and enters new unexplored and unchartered territories for contemporary dance. Thanks to the virtual reality technology developed by Artanim, VR_I viewers equipped with virtual reality headsets and backpack computers move freely in a total virtual space. Five viewers at a time may explore this world, moving in turn in an endless desert, an urban landscape or inside a loft at the top of a mountain. Participants each embody an avatar that faithfully replicates their movements, enhancing the feeling of immersion in the virtual world while also enabling them to see their peers. During the experience, participants can thus interact physically and even communicate with the others. Five virtual dancers then come to blur their perception, multiplying, growing to the point of becoming giants or becoming tiny. With these effects of scale, Gilles Jobin addresses the concept of spatiality in a genuinely original way.

The international cast for this work that was designed and produced in Switzerland features American composer Carla Scaletti, Belgian fashion designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard and dancers Victoria Chiu, Susana Panadés Diaz, Diya Naidu, Tidiani N’Diaye and Gilles Jobin himself.

VR_I was presented at Sundance Film Festival 2018 and at 75 Mostra Internazionale d’Arte cinematografia / La Biennale di Venezia 2018. VR_I received the Innovation award and the people’s choice award for the best performance at the 49th edition of the Festival du nouveau cinema in Montréal.

In VR_I, 5 viewers are immersed in a virtual environment, moving around in an 8m x 5m room. Users are tracked by an optical motion capture system in the installation, allowing them to see their own bodies in the shape of an avatar and to physically move in the virtual environment. The users’ positions and movements match their body’s movements exactly. Equipped with VR headsets and an on-board computer, they are free to move and interact with other users.

Visit the Web site to find biographies, links of press articles and tour dates.

http://www.vr-i.space
www.gillesjobin.com

Choreography Gilles Jobin
Dance Susana Panadés Díaz, Victoria Chiu, Diya Naidu, Gilles Jobin, Tidiani N’Diaye
VR Platform & Immersive Technology Artanim
Costumes & Virtual Set Jean-Paul Lespagnard
Sound Environment Carla Scaletti / Symbolic Sound
Production Director Camilo De Martino
3D Scans & Motion Capture Artanim
3D Artist Tristan Siodlak
3D Editor Camilo De Martino
Technical Artist Rémy Maetz
Assistant to the Choreographer Susana Panadés Díaz
Technical Director Hugo Cahn
Technicians on Tour Hugo Cahn, Camilo De Martino
Administration & Accounting Gonzague Bochud
Production Cie Gilles Jobin Genève – Switzerland
Coproduction Arsenic
With the support of
City of Geneva,
Canton of Geneva,
Pro Helvetia, Loterie Romande,
Fondation Meyrinoise du Casino,
Fonds mécénat SIG