Time: Thursday August 17 from 12.15 to 14.15.
Location: Media City Bergen, the Atrium. You can’t miss it! The entire floor will be packed with media designs.
Sponsors: TekLab, NordMedia, Media Futures and Media City Bergen.
Related stories: "Future Shock!" on the Nordmedia website and "The daughter of all demos" on the TekLab website.
Project team:
General manager: Lars Nyre.
Technical manager: Audun Klyve Gulbrandsen.
Designers: Helene Høylandskjær and Julia Hellem Brandt.
Video producers: Nora Storebø and Lone Nyløkken.
Journalist and photographer: Janina Wildermuth.
Technical support and photographer: Karsten Quix.
Please note that the event will be filmed, and photos will be taken for publication purposes.
Sitsim displays realistic visualizations of ancient structures that are no longer visible in the landscape. You must be on location to use it. It allows the user to explore the site on foot by moving around in it, and with information supplied in text, photos, videos, and voiceovers. Sitsim has been designed for several archaeological sites, among them the Roman forum in Rome, Osebergskipet in Tønsberg, Omaha Beach in Normandie and Phalasarna in Crete. Value proposition: Tourists can learn about ancient material structures like buildings, grave mounds, ships and weaponry, and and imagine how life in those times might have been.
Sitsim was created over many years by professor Gunnar Liestøl at the University of Oslo and several cohorts of master students, and it is still under development. Read more about Gunnar’s media design projectd at SitsimLab.
The audience at Future Fest can watch video demonstrations of how Sitsim works and test the features of the app. Sitsim is created to be location-sensitive at carefully augmented sites, and therefore its interactivity in Media City Bergen is limited.
PaintAR applies full body tracking technology to make the user's body into a virtual paint brush. Your left hand becomes a paint brush separate from your right foot. You can draw paintings in a 3D space and store it in the app. Your painting will be “attached” to the place you created it in and will be accessible to other users in the virtual world of PaintAR. Value proposition: People can augment public spaces with artworks and playful visual commentary.
PaintAR was created in 2022 by master students Julie Sofie Berntsen, Julia Hellem Brandt, Ruben Caldeira and Daniela Lipcika at UiB. It will be presented by Julia. Watch a demo of the PaintAR functionality and a video of how it is to use the app.
The audience at Future Fest can use PaintAR to make drawings and see them displayed on a screen. Two of the master students will present the app.
The Weather Machine offers a live “interpretation” of the weather at mount Fløyen in Bergen, close to the end stop of the funicular. Tourists, school children and passersby can watch and hear the machine’s reaction to wind and rain. Its accompanying apps offer playful activities that thematizes the weather and climate in Bergen. Value proposition: People can get a more positive and intimate experience of the weather, and a deeper understanding of climate change.
The Weather Machine is presented by Ronald Toppe and Eli Kari Gjengedal from Scary Weather, professor Petter Bergerud at UiB and musician Ole Hamre. It is an ongoing project created by scientific and artistic milieus in Bergen. The two prototypes of mobile apps were designed by bachelor students at UiB 2021 and 2022. Click on the links to read more about Bergen Climate Travel and Værkampen ("The Weather Battle").
The audience at Future Fest can inspect a model of the Weather Machine and explore click-through prototypes of the apps.
MR-news displays news stories in a virtual environment that is projected into your physical surroundings. The news story is presented in adjustable boxes that displays headlines, text elements, maps, photos, and videos. Value proposition: MR-news is intended to make complex news stories more accessible to readers with dyslexia or other limitations.
MRnews was created in 2023 by master students Fay Tveranger and Vegard Sviland at UiB with a HoloLens 2 purchased by TekLab. It is presented by Fay.
The audience at Future Fest can interact with the news story in HoloLens 2 and also watch the activities of other testers on a monitor.
Schizophrenia is a documentary narrative in three scenes. The story takes place in a virtual environment simulating an ordinary flat, and it is marked by visual and auditory effects and animation. The protagonist suffers from increasingly intense hallucinations in the kitchen, the washing room, and the living room. Value proposition: The user is supposed to have an immersive experience of how it is to suffer from schizophrenia and become better informed about this disease.
The Schizophrenia Story was created in 2018 by bachelor students at UiB. It is presented by PhD Joakim Vindenes (unconfirmed) and lecturer Audun Klyve Gulbrandsen who were the supervisors of the project. They are both co-founders of the media company Spello which is now run by Audun. The research project Vismedia sponsored an experiment where students were tasked with using VR for documentaries.
The audience at Future Fest can go through the full three-minute Schizophrenia story in VR, and can watch others experiencing it on a monitor.
The VR Animator project encompasses a collection of initiatives that delve into the future of animation production, wherein the manipulation and construction of fictional worlds occur within the realm of augmented or virtual reality. It serves as a testament to the cutting-edge convergence of mixed reality and animation, offering valuable insights into the benefits of emerging technologies in pushing the boundaries of immersive storytelling. This overarching endeavor includes the publication of a book titled "Animating in the Age of Metaverse," the theoretical exploration of tools and techniques that can be developed to facilitate immersive animation creation within mixed reality environments, and the actualization of virtual reality experiences utilizing said technologies. The value proposition lies in empowering media producers to augment their productivity by occasionally crafting their expressive forms and narratives within the virtual reality space.
The VR Animator Demo, led by Associate Professor Javad Khajavi from Volda University College, showcases the practical application of these concepts.
Attendees at the Future Fest will have the opportunity to experiment with the animation tools specifically designed for virtual reality, observe live performances by others on a monitor, and engage in immersive virtual reality experiences that have been developed using these innovative technologies.
EngasjerAR is designed to explain the rules of American football to people who don't know much about them. Rules and explanations are augmented onto and beside the live football match that is shown on the television screen. Value proposition: EngasjerAR augments the live transmission of sports so that it can become understandable to people who know very little about it but wants to become more engaged.
EngasjerAR was created by master student Simon Iden at the University of Bergen. You can watch a video demonstration here.
The audience at Future Fest can test the app and watch a video of how it works.
In this VR experience, you are guided by Tails, a personal avatar who conveys news in a way that resembles adventure games. You have to use your senses to look for, collect and activate "orbs" that contain news stories. In this way, you get full control and responsibility over your news consumption. Value proposition: “Tales of the Now” is a service for young people who may be skeptical or even afraid of hard news, but who know they ought to keep themselves informed. It shows how news might be presented in the Metaverse in the future.
Tales of the Now was created in 2022 by bachelor students at UiB in collaboration with TV 2. It is presented by lecturer and PhD Fredrik Håland Jensen who who was one of the supervisors of the project. Watch a demo of the prototype here.
The audience at Future Fest can test the VR experience and watch the activities on others on a monitor.
This stand presents four video interviews with notable people in the VR chat community: a dancer, a painter, an avatar maker, and a VR world creator. They were all interviewed in VR chat and were represented by their avatars. Value proposition: The videos presents life in the Metaverse in a visual form that is unique to the Metaverse, and shows the people who create it actually think and work.
Interviews in VR Chat was created in 2022 by bachelor students at UiB. They are presented by professor Richard Misek who was the course responsible and facilitator of the experiment. Read an interview with Richard here.
The audience at Future Fest can see the four documentaries in 2D on a monitor.
Auditomosjon is an art installation that consists of thirteen textile creatures of varying shapes, surfaces, and weights. Each creature has a built-in sound player that plays different sound loops and rythms, depending on how it touched and moved around by the audience. Value proposition: People can engage in playful tactile interactions with unusual objects, and play Auditomosjon as a collective instrument.
Auditomosjon was created in 2021 – 2023 by associate professor Jon Hoem at the Western Norway University of Applied Science. Watch a video of the installation and read more about the project (in Norwegian)..
The audience at Future Fest can move and lay down on the textile creatures, as well as moving them up and down the staircase.
Pastfinder explores how radio archives can be utilised in location-based dissemination of vulnerable landscapes. It gives the user access to cultural heritage sites in a protected landscape area at the Dovre mountain plateau. At specific locations, sound clips from the radio archive of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK, are curated to reveal hidden stories of the past and augment the full-body experience of walking here. Value proposition: Combining the sounds of the past with emerging technologies can revitalise the archives, provide users with a deeper understanding of cultural heritage and identification with the landscape.
Pastfinder is currently being created by PhD Rebecca Nedregotten Strand at Volda University College. Read about Rebecca’s doctoral project here (in Norwegian).
The audience at Future Fest can test a 3D-version where sound and vision are merged in VR.
Flowers and plants can sometimes feel impossible to motivate. You provide them with a nice pot, some soil and water, but it still wont grow. Just like plants, students also need the right encouragement and support to bloom. The bachelor students at the University of Stavanger has explored how to use augmented reality to stimulate curiosity for the new Media city building in Stavanger that will be constructed in the near future. Value proposition: AR storytelling for the mobile phone can help young people envision the positive potential of building projects, and make them into participants in the development of cities.
The Stavanger media prototypes were created in 2023 by bachelor students at the University of Stavanger in collaboration with Mediebyen Stavanger, Scary Weather and the AR company Hidden. They are presented by TekLab project managers Nora Storebø and Lone Nyløkken, with assistance from bachelor student Benjamin Laate who previously studied in Stavanger and contributed to the course.
The audience at Future Fest can watch videos of the AR concepts.
Museum Ghost is a story-driven experience conveyed through mobile augmented reality. "Aarsille" is a ghost from the early 17th century who guides the user through four locations at Sunnmøre Museum. The user is introduced to characters and stories that communicate Sunnmøre's rich folklore and history. The adventure is activated by scanning a QR code at the museum. Value proposition: Teenagers are supposed to become more engaged in the museum’s exhibitions of notable personalities, artifacts and activities from the past.
Museum Ghost was created in 2023 by master student Isak Horgar at Volda University College in collaboration with the AR company Hidden and supported by Møre and Romsdal County Council.
The audience at Future Fest can test the app and explore its interactive features in a click-through prototype.
