#1319: Preview of 40 Raindance Immersive 2023 Indie VR Art, Music, Game, Narrative, & Live Experiences

Raindance Immersive is back with 40 independent VR experiences across eight categories of Immersive World, Immersive Experience, Immersive Art Experience, Immersive Music Experience, Immersive Narrative, Immersive Game, and two new categories of Short Film of VR and Music Video of VR, which are 2D films that are shot within virtual reality. 75% of this year's selection has some connection to a social VR platform with 28 connected to VRChat with single experiences in EngageXR and Resonite (i.e. the spiritual successor to NeosVR.

I had a chance to catch up with the co-curators of Raindance Immersive of Mária Rakušanová and Joe Hunting to get a rundown and sneak peak of all 40 experiences at this year's selection that runs online in VRChat from November 4th to December 3rd. Nearly all of the screenings are free (everything aside from the gaming selection) with free sign-ups for live performances, guided tours, and screenings listed on their website. Raindance is at the forefront of curating the trends that are at the bleeding edge of virtual culture and the best-in-class of worldbuilding, live performances, and musical experiences within these VRChat and social VR environments. It's always great to hear more about how they curate this festival by being deeply in tune with the VRChat community and actively participating in events throughout the year to build relationships and create a creative deadline for immersive artists, worldbuilders, and storytellers to share their latest works.

I can highly recommend checking out this year's selection, particularly the immersive world selection and be sure to drop by one of the screenings of films that were shot within VR chat as that's a new and exciting trend. I get a bit more historical context in this development from Hunting as he shares some of the early film festivals in VR, and selections of 2D films shot in VR that he curated starting in 2020. Phia's The Virtual Reality Show Film Fest featured a selection of 14 films shot in VRChat on February 25th, 2023, which led to the founding of a VRChat filmmaker Discord and provided a catalyst for collaboration and knowledge sharing with other VRChat-based filmmakers. Hunting provides a bit more context as to how the community got to that point, and why it was the perfect time for the VRChat filmmaker community to self-organize and for Raindance to expand their selection this year to feature these 2D films.

Raindance Immersive runs for a few more weeks until December 3rd, 2023, and so be sure to check out RaindanceImmersive.com for more information for how to check out this year's selection.

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Music: Fatality