Virtuals’ coverage of NewImages Festival 2020 “without borders”

Entirely dedicated to the digital and virtual worlds (VR, AR, mixed reality, mapping, binaural
sound), NewImages Festival will celebrate digital and immersive creation for five days, for
an edition without borders!
With this event, reinvented to be both on site and online, Forum des images stands up to
the challenge presented by the current pandemic. The challenge to offer a rich program, for
the public as much as for the professionals. It answers by inviting you to discover some of
the most remarkable immersive experiences – coming from the United States or Taiwan,
from the United Kingdom or Brazil, from France, Russia, Canada, or even China; with the
participation of renowned creators and professionals invited to decrypt the new writings
during the Industry Days, and by holding the XR Financing Market 100% online (coproduction market).

An unbroken ambition: to uncover, to unearth, to democratize

Free for the general public and open to all – the curious and the invested, school and community groups – this 3rd edition gathers around thirty works in virtual or augmented reality, to live through all our
senses. The festival spreads out on multiple venues, and in the respect of all sanitary measures: the
spaces of Forum des images, La Canopée, and the surroundings of the Halles Forum’s Saint
Eustache door, as well as the pool Espace Form Oberkampf (for the professionals).

Amongst what’s on offer, the world premiere of Flame, a dance performance blending in the
real and the virtual, coproduced by NewImages Festival and VRrOOm (opening night); the
aquatic VR experience, Spaced Out, unreleased in France, to be discovered while
submerged in a pool in order to travel from Earth to the Moon (for professionals only); VR
works produced by UBISOFT on disappeared worlds (Notre-Dame de Paris, Pompei…);
more original devices around imaginary cities such as ATLAS, the result of the Taiwan VR
Residency, and Heterotopia as well as the photo exhibition in augmented reality Potente,
on the lives of a community of Columbian fishermen.

Alain Damasio, the master of French SF, will give an exceptional masterclass around alternative
imaginaries and will touch upon his latest projects including M.O.A – My Own Assistant. This
augmented reality (AR) application, adapted from his book The Stealthies, dives in the urban universe of 2040, where surveillance and marketing have invaded public space. Selected in the XR competition
of NewImages Festival, this is this work’s world premiere. (LBE).

The Industry Days and the XR Financing Market

Within the span of three editions, NewImages Festival has become a referential event for major
actors of the XR industry, in France and abroad.
From September 23 to 25, its professional component will be able to tackle the issues of digital
creation and immersive work production, in the presence of creators, producers, persons in charge of
broadcasting venues and platforms, and technological experts from across the entire world.
This year, more than thirty speakers will share their experience, at Forum des images or through
livestream, in the framework of 16 conferences and workshops on offer.

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