VR: New Perspectives on Contemporary Dance & Medical Training

By Yiwen Sun, Project Leader - Interdisciplinary & Special Projects 

On the occasion of the Asia Tour of VR_I, a contemporary dance piece in immersive virtual reality, Gilles Jobin, Director & Choreographer of the work was invited to present at the 5th Café des Sciences Lecture, together with Gauthier Dubruel, Business Director and co-founder of UbiSim, the first VR training solution for nurses. Around 50 attendants had the chance to meet with both speakers and network with the professionals in VR field. Nearly 900 audience watched the online live streaming of the talks via swissnex China social media channels.

Through the talks, Gilles Jobin shared with the audience his encounter with Artanim, the Swiss leading experts in motion capture and virtual reality and how he combines the new technology with his choreography. He revealed the process in making VR_I and the technical challenges in finalizing the project, which brought the audience to think about the turnouts of such work. Switching the perspectives, Gauthier Dubruel introduced his start-up company – UbiSim, and how virtual reality can be used to provide convenient and affordable practical training to health care practitioners. Guests were actively engaged with the discussion on new developments of VR application in medical training and clinical practices.

Café des Sciences is a new format at swissnex China offering a monthly platform for Swiss Spotlight Scientists and Startups to present their projects and engage with the local community. The lectures are followed by a networking reception and scheduled to take place every third Thursday each month at swissnex China or our partner spaces.

Please stay tuned for our next event on Synthetic Biology at Chronus Art Center and save the date for 20th June.

VR_I in Shanghai - Dancing in Immersive Virtual Reality

By Yiwen Sun, Project Leader - Interdisciplinary & Special Projects 

Organized by swissnex China, VR_I: A Contemporary Dance Piece in Immersive Virtual Reality was brought to the Chinese audience for the first time. Throughout the 8-day performances from 9-12/15-18 May, VR_I has received over 500 spectators at Chronus Art Center, located in M50, the renowned art & design district of Shanghai. The Director and Choreographer of VR_I – Gilles Jobin and his touring team also had their first touch with China.

Pioneering contemporary dance, Gilles Jobin developed VR_I with the leading motion capture technology and virtual reality experts – Artanim, which provides viewers with the unique sensory experience. During the experience, participants can thus interact physically and even communicate with the others. The 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 truly original way.

spectators experiencing VR_I at Chronus Art Center, Shanghai

Roundtable Discussion on the future of Virtual Reality and Contemporary Dance

Link to watch the video:

https://www.zaiart.com/appwrapper_dist/appShare/live.html?id=e4ba428652b44700820efcce04fdadd6

On 10th May, a roundtable discussion with experts and professionals in the fields of Virtual Reality and performing arts were held at Chronus Art Center. Around 55 guests attended the event while 6959 audience watched the online live streaming of the discussion.

Dr. Felix Moesner giving the welcome speech.

Roundtable discussion speakers

Moderated by Salar Shahna from the World VR Forum, our guest speakers – nunu kong, Daming Zhang and Roger Yang shared their perspectives and insights on the questions such as how the new technology changes the choreography, how do the audience and the critics perceive such work, how to balance the artistic and economic value and what will be the future trend of Virtual reality in terms of application.

Attendants of the roundtable discussion.

Gilles Jobin: “Shanghai is amazing!”

VR_I has brought many of the Chinese audience their first unique VR experience with contemporary dance, while the two-week stay in Shanghai left Gilles Jobin and his team unforgettable first impressions of China.

Along with the performance of VR_I, under the arrangement of swissnex China, Gilles Jobin and his team were connected to the local artists, VR experts as well as arts organizations such as Rockbund Art Museum, Power Station of Art and How Art Museum. Different thoughts and inspirations on the new work were emerged during the meetings and visits; potential co-operations between the two parties were established and explored.

VR_I crew with swissnex China staff and the local experts.

VR Villa at West Bund Reveals the Next Chapter in the Evolution of VR

From 1-15 Oct.2017, swissnex China together with Pro Helvetia Shanghai and World VR Forum (WVRF) organized an amazing Virtual Reality event at West Bund, Shanghai. WVRF takes VR out of the technology scene and shows the power of Virtual Reality as accessible and quality entertainment media.  The well-curated show brings world-class of works of art to the daily lives of Shanghainese.

VR Villa at Westbund

The media preview and grand opening of this event was held on 30th September 2017. It was an honor to invite Chinese media, VR players and featured artists to join this incredible ceremony.

Professional night

During the exhibition period, various workshops and lectures as well as a kids’ day were organized by different partners, which were very well received by the participants.

Artist talk

Kids’ day

Professional Workshop on Birdly by Max Rheiner