Me in the Lesbian Simulator, SXSW
Improv with generative AI. A hilltop real estate holodeck. An evening chatting with improv futurists and the descendent of a famous magician. Guided by smart glasses. Painting my portrait into an art exhibit. Picked for an AI matchmaking game show. In a crowded movie theater playing a polling game on our phones as we tried to escape the internet. Collage making at an art gallery with the former head of Meow Wolf PR and an old college improv friend slash TV writer. Being part of a panel with Meow Wolf and Niantic Spatial on the future of AR overlaid on physical experiences. Red-light therapy in the Ammortal Chamber. Time in the Lesbian Simulator.
SXSW was a BBQ-fueled blur, a meeting spot and art festival, a place of shrugs and struggles, flailing at the big question of how AI will keep unraveling all the things we’ve come to assume as stable. The moving point of reality rested in Austin for a few days, and I met who I could, saw what I could, and took it all home in my mind to brew into a tea.
My panel with Meow Wolf and Niantic Spatial (Vince Kadlubek, Dennis Hwang, and Kati Murphy) was fantastic, and I just wish it had lasted longer to ask them all more about what’s coming next. But it brought up thoughts that have been swirling in my head: XR as we knew it is turning inside out, and so is everything else in the world. Everyone’s thinking new thoughts to turn the idea of interaction in new directions without making it a dead end of AI.
I’m writing this fast because I’ve had no time, and more to come on this in future Intertwixts. Comb through CNET’s liveblog of SXSW for all my thoughts in various directions, please.
The Skin Horse, in the basement of Ministry of Awe. Just know that it’s there.
And before SXSW I was getting immersive before I even left: I spent a day at the newly-opened Ministry of Awe in Philadelphia, a fabulous former bank building dripping in immersive art rooms and oddities, some interactive, some even involving subtle applications of AI. Created by artist Meg Saligman and a team of artists, it’s well worth a visit: it reminded me of Meow Wolf by way of The Museum of Jurassic Technology and Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. More to come on that in a video and story soon on CNET. A group called Spatial Pixel’s work on an interactive projected ceiling mural on the top floor felt particularly interesting: layers of subtle AI applied via hand tracking and a microphone and other instrument panels installed in the exhibit.
Athena Demos winning Experience of the Year for Burnersphere, next to an unrelated robot.
Today I went to NYC to present Best Splat (Gaussian Splat, that is) at The Polys, an awards show for XR. My first time, and I had a blast doing it - lots of familiar faces. Ian Hamilton, whose new newsletter Good Virtual Reality is a must-subscribe. Athena Demos, creator of The Burnersphere, a virtual world/digital twin of Burning Man (and an awesome person). Kiira Benz, who makes VR theater and lives not too far from me! Alex Coulombe, part of Agile Lens (and whose real estate holodeck I visited in Austin).
One thing is a common thread: the world is moving fast. No one knows the pieces. No one knows the future. It’s all chaos. And also it feels like a time of true adventure by necessity.
It’s been so much I don’t even know how to begin or end this, but allow me this ramble as a way to say that there are a lot of great people dreaming of the future still, asking questions. We need that. Because it feels like the wheels of the world are all coming off. And yet why does it feel to me that there’s a massive new weird cultural wave coming that should blow the doors off this broken reality? Maybe that’s my Suburban Dada dreaming.
In other news: check out my questions about Meta’s privacy policies for smart glasses, which underline concerns the whole industry faces (but particularly Meta). And what is Meta doing with its Horizon Worlds metaverse app, exactly? And, Pokémon Pokopia is brilliant, and I fell in love with it before it became viral. I’ve had many thoughts on Apple’s iPads related to the MacBook Neo. And, bummer that Xreal’s Neo Switch adapter for glasses is now on pause indefinitely.
And, also, I just finished a draft of my new play, Accelerant, which is a secret and I may do a reading of soon in some form. I’m looking for a venue.
Ok, more focused thoughts next week. I’ve digested more in these last few weeks than I sometimes experience in months. It deserves a revisit or two.
And also, thanks for reading! If you’re new, welcome aboard. And please recommend this to a friend if you like it. I’m going to dream of weird theater now, good night.
I had to just spit this issue out or not write one at all, so clearly you know what my decision was. More focused thought next week, I hope.