From December 10 to 14, Turin will host the XXII edition of Sottodiciotto Film Festival & Campus, dedicated to the relationship between cinema and artificial intelligence. In this context, a new section dedicated to Virtual Reality will be presented.
Professor Vanessa Vozzo, professor of Media Art, will curate the section "Presence. Immersive experiences" in which it will be possible to watch films and artistic installations combining virtual reality with graphics, animation, gaming, live streaming, 360° cinema and live performances.
During the event, two installations curated by BeAnotherLab will also be presented, as part of a project realised by Officine Sintetiche and supported by Università degli Studi di Torino, Politecnico di Torino and Fondazione CRT. The interdisciplinary collective of scientists and artists from Barcelona is dedicated to exploring the possibilities that can arise from the use of immersive technologies through the Machine To Be Another: both installations that can be experienced by the public, in fact, will be accessible through a system that will reconstruct the experience of seeing and feeling oneself in another person's body.
Library of Ourselves
Through an archive of 360° VR films, the Machine To Be Another will allow the spectator tostep into the shoes of the narrator, experiencing his point of view, thanks to the mixed interaction with virtual reality and a live performance, which will involve the whole body and all the senses of the spectator in order to maximize his identification.
The library includes a wide variety of multimedia clips that will serve to empathise the viewer with a wide range of social issues by telling real, personal and documented stories and experiences of immigration, racism, gender discrimination, violence and homo-lesbian-bi-transphobia.
Body Swap
With this experience, the system will allow two users to exchange their own embodied perspectives, i.e. it will allow them to see and interact with reality from the point of view of another person's body thanks to the use of cameras and virtual reality in 360° live streaming. The most engaging application to be experienced will be the Gender Swap, with a man and a woman as protagonists of the performance. This installation is intended to promote mutual understanding, respect and the elimination of violence, discrimination and prejudice based on gender.
(Photo credit: Sottodiciotto Film Festival)
