In June the Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019 returned to the UK city and alongside it the Alternate Realities Exhibition, featuring the latest immersive and interactive documentaries from around the world. Today, the exhibition has announced a set of tour dates, bringing a selection of content from the festival to three cities around the UK.
The Alternate Realities UK Tour will start next month, heading to Lighthouse in Brighton, then HOME, Manchester and finally the Barbican in London. Each will feature highlights from the original exhibition but not the same pieces.
Selected for the tour are:
- Common Ground – This VR installation “is an immersive and stark insight into the Aylesbury Estate, a concrete monument to the history and legacy of social housing in the UK and home to thousands of Londoners.”
- My Mother’s Kitchen – This interactive documentary “invites the audience to share in the stories of eight LGBTQI+ individuals as they relay intimate memories of their mother’s kitchens.”
- Another Dream – A VR installation which “presents the gripping story of an Egyptian lesbian couple who, facing a post-revolution backlash against their community, must choose between love and home, and asks how do you rebuild a life when you know you can never go home?”
- Echo – “An interactive installation created by Georgie Pinn which invites the audience to step into the shoes of another for a deeply personal exploration of human experience, identity and empathy.”
- Big Dada – “A series of ‘deep fake’ moving image works inserted into social media channels as a digital intervention.”
- 4 Feet Blind Date – A 360° following “Juana, an 18-year-old woman in a wheelchair who is anxious to explore her sexuality, overcomes her fears, doubts, and an inaccessible city to meet ‘Felipe’ for a blind date.”
- Through the Wardrobe – The only AR installation which “invites the audience to explore the belongings of others and play with gender expression.”
- To Call a Horse a Deer – A game “based on the Chinese idiom, and uses language, hand-eye coordination and acts of complicity.”
“It’s such a pleasure to see some of the best-loved digital art projects from Doc/Fest 2019 go on to reach new audiences at prestigious venues across the country,” said Melanie Iredale, Interim Director Sheffield Doc/Fest in a statement. “Many of these projects are personal and profound stories of love and identity, each engaging the viewer through interactive or immersive technologies. The response we had to the Alternate Realities Exhibition in Sheffield was overwhelming, and we look forward to working with Lighthouse, HOME and the Barbican in the coming months.”
The tour will be heading to Lighthouse, Brighton (11-20 October) as part of Brighton Digital Festival 2019, showcasing Common Ground, Echo and My Mother’s Kitchen. It’ll then head over to HOME, Manchester (9-17 November) with Big Dada, 4 Feet Blind Date, Another Dream, Through the Wardrobe and To Call a Horse a Deer on the roster. While the Barbican event will take place from 13th-19th January 2020, the participating projects have yet to be announced.
Sheffield Doc/Fest returns 4-9 June 2020. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.