will.i.am – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 11, 2018

VR Music Experiences from Will.I.Am and The Bloom Twins Now on Jaunt

Music artists and performers are always seeking new ways to reach the audience. Whether this is through radio play, streaming, music videos or live performances. With virtual reality (VR) a new avenue for connecting with fans is available, and it is one that recording artists Will.I.Am and the Bloom Twins have embraced.

The new VR experience featuring the performers was captured during a performance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and has been titled Virtual VIP, to signify how the viewer is getting a closer look at the performance than many who were in the audience at the time.

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The VR experience is being made available to user through Jaunt VR, a content distribution platform for VR content that has already seen high-profile works for music, dance, cinema and theatre become available in VR through the use of its platform.

The film was captured using multiple 360-degree video cameras which were places in strategic locations throughout the theatre, allowing viewers to be transported to the live event and letting them view the performance from the best seats in the house.

Will.I.Am and his band, the Black Eyed Peas have previously been involved with immersive media when they worked together with Marvel to create an immersive augmented reality (AR) comic titled Masters of the Sun: The Zombie Chronicles, which combines elements of Egyptian mythology with hip-hop culture. The comic has seen been adapted into a VR experience for mobile VR platforms like the Samsung Gear VR.

Other music artists like Bjork and Gorillaz have also embraced immersive technology as a means of engaging with audiences and fans in a new way. As the technology develops, it can be expected that more performers will become involved with using the technology.

As usual, VRFocus will keep you informed on new developments regarding VR and AR experiences.

July 1, 2017

The Black Eyed Peas Comeback to Include AR, We’re ‘Building a new world’ States Will.i.am

Musicians have been dabbling in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for a little while now, mostly through music videos – with the odd concert filmed in 360-degrees. Earlier this year The Black Eyed Peas announced their comeback after a seven year hiatus and recently Will.i.am revealed part of that would include an AR experience of some kind.

Talking to The Sun newspaper, Will.i.am said: “In mid-July, The Black Eyed Peas launch our new experience and you’ll see what we’ve been doing in the medium of augmented reality.”

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“Right now when it comes to augmented reality, people take awesome little photos on Snapchat and Instagram and give you halos or puppy-dog faces. That’s cool, but that’s just the beginning. What we’re doing is building a new world,” he added.

What this will be is anyone’s guess at this present time, likely to revolve around a new single of some sort. The musician has said he doesn’t plan to ‘outdo’ any of the hit tracks the group is well known for, for the simple fact that he thinks that would be ‘impossible’. Will.i.am did tease: “We’re not going to outdo ‘I Gotta Feeling’, that’s impossible. That means we have to think in a different medium. This now thing we’re doing, it’s very tech, it’s experimental. It’s not just radio or two-dimensional. It’s multi-layered, multi-dimensional.”

You’ll have to wait until next month to find out more, so check back with VRFocus for the latest details.

October 13, 2016

will.i.am Says Black Eyed Peas VR Experience “Is Not Us Performing In Front Of a 360 Camera”

At today’s VR On The Lot event at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am took the stage to open the show with a few remarks. He concluded his speech by announcing that he is “working with my team to create a VR experience for the Black Eyed Peas and it is not us performing in front of a 360 cameras.”

The popular musicians words are a shot at the glut of 360 video experiences that many musicians and other creatives have begun to employ in an effort to get in on the immersive revolution early. will.i.am does not consider these types of experiences to be worthy of VR’s potential. According to him:

“In this world of VR creators create worlds. I can’t wait until it is just the norm. Like ‘yo check out my world.’

Becuase what I don’t want musicians to do is be like ‘check out my VR’ and I just slap the camera and do the same thing I would do in real life instead of creating experiences that are just as enriched as real life.”

Syntax aside, this is a valid point for the VR community as it stands today. There does seem to be a growing “set it and forget it” attitude surrounding 360 content wherein filmmakers are content to simply translate raw footage of an event or performance without much creative improvement.

will.i.am’s vision for VR tech is one where the form factors of the devices we use are more informed by fashion and utility than they are by technological limitations. He wants the industry to “Think the likes of Gucci and Louis Vitton…there’s no reason we shouldn’t have awesome jackets with the computation in the back to keep the head light where the face isn’t getting hot.”

Finally, will.i.am stated that he “can’t wait for the day when, similar to clubs, there are physical places where you go to to have enriched VR experiences. I can’t wait for the day where more musicians want to work with developers and world builders.”