Travelling through time and space Local museums are embracing technology to create immersive experiences
A multidisciplinary arts hub originally founded by Phoebe Greenberg in 2012, Phi Centre has been presenting virtual reality as part of its programming for the past eight years, when Greenberg first experienced VR for herself, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that the centre’s offering really took off.
“Right at the beginning of the pandemic, in spring of 2020, we launched a virtual reality project called VR to go, where people could rent an Oculus headset and specific content for 48 hours,” says Myriam Achard, Phi’s chief of new media partnerships and public relations.
“It’s a project that was born out of the pandemic because we were all at home, by ourselves, but it was a huge success and people are still renting headsets. The sudden popularity is what VR creators were hoping for five or six years ago, but it’s happening now.”
The Phi Centre, which started by presenting virtual reality exhibits with just a few headsets and a couple of chairs, now specializes in XR; an all-encompassing term that refers to virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies.
In addition to its VR to go programming that includes such immersive films as Alegría - A Spark of Light, Daughters of Chibok, Everest and Traveling While Black, among others, the centre also has a number of in-person XR exhibits, including The Infinite, an immersive, 60-minute experience that transports visitors into space aboard the International Space Station.
“It’s the biggest production that we’ve ever worked on,” says Achard about the XR film that features footage captured by astronauts with a state-of-the-art space camera as part of the largest production ever filmed in space.
“A collaboration between Phi Centre, Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios, The Infinite is a truly amazing experience that will be at Arsenal Contemporary Art until Nov. 7.”
An immersive, multi-sensory installation that aims to reveal the hidden connections between humans and nature, We Live in an Ocean of Air blurs the boundaries of installation, live performance and virtual reality by revealing the natural forces that exist around us.
An experience that takes place in Sequoia National Park and lasts 20 minutes, the exhibit uses virtual reality, heart rate monitors, breath sensors and body tracking, among other technology, to transport visitors to another world.
“It’s an experience that Phoebe and I saw in London, at the Saatchi Gallery, almost two years ago that engages your body and senses and is a beautiful experience,” Achard says.
The installation created by Marshmallow Laser Feast, an immersive art collective based out of London, is running from Sept. 29 to Jan. 16 at the Phi Centre.
As part of the 50th anniversary of the Festival du nouveau cinema this year, Phi will also be hosting the virtual reality portion of the festival from Oct. 6 to 8.
Originally created by Annabelle Mauger, Julien Baron and art historian Androula Michael, Imagine Monet is the third immersive experience by the trio that started with Imagine van Gogh in 2017 and continued with Imagine Picasso in 2019. The experience opens Dec. 15 at Arsenal Contemporary Art and runs until Feb. 27.
“It’s important for me to have a reason to show something in video projection; with van Gogh, it was to show his brush strokes. With Monet and impressionists in general, it’s spots,” says Mauger.
“When you look at his paintings, everything looks very soft and out of focus — like an impression of colour — but when you really look at them close up, you realize what a radical painter he was because none of the colours are mixed.”
Featuring more than 200 paintings created by the founder of Impressionism, Claude Monet, that were painted in Normandy where both Mauger and Monet grew up, Imagine Monet will be projected in Image Totale, a technique first developed by Mauger’s husband’s grandfather, Albert Plécy, as part of Cathédrale d’images, which has since become known for its immersive exhibitions.
“With the Imagine van Gogh exhibit, I introduced visitors to an area I lived in for 15 years, in the South of France,” Mauger says. “With Monet, I’m introducing them to where I was born. My grandparents are from Fécamp, which is an area he painted extensively, as well as Étretat.”
What’s especially challenging about the Monet exhibit is that black is the one colour that’s forbidden in Impressionism, while it’s the main requirement for Image Totale.
“That’s something we really grappled with and had to come up with a solution for; I won’t spoil the surprise, though,” says Mauger, who is opening Imagine Monet in Montreal, in December, while launching Imagine van Gogh in Boston at the same time.
“Van Gogh is now the most Googled artist,” says Mauger, “and I can’t help but hope that the immersive experience we created had something to do with reintroducing him to a whole new generation.”
Imagine Monet opens Dec. 15 at Arsenal Contemporary Art and runs until Feb. 27.