And after a short break, we are back with some new exciting news about Sonar+D, that has released the official program of this year edition and it will be opening up our minds with amazing new concepts that pull together technology and creativity.
Well, apparently, the fanciest term in this year fair, and this makes me incredibly happy, as I will be lucky enough to be directly involved, will be Virtual Reality: in fact, among the stars that will be showcasing their work, we will have acclaimed video makers Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, formerly authors of some of the most recognised online interactive experiences of the last decade, and now founders and central brain of VRSE, an agency specialised in development and production of content for Virtual Reality HMDs.
Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, digital artists and creators of the VSRE study on Virtual Reality experiences. Over the last two decades Chris Milk has emerged as one of the world’s foremost music video directors, working with U2, Kanye West and The Chemical Brothers. Aaron Koblin, founder of the Google Data Arts Team is undoubtedly the most internationally celebrated digital artist, using large data sets in his work. The creative union between Milk and Koblin has produced some of the most powerful interactive online experiences in recent years: from the multi award-winning “The Wilderness Downtown” for Arcade Fire, which employed Google Street View technology to weave personal stories, to “The Johnny Cash Project” a crowd sourcing experiment in which thousands of people contributed to create a video for a song by the country legend. Koblin and Milk -who have already produced music videos for Björk, the United Nations and New York Times- will be in Sónar+D launching their new project exclusively at Sónar+D: VRSE, a virtual reality production company and thinktank dedicated to producing new experiences for VR platforms such as Samsung Gear or Oculus Rift.
On side of the speeches related to the technology developments of virtual reality, and next steps towards the (immediate) future – VR is here guys – Milk and Koblin work will be showcased in Realities+D, a dedicated space within the fair with Oculus Rift installations and, apparently, some unseen (and not to be told yet) surprises…
But VR is just the tip of the Iceberg. On the frontline we will also have Yancey Strickler – CEO and co-founder of Kickstarter, who will be talking about the incredible growth of his company along the last couple of years, and how important it is to keep this project going to be able to finance more creative ideas all around the world, and Arthur Baker,, remix pioneer and renowned pop artist producer. Baker will present a talk at Sónar+D entitled “808″, a documentary he produced about the legendary Roland drum machine which was directly responsible for the first era explosion of musical genres like hip-hop and techno. Baker was one of the first music producers to opt for the remix as a means of expression. Both as a producer and remixer he has worked with many different artists, from New Order to Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Neneh Cherry and the Pet Shop Boys. In addition, Baker will perform on Friday at the SónarVillage stage.
On side, the event will be full of workshops (Arduino, any?), forums and conversations, products presentations, and market place and networking sessions, all along topics related with creativity and technology.
All this under the sun of Barcelona’s late spring/beginning of summer. Not to be missed…
Lineup Sónar+D 2015 from Sónar on Vimeo.
Sónar+D 2015 from Sónar on Vimeo.
