Life of Us is available to “play” at IMAX VR Experience Centre in Los Angeles.
I’m racing through time with a stranger. We met just moments before we each ducked into separate cubicles at the IMAX VR Experience Centre on Fairfax and reconvened in a virtual space where billions of years of evolution are condensed into less than eight minutes of fast-paced animation. The stranger and I can talk to each other, but mostly I’m trying to figure out what I am, how I should move and where I’m heading. We swim and fly and run as creatures and people, ultimately landing in a future-world dance party where arm movements leave glowstick-like trails.
Life of Us is the latest virtual reality project from L.A.-based company Within. The experience, which debuted at Sundance earlier this year, is a wild ride through evolution made for two or more people. It’s a chance to play in a virtual reality space, but it’s not exactly a game. There’s no questlike object and there are no winners or losers. There is a narrative aspect to it, but you’re participating in this story in a way that you can’t do while watching film or television.
“It seems obvious that virtual reality technology will be great for video games and gaming experiences, but what is the opportunity beyond that if you think of it more from a storytelling perspective?” asks Aaron Koblin, co-founder and CTO of Within, during a recent phone call. Koblin and filmmaker Chris Milk formed Within to explore what can be done in virtual reality. The two had been collaborating for years and had previously created internet art projects and museum installations. As Within, they’ve worked on 360-degree music projects for artists ranging from U2 to Squarepusher, as well as other collaborations like the Mr. Robot virtual reality experience.
With Life of Us, they had a question to answer. “Is there something that is not a film and not a game that could kind of be really what virtual reality is capable of being, kind of being its own medium in its own right?” Koblin asks. “That was what we were trying to experiment with and play around with.”
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Source: LA Weekly