[This Museum Association story uses the VR component of a new V&A exhibition about Alice in Wonderland to comment on the larger shift towards the use of immersive media at museums, which has been accelerated by the pandemic. As FashionUnited UK’s coverage notes, the exhibit also includes other elements to create immersion and presence:

“Described as one of the museum’s ‘most ambitious’ exhibitions by its director Dr Tristram Hunt, ‘Alice: Curiouser And Curiouser’ aims to transport visitors into the otherworldly experiences shaped by theatrical sets, immersive environments and playful displays, including the museum’s first virtual reality experience.”

The original version of the story below includes three more images and a one-minute trailer (also available via YouTube). More information and many more pictures are available in the FashionUnited UK story and coverage by designboom, as well the websites for the exhibition and its VR feature.… read more. “Through the looking glass: V&A’s Curious Alice experience part of new VR revolution in museums”

[Researchers at Columbia University Engineering have created EVA, a blue-faced robot that uses deep learning to mimic the subtle changes in facial expressions of the humans around her and evoke medium-as-social-actor presence, as reported in this news release. See the original version for a different image and a 2:24 minute video (also available on YouTube) and see the project’s website for much more information. –Matthew]

The Robot Smiled Back

Columbia Engineering researchers use AI to teach robots to make appropriate reactive human facial expressions, an ability that could build trust between humans and their robotic co-workers and care-givers

By Holly Evarts
May 27 2021

New York, NY—May 27, 2021—While our facial expressions play a huge role in building trust, most robots still sport the blank and static visage of a professional poker player. With the increasing use of robots in locations where robots and humans need to work closely together, from nursing homes to warehouses and factories, the need for a more responsive, facially realistic robot is growing more urgent.… read more. “The robot smiled back: EVA uses AI to mimic facial expressions and build trust”

[This story from Forbes earlier this year describes a study that reinforces the ideas that presence-evoking technology amplifies at least some of the impacts of media content (as in early studies of screen size) and that media content and form interact in important ways. Experiencing driver training messages in virtual reality produced increased risk-taking for fear appeal messages and reduced risk-taking for positive messages compared to viewing the messages in 2D film conditions. Here’s an excerpt from the published study:

“As VR is designed to provide a more realistic experience of driving collisions (Lin, 2017; Parsons & Rizzo, 2008), it is likely that participants’ experience of viewing the collision in the fear condition was more vivid than those viewing it in 2D. Indeed, in the 2D films, the participants experienced the events as spectators, creating a distance between themselves and the avatars (Klimmt, Hefner, & Vorderer, 2009; Lin, 2013).… read more. “Study: VR (and presence) amplifies effects of messages to improve teen driving”

[Illustrating the potential of presence experiences to break down many types of barriers, a set of real time audio-video portals now connect people in the cities of Vilnius, Lithuania and Lublin, Poland, as described in this story from The Verge. More details and images are available in a press release and on the Portal website, which also features a 1:32 minute video. The project is reminiscent of the Cisco Town Hall ad available on YouTube.  –Matthew]

Vilnius, Lithuania built a ‘portal’ to another city to help keep people connected

The project is meant to prompt people to “rethink the idea of unity”

By Kim Lyons
May 30, 2021

Weary of pandemic travel restrictions and aching to get out and see new people? The city of Vilnius, Lithuania has interesting solution: A real-time “portal” to another city. They really went all-in on the idea and the design; it looks quite a bit like something out of the erstwhile sci-fi movie/show Stargate.… read more. “Vilnius, Lithuania built a ‘portal’ to another city to help keep people connected”

[The Village Voice describes a recent event that arguably evoked several forms and levels of presence in recreating a two-decade-old performance and art installation. See the original story for two more images and watch the 27:33 minute video of the event on the Hauser & Wirth website. –Matthew]

[Image: Performance at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles in collaboration with Monday Evening Concerts. Credit: Elon Schoenholz Photography]

David Hammons’ Faxes From The Future

The performance has now reached 21 years into the future to be recreated in a technology-assisted homage and reboot that pushes those same interdisciplinary boundaries even further

By Shana Nys Dambrot
May 26, 2021

On Monday, May 10, 2021, a small audience entered the central courtyard at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles at around dusk. Folding chairs were arrayed in pairs and singles across the yard, and a fractal drift of plain white sheets of paper peppered the ground.… read more. “A reimagined performance/installation creates multi-disciplinary layers of presence”