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Transcript/ScriptNew Frontier - A Virtual Exhibit
HEADLINE: Sundance's New Frontier Draws Art Lovers into Virtual World
TEASER: The film festival’s perennial exhibit goes where no moviegoers have gone before
PUBLISHED: Friday, 01/28/2022 at 8:30am
BYLINE: Penelope Poulou
DATELINE: Washington
PRODUCER: Penelope Poulou , Luis Da Costa
SCRIPT EDITORS: Reifenrath; Hirsch
VIDEO SOURCES Zoom; New Frontier, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance TV; YouTube, Flickr
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 3:10
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((INTRO))
[[Every year during the Sundance Film Festival, the New Frontier exhibition introduces technologies in storytelling. This is the second year the festival and the exhibit have gone digital due to COVID-19. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with curator Shari Frilot on New Frontier’s visual platforms for art, film and performance.]]
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((NARRATOR))
Welcome to the Spaceship! This virtual venue overlooking planet Earth and the International Space Station allows festivalgoers’ digital avatars to attend performances, watch movies, participate in presentations and mingle — all that, remotely through a computer or a virtual reality headset. Shari Frilot, curator of the New Frontier exhibition, says the mission this year was to bring the Sundance community together in the metaverse, a computer-generated environment where users can interact.
((Shari Frilot, New Frontier Curator)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))
“You go to the space garden, which is where you find the portal to the cinema house.
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
You are inside of an art house theater fashioned like the Egyptian.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: Flickr))
((NARRATOR))
The Egyptian is the festival’s iconic movie theater on Park City, Utah’s, Main Street.
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
Its digital equivalent can hold 100 digital avatars.
((Shari Frilot, New Frontier Curator)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))
“And you are sitting with people, and you can talk, and the presentation will start off. Mostly we are in there with artists.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
“Maybe it’s the day the Cosmogony is happening."
((NAT SOUND)) ((Mandatory Courtesy: Cosmogony/New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((NARRATOR))
Once a performance or a film ends, visitors can head to the gallery, where they can view exhibits. Some can be experienced best with virtual reality headsets. One of these projects is called “Gondwana.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: Gondwana/New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((Shari Frilot, New Frontier Curator)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))
“It is a 24-hour simulation of the rainforest Daintree in Australia, and it is powered by dynamic climate change data. …
((Mandatory Courtesy: Gondwana/New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
… “And the longer you're in there — every 12 minutes is like a year — you start to see the rainforest change. And depending on how many people are in there, will determine how it changes and you can go in and out of it throughout the day, the 24-hour cycle, and see it and witness it where it started and where it might end.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((NARRATOR))
At the spaceship’s film party, visitors and artists meet, exchange ideas, and talk about films and projects. This digital platform allows people to not only watch but also interact, Frilot says, an activity made less frequent due to the pandemic and video streaming.
((Shari Frilot, New Frontier Curator)) ((Mandatory cg: Zoom))
“It is important to have our technology support what is human and how we relate to one another, and how we can transcend physical boundaries to have access to what makes us people and what makes us thrive in that collective spirit.”
((Mandatory Courtesy: Sundance TV)) ((YouTube))
((NARRATOR))
Frilot says nothing can replace shared experiencing of art in a physical space.
((NAT SOUND)) ((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
((Frilot addresses the audience)) "What if everybody in the audience jumps up, touch your spacebars and say 'hi'"
((Mandatory Courtesy: New Frontier/Sundance Film Festival))
But, she says, these new technologies can serve culture by making storytelling accessible and connecting people around the world.
((Penelope Poulou, VOA News, Washington))
((NAT SOUND)) Laughter
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Topic TagsVirtual arts
Frontier
Computer science
NetworkVOA
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
