Excited to share a new report that explores key themes and takeaways from last year’s IDFA DocLab.
Written by @kentbye , and produced with support from @weareagog this deep dive reflects on a field in motion—drawing on conversations with artists, curators, and practitioners who are actively shaping what immersive storytelling can become.
Whether you were there or not, there’s a lot here to dig into. The report explores:
** the opening and evolution of XR distribution models
** growing efforts to connect new audiences with immersive work
** artists using immersive media to imagine new and possible futures
** the rise of more collective, shared experiences
an ongoing exploration of what impact really means in this field
It’s a snapshot of a rapidly evolving space and an invitation to think about where immersive storytelling goes next.
Read the report at professionals.idfa.nl or via our bio
Kent Bye presents "Tech cycles & the philosophy of astrology" at the 4th World Astrology Summit.
Saturn–Neptune marks modern consumer tech cycles from the Internet in 1989 to the iPhone in 2007. A new cycle is beginning amidst a reckoning with Big Tech algorithms, surveillance capitalism, AI hype, and clicktatorship. We'll recap the major cycles driving tech trends (including digital detox leading to analog immersion like experiential astrology), and share the timeliness of reflecting on the process-relational foundations of astrology.
Kent Bye is an oral historian and experiential journalist who has recorded over 250 interviews with astrologers, and published over 1700 Voices of VR podcast interviews with immersive artists, storytellers, scientists, and philosophers reflecting on the human experience through emerging technologies like virtual reality. He has also written his own open source astrology software, and lectures around the world on immersive storytelling and experiential design using a framework directly inspired by astrology.
🌐 World Astrology Summit
Saturday March 21 & Sunday March 22, 2026
An online mundane astrology conference
20 presentations from 12 countries
$125 USD · Includes 6-month access to recordings
Registration link in bio.
Voices of VR captured Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel’s developer Q&A session at Lens Fest. We talked AI, monetization, the present, the future, and so much more. Follow the link in bio to listen to the entire conversation.
l’ve recorded nearly 250 interviews with professional astrologers since 2009 covering a fascinating blend of oral history, anthropology, philosophy, myth, story, technique, consciousness, and history. Most of it is vaulted as l’ve been publishing 2.7 episodes of Voices of VR per week for the past 11 years, and there are still various taboos around the topic. I just recorded another 18.5 hours of conversations this past weekend at @nwastroconf , and my goal is to properly relaunch Esoteric Voices this year. This oral history archive is over 143 hours, and so it probably doesn’t make sense to drop all at once, and I may offer early access as I continue to edits and process it. If you’d like early beta access to provide feedback and help get the word out, then comment or send me a DM. Thanks to @zahrtillery for the photo of my chat with @livingastrologies .
In Voices of VR podcast episode 1651, I chatted with PHI’s Myriam Achard, Agog’s Amy Seidenwurm, and immersive artist Peter Burr about the PHI Immersive: XR for Impact artist residency where the selected artist(s) will conceptualize and prototype their immersive experience in collaboration with the PHI Studio team. It’s a very unique opportunity for North American artists, and I’m glad that PHI was willing to sponsor this episode to dig into more details about it.
We also provide some general news about this collaboration between PHI and Agog, Agog’s future aspirations for funding more residencies and other XR for Impact initiatives, some pitching best practices and things to avoid, as well as some great insights from Burr on his own experience of the 2025 residency and some advice to other immersive artists as they apply to residencies such as this.
The application deadline is June 24th, and there’s an information session next Tuesday, May 13th in French and next Thursday, May 15th in English . More details in my Voices of VR podcast episode 1651 with all of the links, as well as an in-depth conversation with more context on this unique opportunity for existing or aspiring immersive artists. #sponsored #callforartists #callforsubmissions #xr #immersive #experiential #artistresidency #ai
The @portlandartmuseum exhibition on “Psychedelic Rock Posters & Fashion of the 1960s” opens today. I got to check out a press preview yesterday, and it is quite a trip very well worth checking out. It’s organized by theme rather than by band, venue, artist, or time, which allows you to tap into the zeitgeist of iconography from women to altered states of consciousness to animals to other cultures that were appropriated. Certainly an interesting slice of cultural history, and some really beautiful pieces that are well-contextualized by the curators. I particularly loved this insight: “Legibility, the primary goal of an advertising poster, was set aside in favor of trippy inscrutability. When promoter Bill Graham complained about the difficulty deciphering the text, Wilson replied, “Yeah, and that’s why people are gonna stop and look at it.” Wilson was right: the evasive text forced viewers to spend time with the poster if they wished to know the bands, the location, and the dates— information that is usually given utmost prominence in advertising. The dynamic and nearly illegible script nonetheless spoke directly to their intended audience and separated the “hip” crowd from the “straights” who weren’t “tuned in.”” Definitely worth the time to tune and appreciate this moment in time through this exhibition.
This banned book display really hit me. One of the more power pieces of immersive art in a consumer context as it occludes what the books actually are. Made me curious to go and look up the answers via the ISBN numbers that are posted on the book cover. (Answers in second photo). Along with excepts that are also censored. Such a chilling reflection of how there are actually people out there who are banning books (while also unironically claiming to support free speech). And to think you wouldn’t even be able to buy these books in some states here in the US. Such a scary reflection of where we are today in the current political climate where it feels like a butterfly wing flap can send this country into two very different directions.
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Here is the text of the flier of this installation, which is at Books Inc. (est 1851).
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Banned Book Week
Banned Books Week 2024 is about liberation.
Book bans disproportionately target books by authors of color and LGBTQ+ authors, threatening to further silence already marginalized groups.
Books can’t set us free if we don’t set them free first.
We’ve changed our blind date with a book display to highlight books that have faced bans and challenges. One of the ways you can help fight book banning is to read the books that are being challenged!
Most Challenged Books of 2023.
1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.
2. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson.
3. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
5. Flamer by Mike Curato.
6. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
7. (TIE) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins.
7. (TIE) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews.
9. Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan.
10. Sold by Patricia McCormick.
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If we set BOOKS free, BOOKS CAN SET US FREE
#SetBooksFree
Banned Book Week
September 22-28, 2024
Thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday everyone. I’m at Venice Immersive recording about 30 hours of Voices of VR interviews for my third birthday in a row. Thanks Craig Quintero and the rest of the Riverbed Theatre for this awesome birthday card!
Had a great interview yesterday about my VR animated series @nightmara_official with @kentbye who writes for Voices of VR. He’s been cataloguing and interviewing the artists of virtual reality for almost ten years and I’m excited for the article to come out!
I interviewed Road to VR’s Ben Lang to share our first impressions of Apple Vision Pro. We concur that it could very well be the “iPhone moment” for XR productivity apps with ergonomics and cost being the biggest barriers. We both concur that this could very well represent an “iPhone moment” for XR productivity apps with the biggest barriers being ergonomics and cost. We both hoping there will be third-party strap solutions to provide a comfort stopgap, but there is so much that Apple absolutely nailed with the high-enough resolution to be a via le screen replacement, with the intuitive eye-gaze + pinch human computer interactions, and just the seamless ecosystem integration and holistic usability that defines Apple as brand for producing high-quality technology products that “just work.” There’s a LONG way to go before everything about the Apple Vision Pro just works, but most of that will be on the software development and third-party app side where the technological foundation of the Apple Vision Pro will be setting some industry standard thresholds of quality.
One of the things that I mention is that the Quest is starting with fully immersive, embodied, and interactive VR with motion tracked controllers with haptics whereas Apple is starting with a robust software ecosystem in 2D with 1M iOS and iPadOS apps, and the 600 visionOS apps at launch (most of which were completely developed on a simulator). Over time Apple will be adding more of the fully embodied (and hopefully interactive) bits of the past decade’s worth of the XR industry’s insights and innovations, and it may prove to be more difficult for Meta to just tack on the value proposition of fully developed 2D software ecosystem that’s got the initial steps of a seamless integration. But check out our conversation as we dive deeper into this inflection point that the Apple Vision Pro represents: /1346-apple-vision-pro-first-impressions-with-road-to-vrs-ben-lang-the-comparisons-to-meta-quest/
My 12 Voices of VR podcast interviews from #MetaConnect2023 are now live. It's 8 hours looking at 1st impressions of Quest 3, Rayban Meta Smartglasses, mixed reality trends, AI, Meta Horizon Worlds, WebXR & pipelines like React Native, Apple Vision Pro buzz, VR filmmaking, unpacking the changes in Unity’s fees, & digging into Qualcomm’s new chips with the XR2 Gen 2 & AR1 Gen 1.
/1306-kickoff-of-meta-connect-series-with-cnets-scott-stein-analyzing-metas-xr-ai-announcements/
