Projects of type: XR / Immersive

Synopsis

DARKFIELD presents ARCADE: but this isn’t an ordinary arcade and these are not ordinary arcade machines. Every machine offers you the chance to enter the world of the game and choose your own unique journey. As you guide your avatar through a world ravaged by endless war, there are many routes you can take and there are many different outcomes. You can choose a side, win or lose the war, search out a more peaceful route, or join a cult promising a better version of reality. Where will your decisions lead you? Using the nostalgic 8-bit aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE’s interactive narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars. This choose-your-own-path experience will fully immerse players in alternate environments in a completely dark shipping container, using 360 degree binaural sound and sensory effects. Players will be asked to address deep existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win and some may lose… Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

Created in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit, Nothing Can Ever Be The Same is a 168-hour-long real-time generative work, re-imagining the visual archive and music of Brian Eno. Uses a bespoke generative system developed by Dawes and Hustwit to create an ever-changing visual artwork that is unpredictable and defies categorisation.

Synopsis

Embark on a cinematic experience where art, music, and environmental advocacy seamlessly converge. An immersive documentary film about the extraordinary journey aboard the 70-ton sailing ship, Arka Kinari, ingeniously transformed into a cultural platform to amplify the urgent call for action on the climate crisis. Delve into the inspiring voyage across oceans of musicians Filastine & Nova, connecting distant shores through the unifying language of music and art to raise awarenessabout climate resilience on a global scale.

Synopsis

Beginning with the idea of self-destruction as an existential question, new psychedelia, and the loss of the self, this immersive artwork asks questions regarding life and how we choose to live. MY TRIP 2023 also explores the abyss of the technological underground, the endless information consumed every day and the feeling of apathy and dullness that this technology consequently produces. Co-commissioned by Outernet Arts and BFI London Film Festival, the work features characters that have recurred in Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard’s practice for over 25 years in addition to new mutant personalities created in collaboration with Acute Art. The artwork, presented as a fully immersive multi-screen installation at Outernet Arts, questions how we choose to live and explores the endless information consumed daily through a striking visualisation of a psychedelic experience. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

SHADOWTIME is an immersive VR work. "You are in two worlds at the same time. Your body is in the other world, but your heart is in this one." To exist in the virtual world is to have two bodies, four hands, two hearts. Alma, a mysterious guide to this double world, leads you through questions around the climate crisis, irreconcilable realities, and the virtual as a place to take shelter. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2023 - World premiere

Synopsis

A remarkable virtual reality experience told through an intensely personal account of a young girl’s survival during the Holocaust. Audiences accompany Rodi Glass as she revisits the sights of her survival from Amsterdam, Westerbork transit camp and Vittel internment camp.

Synopsis

In a future Northern England devasted by climate change, an environmental worker uncovers an abandoned library where books and technology have fused into the architecture and landscape to create new stories. 19-year-old CJ is working to salvage valuable resources from the flooded and haunting remains of a once-thriving coastal town. The world she inhabits leaves her feeling angry and displaced. She is living through the catastrophic consequences of previous generations’ mistakes. Taking shelter from an approaching storm, CJ ventures inside the old library, where she discovers a bizarre ‘living’ fusion of nature, language, and technology. At its heart is The Librarian, a malfunctioned AI that has been gathering data and archive film from its turbulent surroundings. Affected by years of extreme temperatures and abnormal weather conditions, The Librarian is forming its own unique work of literature: a story of connectedness and hope that needs a strong and resilient protagonist.

Synopsis

A story of loss, love and daring escapes across the borders of Europe in WW2. Join Marion Deichmann as she recounts her story of survival during the Holocaust. Official Selection Venice Biennale 2023 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

An immersive VR story following Maya, an ordinary British Asian girl, as she transforms into a uniquely female superhero whose powers derive from menstruation. With the arrival of her period, Maya’s world is transformed as she is confronted by her family's restrictive traditions, and a world of hidden of stigma and taboo. Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2023 Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2024 Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2024 - Immersive Competition - International premiere (English language version)

Synopsis

A powerful exploration into the implications of today's AI technology. An immersive film experience set in a future world where people are resisting weaponised technology and bias algorithms in favour of AI Democratisation which has now become a human rights issue. Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023 - Winner XR Experience Competition Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2023 Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023

Synopsis

This installation investigates the connections between repetitive stimming behaviours that are common in autism, the earliest forms of moving images and contemporary digital art. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024

Synopsis

A multi-sensory joyride into the past, bringing to life the stories of the promoters, police officers, and rave-goers, whose rivalries and relationships drove a revolution in music and society. Multi-sensory room-scale interactive VR enables participants to feel the anticipation, trepidation, excitement, and euphoria that was Acid House. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2022 Official Selection IDFA 2022 - Winner, DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction Official Selection SXSW Film Festival 2023 - XR Experience Spotlight Official Selection Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2025