'SENSORY STORIES' Opens Today at Museum of the Moving Image

Museum of the Moving Image and the Future of StoryTelling announced today Sensory Stories, an exhibition that reveals how an emerging group of artists and companies are using innovative digital techniques to change the way audiences experience storytelling. The exhibition, which includes virtual-reality experiences, interactive films, participatory installations, and new touch responsive interfaces, opens today, April 18, 2015, and will be on view through July 26, 2015, at the Museum.

"Technology has driven the evolution of moving image entertainment since the invention of film," said Carl Goodman, the Museum's Executive Director. "Today, new technologies and interfaces aim to bring the body, mind, and senses into a new relationship with the moving image, one which eliminates the gap between the real and the virtual, the physical and the digital. We asked Future of Storytelling to develop an exhibition for the Museum because of their unique expertise in these important developments."

Conceived and organized by the Future of StoryTelling (FoST), Sensory Stories invites visitors to participate in narratives that merge traditional storytelling with groundbreaking new technologies, incorporating full-body immersion, and interaction that includes sight, hearing, touch, even smell.

Charles Melcher, Founder and Director of FoST and co-curator of the exhibition, said, "At its heart Sensory Stories celebrates how new technologies are bringing us back into our bodies, allowing us to experience stories in immersive and powerful ways that remind us of the sensory joy of being alive."

Sensory Stories includes premieres of the fully immersive, virtual reality bird-flight simulator, Birdly NYC; an interactive film from Google Creative Lab for the Google Cube; the first oBook, a platform that expands literature into the dimension of scent, as well as acclaimed work from Chris Milk, Vincent Morisett, the National Film Board of Canada, The Daniels, and other pioneers in new storytelling technologies. The list of projects is included below and additional information can be found at movingimage.us/SensoryStories

In conjunction with the exhibition, on June 12, FoST and the Museum will present a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), which will feature a live, audience-driven reenactment of the film by the official New York City Shadow Cast and a Q&A with founding members of one of the original super fan communities. In addition, FoST will host a series of "Sensory Stories" conversations with the artists from the exhibition. Additional details to be announced.

Projects selected for Sensory Stories

1979 Revolution Game (2015)
Creators: Navid Khonsari and Vassiliki Khonsari of Ink Stories
In the late 1970s, Iran underwent a political revolution with global implications. Today, you can experience the events of that historic upheaval firsthand through the revelatory mobile game 1979 Revolution. As a young photojournalist, you'll make life-or-death choices in a chess match of personal betrayal and societal disorder while history unfolds around you.

Bear 71 (2012)
Creators: Directed by Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
The award-winning Bear 71 is the true story of a female grizzly bear, covering eight years of her life. But this story is unique: Through cameras in the wilderness, you monitor the bear's movements via an interactive installation that lets you zoom over the landscape, seeing animals and other people as they each play their part-and you play yours-in the story.

Birdly (2014/2015)
East Coast Premiere
Creators: Creators: Max Rheiner and the Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland, with Thomas Tobler and Fabian Troxler. Presented at the Museum of the Moving Image by swissnex Boston.
A full-body virtual reality experience, Birdly makes your longtime dream come true: it allows you to fly. The unforgettable experience of becoming a bird and soaring over Manhattan as you flap your wings and feel the wind rush through your hair, is created through a stereo soundscape, immersive visuals, and an ingenious virtual-reality rig.
Please note: Birdly will be on view from April 18 through May 17, on Friday (4:00 to 8:00 p.m.), Saturday, and Sunday (during Museum hours).

Dark Room Sex Game
Creators: Copenhagen Game Collective
In a game without visuals-only audio and touch-you work with a partner to find a mutual rhythm. Once in the groove, you journey with your partner to the end of the game, achieving what can only be called a satisfying climax.

Evolution of Verse (2015)
Creators: Chris Milk and Digital Domain
Evolution of Verse is a photo-realistic, computer-generated, 3D virtual-reality film that takes the viewer on a journey from one beginning to a new beginning.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears: The Smelly Version (2015)
World Premiere
Creators: Melcher Media and Vapor Communications
Be the first to experience a new dimension in storytelling: the oBook. Goldilocks and the Three Bears: The Smelly Version retells the classic story with the help of the oPhone, a device that emits different scents at key points in the story. Like Goldilocks, you'll be searching for-and eventually finding-a smell that's just right.

Google Cube - Untitled (2014)
U.S. Premiere
Creators: Google's Creative Lab in Sydney, directed by Steve Ayson and Damien Shatford. Produced by the Sweet Shop.
An interactive film in which you can move between six different plotlines, the Google Cube is a platform where each side of the cube tells a story. Those six stories unfold simultaneously, and it's up to you to turn the cube and discover how they connect. In "Untitled," the cube shows characters acting out seven basic plots-six for each side, and the seventh bringing them together.

Herders (2014)
Creators: Felix and Paul Studios
Virtual reality is just beginning to mature as a technology-but some filmmakers are already making it into an art form. In Herders, a virtual-reality film, you journey across the globe and into the lives of Mongolian nomads. Experience a herd of yaks and horses rushing by, watch a meditative musical performance and accept an invitation into a yurt for an intimate family dinner.

Hidden Stories (2015)
World Premiere
Creators: Project conception and direction by Red Paper Heart. Stories provided by Jay Allison and Viki Merrick, from Atlantic Public Media and WCAI in Woods Hole, MA.
A sensory wall, illustrated with a diverse set of objects, reacts as you near it. Through sight and sound, you're invited to crouch down and listen as each object comes alive to tell you a story about a person who is deeply connected with it. This intimate experience, enabled by a complex mix of sensors and unique devices, unlocks the hidden lives of the objects and structures around us.

John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes (2015)
Creators: Directed by Michael Epstein and Mark Thompson in collaboration with studio Design I/O.
An interactive mix of illustration, animation, and audio, The Bermuda Tapes lets you travel with John Lennon on his life-changing 1980 journey through a mid-Atlantic storm to Bermuda. You experience an immersive, impressionistic version of his adventures, branching out into intimate demo recordings and exclusive art and interviews. It's a sea voyage into the memory of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists.

Mimicry (2012)
Creators: Created by Emilie Tappolet of Apelab and Raphael Munoz of Aprobado with the University of Art and Design, Geneva.
As you approach seemingly normal paintings, they react in ways that are anything but normal. Coming to life, these paintings reveal themselves as screens that show you a surreal world, sensing and reflecting your movements and expressions-and breaking down the barriers between art and its viewers.

Parade (2014)
U.S. Premiere
Creators: Interaction design studio Dpt. and ceramic artist Laurent Craste
Two porcelain vases have seen better days. Now they slump before a bright lamp, which casts their shadows onto the wall. At the push of a button, those shadows magically animate, swing to a rhythm, and dance out a tragicomic ballet as the vases seek out their past glory-and, in the process, reinvent the ancient art of shadow theater through up-to-date optical illusions.

Possibilia (2014)
Creators: Digital media company Interlude. Directed by the Daniels. Produced by Xbox Entertainment Studios and Prettybird Pictures.
Imagine controlling the most important moment of a couple's relationship: their breakup. In Possibilia, a man and a woman are having a fight directed by you. This interactive short film, starring Alex Karpovsky of Girls and The Mindy Project's Zoe Jarman, lets you determine the tone and actions of a couple in the process of becoming two single people.

Pry (2014)
Creators: Samantha Gorman and Danny Cannizzaro of Tender Claws
Experience a story where you can literally read between the lines: Pry is a tablet app about James, a Gulf War veteran who's struggling with traumatic memories. As you read his story, you can physically pinch apart his words to uncover new text, videos, and more, revealing layers of his experience--and new forms of reading.

Way to Go (2015)
Creators: Vincent Morisset. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
An interactive film that immerses you into a walk-or, if you wish, a run-through a wild forest, Way to Go mixes hand-drawn animation with 360-degree video. You have full control over the angle through which you can view the wilderness around you-and the speed at which you'll arrive at your mysterious destination.

Welcome to Pine Point (2014)
Creators: Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge, aka "The Goggles." Produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Pine Point was a mining town in Northwest Canada-and then it wasn't. Abandoned when its mine closed, the town now exists as a ruin in real life, a locus of nostalgia in the memories of its former citizens, and something in between in Welcome to Pine Point. This interactive web documentary brings Pine Point back to life through deeply affecting audio, dreamlike artifacts, and impressionistic video that together weave a deeply moving portrait of longing and loss.

Sponsors for Sensory Stories
Presenting Sponsor: Phi-Center
Creative Developer: SubRosa

About Future of StoryTelling (FoST)
The Future of StoryTelling is an annual summit and community platform that draws leaders from the worlds of media, technology, and communications to explore how stories are changing in the digital age. In addition to the summit (October 7-8), FoST produces a daily blog, a weekly online speaker series, a monthly newsletter, quarterly influencer salons, international technology exhibitions and showcases, the FoST Prize for Innovation in Storytelling, and dozens of short films highlighting the big ideas shaping the storytelling landscape.

For more information, visit futureofstorytelling.org.