We would love to make Sebastian’s diary, the basis for the Peabody Award winning Queerskins: a love story and Queerskins: ARK VR experiences, into an intimate audio experience. As I learned in making Queerskins: a novel, the human voice–its timbre, paralinguistic qualities, even the length of pauses change the psychological impact of words. I had to slash and burn the audio monologues because they utterly overwhelmed the text of the diary.
Here is a quick version of what a daily podcast delivered to your inbox might sound like (<5min) perfect for waiting for a coffee or walking to the grocery store or as an adult bedtime story.
In this monologue spoken by Michael DeBartolo, Sebastian recounts his seduction of Jean-Marie at a bar in Mali. Tango music taken from a 78 record from the Internet Archive. Bamako sounds from Freesound.org.
Interested in #Volumetric Video for creating #emotionally impactful #immersive and #interactive #stories? Upvote me, the amazing Nonny de la Pena @ImmersiveJourno and @jason_waskey @MSFTVolumetric.
Queer in My Own Skin is a photography series and interactive virtual installation that asks what does it mean to feel at home in your own skin, or not? Over the past nine months, we have collaborated with Loise Braganza, a Mumbai based textile artist to create 20 unique garments which, act as “soft machines” through which the wearer confronts their relationship to personal identity, gender, sexuality, taste and body size and form.
Collaborating with artist/photographer Tagger Yancey IV, we will photograph models of all different races, ages, genders, sexual orientations and body types to choose and wear a garment that reflects who they are. He will capture people intimately in their own domestic space, “at home in their own skin.” For some it will be a part of themselves they never show and it will feel unnerving or scary, for others it will feel perfectly natural ,and for some empowering.
These garments emphasize tactility, an experience which is effaced in digital spaces and which has been constrained by the pandemic. Our plan is to integrate physical and digital installations, and, in this way, allow visitors to actively consider what is lost and gained as we transition into virtual existence.
Queer in My Own Skin exhibition in VRChat features a bespoke gallery/play space in which visitors can not only view the photographs, they can discover and don customized avatars wearing these garments. In this way, they, themselves, become performative works of art. Architecture and spatial sound create an experience of embodiment as visitors climb, crawl and maneuver through spaces to discover the avatars.
We will also create a more traditional installation with printed photographs and reconstructed mannequins wearing “queer skins.” Photographs will be available for purchase as limited editions. The reconfigured mannequins wearing the garments will be sold as unique, one of a kind, artworks. If conditions permit, we would consider a live fashion show in the space as well.
In addition to these, visitors to the gallery will be able to access the virtual exhibition via Oculus Quest headset. In the virtual installation, they can don the custom avatars and can photograph or take videos of themselves in this space and share on social media channels. These avatars will be sold as limited edition, fully rigged avatars compatible with multiple virtual spaces. Audiences with any VR headset or a PC can access the virtual installation remotely.
We are looking for gallery, corporate, institutional and private partners for this. Please contact through this site or through Cloudred Studio.
Illya Szilak 