ShorTS Immersive

Until now, ShorTS had dedicated the VR section to the language closest to that of traditional cinema, focusing on the selection of works made in Cinematic VR or 360VR. Observing developments in the medium, showcasing its experimentation, the search for a language, for new narrative elements of this, by now no longer new, way of telling a story through images, has been a leitmotif, a guideline in the selection in recent years. Yet the narrative was and is limited in its freedom of movement, the action of the spectator was and is limited to following the story in a linear way, and this limit is only overcome by adding degrees of freedom. From just ‘looking around’ movement is added, the spectator is freed from the constraint of the fixed point of vision, from the chosen perspective of the position of the frame (which in 360VR does not exist in the strict sense of the term, assuming a value of position in space chosen by the maker). The spectator is free to move in physical space. This is the 6DoF, six degrees of freedom. Creators of works in 6DoF assign to the spectator an additional responsibility: interaction. In these works, we can often interact with the narrative elements and make the experience more personal through this interaction. The creator accompanies us in the story by letting us decide the pace, the point of view, sometimes the story itself.

In this edition, in addition to works in Cinematic VR, the selection contains works that are very different in technique and type but enable the story in space and the narrative space to be perceived in a different way. The 6DoF does not only add degrees of freedom, but brings with it further narrative levels, new ways of undertaking immersive storytelling in addition to those we have experienced in the last few years of VR, and also leads to a new name for the section, which evolves from ShorTS Virtual Reality into ShorTS Immersive.