A brave new world at South by Southwest
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The way we tell stories is always evolving and changing. Artists and other creative practitioners are often the early adopters of using new technologies to shape the way our stories are told. It allows them to share the stories they want to tell in new ways and through that engage with new audiences. The South by Southwest festival (SXSW) has evolved and changed from when it started out in 1987 as a music festival. That year is often credited too with a new phrase entering popular usage: virtual reality. Now, virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality, or as they are collectively known extended reality (XR), are a big part of its offering. And the artists and organisations that we have been investing in through our various XR initiatives are playing an increasingly visible role at SXSW.
Pushing the frontiers
Though the pandemic may have accelerated the adoption of new technologies, creative practitioners were experimenting and understanding the potential of XR long before the pandemic. Even at SXSW, we hosted a discussion on its use in the arts titled ‘A Brave New World’ at SXSW back in 2018. At this year’s festival creative practitioners showed just how much further they’ve gone in using XR to tell a vast range of powerful stories.
Goliath: Playing with Reality, produced by Anagram and supported through our Creative XR programme, explores the true story of a man diagnosed with schizophrenia. It uses VR to look at the isolation he felt in mental health institutions and the connections he found with others through the world of multiplayer games. ScanLab also wowed audiences with FRAMERATE, which used a new type of 3D time lapse photography to create a haunting installation to show the impact of humanity and nature on landscapes. It was only because of help from the Culture Recovery Fund that ScanLab said they’d been able to make it through the pandemic to attend this year’s festival. Along with Far Red Bird’s Creative XR project, Hi(Story) of a Painting receiving the Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Storytelling award, and projects from the Arts Council-funded UK Canada Immersive Exchange getting a lot of attention on the floor of SXSW’s XR Experience, it was another incredibly successful year for Arts Council-funded artists.
One of the best indicators of our progress is seeing talent from this country being invited to leading festivals around the world
All these projects were part of the Future Art and Culture programme produced by British Underground and commissioned by Arts Council. Since its creation, Future Art & Culture has supported close to 100 different creatives from this country to take part in SXSW and has become an increasingly influential part of the festival.
The global stage
The Arts Council’s influence at SXSW doesn’t finish with our work in the XR field. South by Southwest remains an enormously important global music festival and has helped move the profile of many British bands and musicians to the next level. The support we provided for the PRS Foundation’s International Showcase Fund ensured that this year, once again, the British Music Embassy was able to present a stellar line up of music talent including Yard Act, Anna B Savage, Priya Ragu, and Nova Twins.
The way we tell stories is always evolving and changing
In Let’s Create we said that we wanted our country’s creative sector to be innovative, collaborative, and international. One of the best indicators of our progress is seeing talent from this country being invited to leading festivals around the world. Despite the challenges of the last two years, judging by what we saw in Austin, we’re well on the way to realising those ambitions.
