Cardiff's newest cultural offering CULTVR LAB gets things rolling with an opening party followed on the next night by the first immersive performance at the venue, Juniper.
The innovative creative studio 4Pi Productions is opening a unique lab venue in Cardiff to facilitate research, development and presentation of collective immersive experiences. Building upon their 10 years of expertise within the immersive sector, CULTVR LAB begins this new venture as a truly independent project contributing to the City’s cultural offerings.
On Thursday 21 November CULTVR LAB hosted a free opening night to showcase the space to the public. On Friday 22 November jazz and immersive visuals will come together in the largest screen ever to be installed in Wales with ‘Juniper’. Slowly Rolling Camera will perform their critically acclaimed third album in its entirety accompanied by an immersive visual score created by 4Pi.
With a capacity ranging from 100 to 400 people CULTVR LAB is Europe’s first space dedicated to shared virtual reality experiences and provides an environment for producers, technologists, film and theatre makers, artists, academics and performers to come together in the pursuit of this unique medium’s capabilities.
Janire Najera, Creative Director of 4Pi Productions, said: "We believe that Domes are the ideal future-facing environment for live performance and we are excited to be innovating within this medium on the world stage. To date, we have had to travel abroad to create and present our immersive productions, so we hope that CULTVR LAB will hugely benefit the creative industries by providing a platform to learn, create, share and innovate in this intersection between the digital and the real."
Opening night featured the Dance Dome platform that has just returned from being presented in Hong Kong, whilst the 40ft dome showcases a myriad of visuals accompanied by a DJ Set. There were be guided tours to introduce resident companies United Filmdom and Ctrl Alt Design, a Vinyl Art display by Bubblewrap, a photospherical exhibition by Matt Wright and a Live VR/AR Lab.
On Friday 22 November audiences will be enveloped by the expansive jazz grooves, trip-hop and rich cinematic soundscapes of Slowly Rolling Camera whilst being transported to a breadth of barren and busy environments captured around the world. Commissioned by Ffotogallery to premiere at Diffusion 2019 Cardiff International Festival of Photography, Juniper explores how sound and moving image merge within live performance.
JUNIPER - 4Pi PRODUCTIONS & SLOWLY ROLLING CAMERA from 4Pi Productions on Vimeo.
KEY DETAILS:
CULTVR LAB
327 Penarth Road, CF11 8TT
Cardiff, Wales, UK
