Prehistoric VR

Overview

Come September 23, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image is stepping back in time. Prehistoric VR is ACMI's new, free, two-week virtual reality showcase, and it's a trip to the past without a Delorean.

Dubbed the first 360-degree VR puppetry experience of its kind, where Prehistoric VR is headed isn't a surprise — when it comes to interacting with creatures that no longer roam the earth, life finds a way. Until October 8, the immersive experience dives onto the ocean floor, and back 200 million years, to encounter the aquatic critters from the Ediacaran to the Cretaceous periods.

The work of performing arts company Erth Visual & Physical Inc and award-winning visual artist and filmmaker Samantha Lang, it's the third ACMI commission that has asked established performing artists to turn a live stage work into realistic 360-degree virtual reality. And while it's a limited-time-only offering, it arrives at Federation Square at the same time as ACMI's permanent, ongoing VR Lounge, which will form part of its free Screen Worlds exhibition, and kicks off with The NeverEnding Story-like mystical fairy tale The Turning Forest.

Image: Steve Woodburn.