Talking about Australian VR screens in Venice

SOUTHERN STARS: EXTENDED REALITY NARRATIVE IN AUSTRALIA

So: I had the very great fortune to be invited to present a keynote in Venice to a brill group of people interested in VR, screens, and all things creative. This presentation was held at the Iuav University of Venice, in beautiful surrounds, where (to my surprise and pleasure) I found posters pinned everywhere! The talk was co-written with Katy Morrison. We mapped a constellation of significant Australian extended reality narrative works from the early 2000s to the current moment. It draws on findings from the Extending Realities Forum (Melbourne, 2022) which, for the first time, brought together Australian new-media practitioners, funders, and researchers to discuss challenges facing the sector. In a workshop during the Forum, attendees nominated significant Australian extended reality works that had influenced their own practices. This presentation introduces and discusses five of these works as case studies. It argues that Australia produced significant early XR work and identifies the practice and industry-specific conditions that enabled these works to be produced.