I’ve been playing with Suno, the music composer created entirely in AI and wow…. yes there are problems but I’m quite surprised at what it could do now at the offset. Should musicians be worried? I think that they should be as concerned as artists, writers and other creators to the degree that monetization models have the potential to be disrupted. In the absence of time for discussion, I’d say to ‘go try it out’. I wrote three or four words and then pressed the ‘go’ button. This is what AI created for me… let me know how it goes for you!



https://suno.com/song/c0025dac-e945-4055-af13-e7e21ed62b21

I was never so thrilled to have received our trophy for BEST immersive Experience (Passive) in VR. It was a beautiful honor that brought meaning to five years of hard work.

Step into the future of virtual reality inside EngageVR, where radical innovation meets creative design in the VR world genre. Our award-winning team was honored to have been recognized by the prestigious Australia XR Festival, thanks to the essential contributions of teammates Chris Madsen and Mada de Leeuw. Join us on this journey of revolutionary change and immersive experiences like never before.

1. Visit EnageXR.com

2. Find: Dragon Magic

3. Insert Code: kenP9

Thank you Dot Cannon for having me speak to your friends at your podcast entitled “Over Coffee® podcast – hosted by Dot Cannon”. I spoke about my journey as an immersive artist and the joys that meta verses bring to people in search of immersive spaces. I’m happy to say that it doesn’t matter how much experience you have, most tools make it accessible to begin playing in VR or AR with any level of artistic talent. Here is my podcast!

An experience combining elements of improv, role playing (DnD), gaming characteristics and theatre all set within an immersive space.

I love story, improv and VR experiences! Last weekend, my friend Andy Fidel and I were invited by Jason Moore, director and head of the Metamovie troop to participate in their flagship play Alien Rescue. As you might have guessed from the title, the experience centers on a mission to retract an alien from an unknown location all the while encountering some pretty precarious situations. I was thrilled to attend this experience because instead of going in solo which is typical of most immersive theatre experiences, I was able to play as one half of a heroic duo. Andy is known for her ‘joie de vivre’ so it was a fun to partner with her.

FUN! And here’s why. Great characters, evocative music and special fx, super sweet onboarding and offboarding process, in-real life improvisation opportunities with experienced actors and best of all… you already know the outcome… you’re going to be a HERO!

Two days before the actual experience, Jason and I spent time ensuring that my computer system was set up to accommodate Alien Rescue. Once logged into NeosVR, Jason demo’d the basic navigation system. He even brought me on a short world-hop and helped me to explore the NeosVR ecosystem! Having someone to help guide you especially as the platform is not that easy for a beginner to use is extremely valuable and much appreciated. From the get-go, Jason and his crew made me feel special! Bravo! That’s what you want to do so that your guests feel supported and free to engage when they actually start the main experience.

While Neos is not classified as ‘mainstream’, it has some features that truly make this engine perfect for Alien Rescue however there is one cavaet: At first glance, the UI is difficult to wrap your head around, but if you could approach it from a developer POV everything makes sense. What’s cool about NeosVR is the ability to actually see and share menus inside the program making it easy to see and understand what a person is doing as opposed to say… VRChat where you are pretty much left to your own devices. NeosVR, with its robust engine, gorgeous graphics and smooth interactions was a natural choice for something as technically demanding as Alien Rescue.

After figuring out my technical problems and getting both NeosVR and the sound to work, we chose our avatars, packed our guns and away we went!

Andy and I were asked various questions that enabled the acting crew to get to know us better and to insert us into the broader narrative.

1)Who were we? How did we know each other?

2) What our home planet was called?

3)Why did we wear masks? It was fairly basic but really got the ball rolling.

Should you decide to experience Alien Rescue by yourself, I suggest that you take the time to imagine a story concept that is fun and unexpected. Our story without knowing MetaMovie’s narrative was coincidentally, very much aligned. And YES! we wrote something silly and unique that really was enjoyable and added to the hilarity of the experience.

I certainly don’t want to spoil your own personal experience should you decide to do it so here are some brief thoughts…

The sound system and the choice of music were perfect. Nothing reinforces emotion and provides emotional cues as music and sound FX. What gets embedded in our subconscious is the part that feeds and triggers our ‘animal brains’. In this regard, Alien Rescue played like a cross between First Person Shooter with Role Playing sensibilities all connected and triggered by switches in the storyline. What was really neat was the knowledge that while you KNEW that you were a part of the broader storyline, you still were given enormous agency to change the outcome of the story just by the choices that you made.

That ability to affect the narrative branches stayed in the back of my mind like a packsack ready to be opened and yet, I was drawn in by the non-stop narrative that the crew enacted. In essence, you were part writer, part actor and definitely a game show contestant all rolled into a ‘hero’ suit of your choice. Speaking of writing, while the story moved from beat to beat as locations changed, there were ample moments to linger or even return to sets if needed. Why would one do that? To find ‘hidden’ items of course!

You get to be the hero (if you choose when you sign up) but you will also find yourself interacting on the same team with little tiny bots representing off-line audience participants. Supporting actors were able to connect to the players and watch the gameplay via twitch stream. They could also affect what happens in the scene by what they wrote in the twitch feed making this a very nice method of combining in-world acting with audience participation. Although the bots could not be heard within the story environment, they were able to change up colors to denote nuances in their observations.

The acting was superb and deserving of the biggest kudos. Without experienced storytellers with backgrounds in improvisation, drama and comedy, it’s unlikely that the storyline with its many narrative branches could ‘breathe’ the way it did. Huge props to Nicole Rigo, Marinda Botha, Craig Woodward and Kenneth Rogeau as well as the development and camera crew (Hi Carlos) who made this happen. The ability to emote and improv at the drop of a hat are hard skills to come by and it was evident that the team possessed a special chemistry that worked its magic throughout the entire one hour experience.

Absolutely! But in so much as it was fun to write this blog, I will have to keep that conversation a secret 🙂

At the end of the play, we all ended up in a celebration platform where we got to share our experiences with each other. All the questions about the storyline or the roles were answered and woot! We were also given trophies for recognition and achievement!

Surprisingly, Jason also followed this up with a detailed synopsis describing our story and experience with many links that we could share with the world. I was even surprised that we could see our ‘replay’ through twitch! The actors all RT’d Andy and I in social media and then Jason once again provided us with additional URL’s and material that we could share with family and friends … potential ‘heros’. Their treatment really felt like a big warm HUG and we felt welcomed to return again to ‘re-do’ Alien Rescue. There is no measure of success quite like happy customers.

MetaMovie’s Alien Rescue is a really fun immersive experience featuring some of the top talents in the business. It’s no wonder that they were recipients of so many impressive XR Immersive awards. It took months for me to finally reserve my spot, but without Andy Fidel’s partnership, I doubt that I would have had such a good time. So I’m ending with a hot tip: find yourself a really good co-partner or team (it will make all the difference), make that reservation and GO FOR IT! Thank you Jason Moore for such a great time! For the MetaMovie crew, this is just the tip of the ‘iceberg’.

Also published on medium with the actual slides: https://medium.com/me/stats/post/edc18f577759

XR Women Global was created to help develop women interested in entering the XR field or who already have ample experience in their particular specialties. They are especially devoted to helping under-represented groups through action, education and/or referrals.

September 21, 2022 – In January 2022, I was honored to have been asked by my friend Karen Alexander to present a synopsis of Awaken the Giants to the XR Women. I was excited to do it, but unfortunately, my world disappeared from altspace after a major microsoft software update. Fast forward eight months later and my developer Nick was able to republish it in August 2022.

When the XR Women leadership team of Julie Smithson, Karen Alexander, Ginna Lambert and Wendy Sherman and I took a test tour, we were all overwhelmed and astounded by the sheer beauty of the world. Microsoft did an amazing job with the URPS (shaders) and it really was a feast for the senses.

Huge thanks and props to the XRWomen Global leadership team for “awakening” the ‘magic’ in all of us through your leadership skills/talents and passion. We look forward to celebrating your two-year anniversary!

My presentation was held on the Virbela platform

Our VR world represents a social commentary on the tumultuous crisis that was the Jan 6 2021 storming of the capital (USA) and stands out as a testament to human resilience, strength and ability to rise above such occasions. Each interaction within the narrative represents an ‘antidote’, a construct in VR space involving exploration and discovery, conversation and authentic sharing that speaks pointedly at the challenges witnessed during the global pandemic.

The world is part game, art installation, workshop offering and a little bit of ‘theatre’. Above all, it is a place where human are celebrated and cherished. The notion of ‘you are enough’ resonates throughout all spaces secret and public.

Wonder and awe activate a sense of gratitude and humility while helping you to create your own personal perspective. Awaken the Giants is a new form of VR experience that captures all the nuances of storytelling within a framework of affirmation.

1) Download the PDF version from google slides: Juliana Loh_ Awaken the Giants | Sept 2022.

This world can be celebrated in contemplative style or as a community-driven venue. The PDF offers a glimpse of the user experience and the thought process that went into imagining and combining all the pieces together.

2) The design of this world was based on a theme park experience and flowed from the work that we did in JingleVille, our first VR story-narrated environment (circa 2019/2020). We learned many things from that design and can say in retrospect that we truly were ahead of the curve.

I hope by sharing this that you will find inspiration and renewed creativity. Thank you so much XR Women Global for your enthusiasm and support!

It has been a long time coming… eight months to be precise, but we managed to fix the necessary shaders that would enable us to upload our assets again.

What does that mean? our AWAKEN THE GIANTS world is now live! Resurrected in fact during the last two weeks of August and coincidentally, during Burning Man Week VR. This means that hopefully soon, we will be able to add the fish mask that we were preparing to upload all those months ago. I’ve already re-created it and it looks incredible!

How did we celebrate this festive occasion? Our teacher friend, Charlie Fink requested a tour with his enthusiastic students. We love Charlie’s teaching style and dedication to his craft and having been acquainted with his students in these last years so of course we happily said “yes”!

They say that time flies when you are having fun. It’s been awhile since I updated my website, but I’m quickly jumping in to announce that three of my amazing tiltbrush artwork pieces that I designed last year were personally selected by Head Curator Nina Faye Lin and will be presented at the HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (HIFF) Nov 4-28 and in person and as part of an immersive exhibition this weekend November 19-21.

I am extremely happy to bring immersive art to this particular festival as I have an affinity with the people of Hawaii with respect to diversity and cultural representation. Also, I am truly amazed to find myself in a film festival that is built on innovation and excellence.

Lastly, today I am honored to be interviewed with prolific artist SUTU by no other than Anderson Le, (Artistic Director of HIFF). It will be held today November 19 at 7:00pm PST. Am I feeling nervous? Just a little but Anderson is such a wonderful person… I know that I am in good hands!

Special special kudos goes out to my Technical Designer Nicholas Liang for bringing all of these projects to AR/VR and 360. Without him, his hard work and shader ‘genius’, none of these projects would be able to be presented in immersive format. Kudos Nick, we have achieved a lot in a year.

You may experience our projects at: www.curiouseyexr.com on your smartphones. Please download the WebXR app.

Project: ChronicleX, Location: The Shed NY May 2021 (video edited by Blinxel)

Credits: XRArtist for AR content

Chronicle X at The Shed, NY produced in association with HERE Arts Center and Musical Theatre Factory By Nia O. Witherspoon Co-Directed by Mei Ann Teo & Nia O. Witherspoon

June 3-4 2021

Chronicle X is the first work in The Dark Girl Chronicles, a ritual-play cycle designed to crystallize in the collective memory the stories of Black women warriors against state violence. Chronicle X is Black feminist church.

My Experience:

I was part of the XR Team headed by XR Producer Brandon Powers and XR Director Espii Proctor.

My Role: (XR Artist and Tiltbrush Artist)

(Here is the official credit)

The Project:

Within the Augmented Reality portion of the project, 3 doors or portals were created as part of the onboarding process.

To access the AR, you were required to scan a QR code. Each of the portals represented symbolic images pertaining to the theme of the story.



I painted:

• Tree
• Jellyfish
• galaxy
• many words and phrases.​​​​​​​

The Process from XR Producer Brandon Powers POV:

Over the last several months, I’ve been the XR Producer for “Chronicle X” at @TheShedNY. This was the first major production supported by @MTFmusicals #MTFxR program.

It’s been an incredible process merging XR & live performance. Here’s some of the milestones of the process 🧵 pic.twitter.com/95UoILG6QF

— Brandon Powers (@bpowtweets) June 7, 2021

The Official Page of ChronicleX: The Vision

Chronicle X: https://theshed.org/program/123-open-call-nia-o-witherspoon

Credits and Mastery:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/The-Shed-HERE-and-Musical-Theatre-Factory-Present-Premiere-of-CHRONICLE-X-as-Part-of-Open-Call-20210524

On May 6 2019, I attended a workshop at Vancouver’s Launch Academy offered by Magic Leap. As a complete newbie, I didn’t know what Magic Leap was nor what to expect, but I arrived with the hope that it would change my perspective and open my mind to the possibilities of XR.

I am exploring hand gestures (User Interface) in Magic Leap

While the Magic Leap headset and what it could do was impressive, what helped me to define my vision for myself was connecting with the amazing ML crew. As predicted, many of the workshop participants consisted of developers and as one of the only story design artists in attendance, I was on the lookout for ‘my’ tribe. I shared my art with XR artist Jacqueline Assar (who was known for her quirky and inventive ways of seeing things) and asked her if I could translate my work into AR. Jacqueline immediately and enthusiastically connected me with workshop leader and ‘sparkle’ designer Tricia Katz, then development guy and ‘boat builder’ Shane Engelman who in turn introduced me to XR team lead and ‘innovator’ Steve Lukas. When Steve saw my work, his eyes lit and he let me know that he was working on something on Spatiate that would ‘blow my mind’. I couldn’t wait.

Steve is demonstrating his Spatiate App

At the end of the two-day workshop, Steve demonstrated his app on his iphone. We peered at his video and I was fascinated by the pink moving paint streak interspersed by a series of blobs. Steve explained that it was two paint brushes from two different people painting at the same time from different parts of the world. In essence, this ‘thing’ that we were seeing represented a kind of blueprint describing the ‘essential elements of spatial usability’. He called it ‘telepresence’. Adding to the complexity of his work, Steve explained to us in his own words that his invention was unique because it was: “one of the few apps that was and still is in present day able to link up an AR headset with a phone as a spectator in real-time”. What we were witnessing three years ago was indeed ‘the future’ and it was exciting!

Three months after the workshop, I got my hands on a headset and embarked on my own journey using Google Tiltbrush. By 2021 I was a professional XR artist and designer. After Google’s sad announcement to end its support of Tiltbrush, another program called MultiBrush based on the open source format emerged and did precisely what Steve’s Spatiate app promised. It enabled multiple people to paint simultaneously in real time!

By using MultiBrush and adding it to my pipeline, I no longer had to spend hours interpretting the client’s vision from abstract conversations or vague descriptions. Instead, I was able to draw and describe my work in the same shared space as my client within the oculus quest headset. My client was able to add thoughts and scribbles to my designs while offering instant feedback.

We could talk freely in VR space about color, shape, size, ideas and future concepts along with the ability to virtually show how the work could be experienced spatially. Within Multibrush, I was pleased to see the vision that I had first encountered in Steve’s app insert itself easily and elegantly into the VR illustrative space.

Today, the ability to collaborate in real time is somewhat ubiquitous and software such as Tvori and Unreal Engine are now being used to visualize and create VR prototypes. Collaboration is also enjoyed in social VR platforms like Facebook Horizon, RecRoom, Virbella, Sansar, Spatial, Meeting Room and EngageVR where users are able to connect and share/learn have fun together. Collaborations are also experienced in play and in the design of collective games and worlds with tools like Media Molecule’s Dreams, Roblox and Minecraft.

The use and implementation of collaborative toolsets is not a new concept but it has proven extremely effective in a VR/AR/MR ecosphere dependent on enhancing the ability to visualize spatially while decreasing associated costs and eco carbon footprints. As more use-cases are discovered and prices of hardware/software fall, it is likely that we may in the tradition of Web 2.0 see a growth in telepresence across various spatial networks.

When this happens on a wider scale, it might have a very powerful democratizing effect on indie artists, nimble developers and unique groups of friends who will finally be able to steer their own personal and collective capacity to dream and realize even bigger visions!

Epilogue: While the crew at ML have dispersed, it’s been a pleasure and privilege to watch each other grow and to share our discoveries. 😀

For Whom: Charlie Fink

Where: Chapman University

Nov-Jan 2020:

Workshop: 3 visits

(TiltBrush VR and World Building Tips)

In November after I posted a series of tiltbrush VR works for upcoming shows, I was invited by Charlie Fink to meet with his students at Chapman University to offer an introduction to Tiltbrush. I was in the middle of designing Jingle World VR so it seemed like the right time to share.

Visit 1: November 2020 – Expertise and Introductions

Instead of presenting info from an exclusively artistic point of view, I thought that it would be nice to offer a technical perspective. I asked my co-collaborator and partner for Jingle Ville Nick Liang to join me. Nick generously offered tips from a developer perspective so that the students would understand the challenges inherent in designing anything in tiltbrush for altspace VR. Together we presented a power point, responded to basic questions and evaluated student work.

Visit 2: December 2020 – World Building Tour through Jingle Ville

The second time we returned to altspaceVR, we invited them to Jingle Ville where I conducted a full blown tour on art and design and architectural practices. Nick responded to technical tips such as optimization and shaders. The tour which I will explain in another post was super successful Nick and I were pleased to hear Charlie mention that Jingle Ville was one of the best designed VR world experiences (besides Burning Man) that he had encountered.

Visit 3: January 2021- Visit to Student Worlds and Conclusion of Course

The students finished their semester with Charlie and they finished their word creations on time and in good form. Nick and I were invited to visit the student’s work at the Chapman University world in AltspaceVR. This is the part that we enjoyed the most. We first previewed individual projects showcasing small sculptures within a virtual reality garden-like setting where we were able to listen to students describe their work.

After that, we were absolutely blown over by visits to student individual worlds. I in particular noticed that they had taken in all the instruction that was taught during the Jingle Ville tour and incorporated them into their work. I have never felt so proud of those students and am excited about the innovation that each person brought to the table! I can’t wait to see where life will take them!

Bravo Charlie’s Class! Nick and I may have inspired them first, but they inspired us right back!

” Within 4 weeks we designed an in-world build designed 99% in tiltbrush. We condensed and optimized 250 megs into an amazing 25 meg world. This has NEVER BE DONE before and has helped us solidify our reputation as tiltbrush experts in AltspaceVR”.

OUR STORY:

Jingle Ville VR was designed as a collaboration between Juliana Loh & Nicholas Liang with special guest Andy Fidel of Get Social. I first proposed the idea of creating a world in tiltbrush in altspaceVR on Nov 8; a pursuit that was both an aesthetic + technical challenge. We started work on November 15 2020 and four hard weeks later, we presented Jingle Ville for the first time during an interview conducted by Get Social Winter Wonderland on December 16. Our site officially launched on December 22, 2020.

INSPIRATION:

After viewing a picture of a firefly posted by Jacki Morie on Facebook, Juliana was inspired to create something that presented to the world the same feelings of wonder and awe.

CHALLENGE:

As the xmas season neared, the restrictions formalized by a covid pandemic prevented people from gathering in groups. That meant that all xmas lights and tourist attractions were shut down. Because people were not able to gather and celebrate, covid created a gloomy atmosphere that simply did not help all of our winter ‘depression and anxiety’.

WHAT WE DID:

We created Jingle Ville to address mental health initiatives on a global level. By designing a unique world in AltspaceVR, we were able to provide a beautiful destination for people to access via headsets and PC/Mac browser. We wanted to leverage the power of social VR not knowing how popular our project would become.

OUTCOME:

Once the project was launched, to our surprise, it attracted over 520 unique visitors and more than 1000 visits all within the first three weeks of launch. We did not advertise this project as there was no time so instead, we offered specialized xmas tours through our world. Apparently, our tours were good enough to create a tiny ‘viral’ boom throughout the AlspaceVR community. (Viral support from Andy Fidel was so much appreciated and proved how two similar properties could leverage each other’s strengths)

BRANDING:

The name: Jingle Ville was created to describe the escapades of a group of mice and their friends who escaped from their human’s houses during the pandemic. It is based on the rhyme “Twas the Night Before Xmas” by Clement Clarke Moore and visually describes the narrative of two clydesdale horses (inspired by Lynsay’s horses); 8 jazz musical mice, two polar bears and one anime grrl. All of these creatures have visited Jingle Ville to “find the spirit of xmas”.

“Jingle Ville” is an ode to the ‘rhyme’ and feeling of whimsy, discovery and play inherent in both the poem and the environment.

In May 2017, I returned to my fine art roots. Starting with pen and ink, I was able to create a series of images that incorporated what I loved about art in the first place. Comics, mechanical parts and nude images formed the basis of my hobby and has since grown into art obsession. To that fact, I submitted three of my works to the ExplorAsian Society (Vancouver Asian Heritage Month) for their annual contest. (Over 45 entries were submitted) After weeks of anticipation, I was happy to receive a congratulatory email letting me know that my art had been selected to join the show. And I don’t mean just one piece, but all three! So my showing was in May-June 2017. The event was hosted at theVancouver Lipont Art Centre located in Richmond BC.

In addition to working on artwork, I also run a photography studio dedicated to capturing landscapes. I also take portraits and head shots both in studio and natural surroundings. Much of my work is offered through word of mouth. You may connect with me at your convenience.