Out of nine productions, two Dutch VR works were selected for the Cannes festival's Immersive Competition. It can be seen as a recognition of the high artistic level of the Dutch XRscene. The VR project LACUNA, for which UT lecturer Rik Nieuwdorp (bachelor's programme Creative Technology and master Interaction Technology) has been selected for the Cannes Festival.
The VR documentary Lacuna by Maartje Wegdam and Nienke Huitenga-Broeren was an outlier at the IFFR earlier this year. In the VR, the eighty-year-old Sonja reminisces about her parents who, as young girls, had managed to bring her and her sister to safety just in time before they were murdered in Auschwitz themselves.
This year's Immersive Competition will be presented at the iconic Carlton Hotel, in the heart of Cannes. An increase in the status of the programme component that gives the prominent selection of Dutch works extra shine. Unlike the film competitions (and the competing Venice Immersive, for example), the Cannes Immersive Competition does not only select world premieres, which is convenient in these cases.
The Immersive Competition will take place from 14 to 23 May 2025, as part of the Cannes Film Festival. Lacuna can be seen from 4 May to 1 June 2025 at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.
Source: Filmkrant
UT lecturer Rik Nieuwdorp
Rik Nieuwdorp's website www.claynote.nl lists several projects he has worked on. "For example, with the short animated film It's Nice In Here, we were shortlisted for an Oscar. The VR installation Soul Paint, with narrator Rosario Dawson, has already won many awards, including at South By Southwest (SXSW). With the VR installation about absence epilepsy, In My Absence, we were nominated for a Golden Calf, and we were a small hit at the DOK Leipzig film festival. I used to work more on games, now I still do occasionally, but nowadays I get more satisfaction from projects that contribute to a more beautiful, better world. I am now more often in the corner of interactive art installations such as these VR/XR projects."
"My role in these kinds of projects is usually as a sound designer and/or composer. I have been working as a freelancer with my company Claynote since 2008. The work is usually very varied and fun; with small production teams, you work on a project over a longer period. This method ensures that you have time to try things out, to have an exchange between different disciplines within the team, and to think along with you about the course of production and the end product. Much nicer than, for example, post-production in the film industry, where everyone focuses on their process and where everything has to be finished as quickly as possible."
Education at the UT
"I often share the work I do as a sound designer and composer with my students. It's useful to be able to show a real-world example when I'm giving a lecture on adaptive music, implementing sound effects in games, or how user-interactive media has different requirements for the use of sound. It emotionally validates my subjects even more if students know that what I am trying to teach them is my profession."
Bachelor Creative Technology
The Bachelor’s in Creative Technology (CreaTe) will equip you to use the latest technology for developing solutions that contribute to a better future for people and society. Throughout the many hands-on projects, you will gain technical knowledge and skills, as well as the ability to understand how media and technology influence humans, design and creative processes. Using your extensive knowledge of computer science and electrical engineering, you will learn to cover the entire creation process: from identifying the core question to building a working prototype and testing it on users.
Master Interaction Technology
In today’s 21st century, modern technology is integrated into our daily lives more than ever before. But none of the advanced technologies we use today would have been successful if humans failed to interact with them. Human-computer interaction is one of the most important considerations in any kind of technological development. So, how can you include the user in the development of new, interactive technologies? For example, what does it take to design a robot that can recognise and respond to human emotions? Or a technology that enables mediated social touch between loved ones? If you are interested in the field of human-machine interaction and you want to design and develop interactive technologies that are meaningful to people and society, the Master’s in Interaction Technology is right for you.
