With a little help from the BBC, VR is going to the Proms.
The broadcasting group today announced Nothing to be Written, a brand new VR Prom that commemorates the centenary of the end of the First World War. Created in collaboration between composer Anna Meredith and 59 Productions, the seven-minute experience takes inspiration the Field Postcard, which soldiers on the frontlines would use to send almost automated messages home to their loved ones without the need of censorship.
Nothing to be Written uses this a bridge between the brutal realities of the trenches, reaching back to the families that desperately await news of their loved ones. It features music from the second movement of Meredith’s original score, Five Telegrams, which made its debut at the First Night of the Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall earlier in the year with spatial sound recorded and mixed by the BBC’s Audio Research & Development team.
A second VR experience that features a full 25 minutes of Meredith’s larger score has also been developed, placing viewers inside the Albert Hall and adapting their surroundings in reaction to the music.
The smaller piece will be showcased later this month before touring several events over the course of 2018, running on an Oculus Go. A release for major VR headsets is planned later this year.
