CVRTAIN is a virtual reality (VR) experience starring you. Placed center stage in a beautiful theater, the curtain parts to reveal an audience of thousands teaming with adulation. Do you freeze in the spotlight, or bow graciously? Every action produces a different reaction in your audience: thunderous applause, feet stomping, cameras flashing, maybe even booing. An entire audience’s emotions are at your virtual command, but only until the curtain closes.
Emmy award-winning experiential director Yehuda Duenyas dives into his fascination of subverting the audience/performer relationship by putting you at the center of the CVRTAIN experience. Using a VR headset, sensors, and headphones equipped for haptic feedback, Duenyas draws on the tools of gaming and immersive theater in a personalized, celebratory experience for one.
“the journey left me exhilarated, and ever so slightly altered.” – Ariel Kaminer, The New York Times (on The Ascent)
Commissioned by PS122
Presented in partnership with Wallplay
Jan 3 – 5-7pm
Jan 4-7 – 12-6pm
Jan 10-15 – 12-6pm
EXTENDED:
Jan 17-19 – 2-8pm
5-10 minute interactive experience
Tickets are individually booked in cycles of 10 minutes
at 151 Gallery, 132 West 18th Street in Manhattan
$10
Coil Pass Holders:
Log in to redeem
More info: cvrtain.com
Creative Director: Yehuda Duenyas
Lead Designer: Ben Kato
Lead Programmer/Producer: Christopher Romero
Digital Lighting: David Lobser
Creative Technologist, Programmer: Owen Bell
Pop-up set designer: Chris Skeens
Yehuda Duenyas is an experience designer and is the Founder of Mindride, an artist-driven company specializing in next-generation experiential entertainment. Bridging the gap between the physical and the virtual, Duenyas is a visionary artist who creates immersive encounters and interactive events, playful environments that sensuously evoke the mythic, the intimate, the ridiculous, and the sublime. His techniques emerge from his passion and experience working in immersive theater, interactive technology, ride design, reality television, large-scale events, gaming, and physical computing.
Yehuda was the Designer of the Ad Council’s Love Has No Labels campaign, and his company Mindride designed the custom motion capture pipeline behind that powered the experience. The most viewed campaign of 2015, Love has no Labels has earned over 1 billion media impressions, has been viewed over 110 million times online and won 8 Cannes Lions, 11 Clio Awards, 2 Facebook awards, and the 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Commerical. His company Mindride developed the live motion capture pipeline behind the spot. Duenyas and his team also created The Ascent, the first mind-controlled ride/game, which was called the largest EEG bio-feedback machine in the world by the New York Times. Duenyas has created experiences and productions for Google/YouTube, Audi, the Ad Council, R/GA, Disney Imagineering, Logan & Sons, Alpine Labs, MGM/UA among others. He consults on new forms of interactive experience design for the entertainment industry and advertising. Currently, Duenyas is a Producer and Creative Director of a new format Zombie Reality Experience, created for YouTube Red. www.mindride.co
Wallplay is a creative network & curatorial consultancy that transforms virtual and physical spaces into storytelling channels for multimedia installations & exhibitions. We specialize in pairing creative projects with corporate sponsorship. Gallery 151’s program is managed by Wallplay and sponsored by Alfa Development, New York’s premier green building development company. www.wallplay.com
Yehuda Duenyas’ CVRTAIN is commissioned by Performance Space 122 with an implementation grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for the Building Demand for the Performing Arts Program.
Partners:
Skullcandy
M ss ng P eces
De Boer Media
Mindride