International selection supporting immersive excellence
Among the 15 innovative projects from around the world selected this year at the Geneva Digital Market, the XR Coproduction Session includes the only Romanian project, “I wonder if peace knows how to fight”, a new original VR experience written and directed by Ioana Mischie. The presentation of the current state of the project takes place this week, in the presence of hundreds of international guests. This year’s event will be followed by meetings with immersive industry professionals, VR co-production and distribution experts. Geneva Digital Market is the only Swiss-hosted event focused on audio-visual innovation, celebrating an anniversary edition this year.
The current immersive project with a high degree of sophistication was preceded by projects initiated by Ioana Mischie that wrote immersive history such as Tangible Utopias (the first Romanian project nominated at the European Metaverse Awards, winner of the Open Frame Award and the only European Meta grant) or Human Violins (the first Romanian project selected at Cannes Immersive, Venice Immersive and European XR Awards).
The evolutionary concept of “I wonder if peace knows how to fight”
The objective of the project is to gradually replace violence, social judgment, dehumanization, suffering and isolation with empathy, collaboration, curiosity and compassion in the face of adversity. Through the unconventional conceptual nature, through the interactive technological approach, the project tends to launch a new form of methodological pioneering, which may have therapeutic potential in tempering conscious or unconscious human aggression. The VR experience harmoniously combines practices from multiple industries and complementary fields: immersive art, gaming, cinematography, psychology, mindfulness.
Created as a VR game with multi-layered cultural influences, the project is built on a surprising conceptual methodology: the player initially enters a universe where violence seems normalized, but is then invited to imbue it with restorative elements. This sea change the player goes through is meant to make him question the impact of his actions on a small scale and on a large scale, becoming an open invitation to empathic reconfiguration.
With an appeal to peace as the end point for any act of aggression, the game’s structure and cues are masterfully handled in the three acts: (1) “Violence” challenges the player to eliminate anything that seems questionable and punctuates with spectacular chromatics and tonalities; (2) “Choice”, instead of providing the long-awaited gratification, sends the player into the unexpected confrontation with the assumption of responsibility for the acts committed in the first act, thus activating visceral emotions; and (3) “Peace” and healing come with atonement through self-corrective actions that can reclaim wounded people and communities. The player’s journey is an initiatory one, which is also visible from the aesthetics that starts from a fragmented style in the first chapter and ends with an attempt to build visual harmony in the final chapter.
“In a context where violence in digital and real environments has escalated without precedent, this project is thought of as a manifesto for micro-rituals aimed at facilitating peace in digital and real environments. The key questions we are addressing through this project are: Can we create immersive experiences that question violence in a creative and transformative way? Can we replace conflict-focused narrative structures with peace-focused narrative structures without affecting the engaging pace of a project? Can we replace the first-person-shooter games, so coveted among the young audience, with first-person-peace-maker games? Can we generate a global neo-trend that stimulates a new creative approach focused on collaboration, collective healing, moral reparation?” CONSIDERS Ioana Mischiethe director and creator of the VR project.
The VR project aims to methodologically influence the audio-visual environment and give the professional community new storytelling structures. The theory proposed within this cultural approach was previously detailed in the book Infinite Cinemapublished in 2020 at UNATC Press and developed within Imagining Transmediapublished in 2024 at MIT PRESS.
“The field of XR in which we operate does not have a standardized manual of instructions, as such before entering the classical processes of pre-production, production and post-production, we test, prototype and invent new alchemical processes of creation. These searches result not only in artistic or technical expression, but above all, in a new school of creative thought.” he completed Ioana Mischie.
The aesthetic architecture of the project
Aesthetically, the artistic project emphasizes human vulnerability by thinking of the entire ensemble of characters as glass creatures. Any sudden touch can radically influence their destiny. The sensory world of “I wonder if peace knows how to fight” is one where aggression can easily escalate at first, but equally empathy can be met with acts of benevolence and exponentially more delightful visual vibrancy.
“We wanted to create a micro-universe where we can witness the multiplying effect of our emotions, thoughts and actions. The project begins distantly, but gradually becomes a deep inner mirror. It dematerializes the visible and materializes the invisible. This spiritual zooming in and zooming out that we strive to facilitate invites us to look at our actions from distinct angles. What of what we do is born out of our deep convictions, and what of what we do is a mark of outside influences? In the present case, virtual reality invites us to define a deep inner reality, to visualize it, to contemplate it, to refine it over time”. he added Ioana Mischiethe director of the project.
Ethical architecture of the project
From an ethical point of view, the project is based on a worrying context. Globally, more than 171 million people have experienced virtual reality, but many of these experiences are first-person-shooter games that promote gratuitous violence and lack educational value.
According to recent scientific research, over-exploration of first-person-shooter mechanics negatively influences the player’s mood. In an alarming context of decline of empathy by 40% and long-term thinking by 48% among students studied by the University of Michigan over three decades and against a background of deep existential crisis at the level of the most evolved societies, the team of Romanian creatives wants to show that there is responsibility and free will if we manage to objectively contemplate acts of violence and prevent them.
“We have hundreds of friends in the virtual environment, but we have no one to feed our cat” stated Esther Perel, the renowned interpersonal psychotherapist, to emphasize the self-perpetuating delusion in virtual friendships at the expense of real-life alienation, the discretionary division of the world into good and bad, and the transactionalization of human connections. The VR project is based on multiple international and national research studies aimed at deepening human psychology.
Milestones of the project
The VR project was originally conceptualized in 2017, as part of the director’s Fulbright grant at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, while being mentored by David Nelson of Mixed Reality Labs. In his developmental stages he was also selected in prestigious programs East Doc Interactive from Prague 2022 and within When East Meets West – Inspirational Labs 2024 (Italy), benefiting from international consultancy.
In the summer of 2024, it obtained financial support from the National Cultural Fund Administration and was accelerated exponentially to achieve the current experience. Currently, the project team wants to continue the effort and expand the project with the help of international collaborators to have an increased impact.
The cross-disciplinary team driving the XR environment
The film team includes exceptional professionals from the audio-visual industry and related transdisciplinary fields such as: Ioana Mischie, screenwriter and director, Adrian Tăbăcaru, music composer and interactive artist, Daria Alexandrescu, environment artist, Ruxandra Socor, 3D artist and animator , Ina Bozdog, sound designer, level design consultant Andrei Ivănescu, website designer Iashido, graphic designer Studio Shentzu, Ciprian Miheev and Valentin Mladin. The PR of the project is facilitated by Raluca Mihăilă. The project benefits from financial consultant Cornelia Nastase and legal consultant Oana Crestincov. International consultants include David Nelson (USC Mixed Reality Lab), Jeremy Sahel (co-producer), Vikram Jotwani (business growth) and Allison Crank (UX design).
The project “I wonder if peace knows how to fight” is produced by the Association Storyscapes (Romania) and co-financed by AFCN, the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Partners: Daprod (France), Studioset, UNATC, Noe-Fi Studios, IQads, The Institute.
The project I WONDER IF PEACE KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT is a project co-financed by AFCN, the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
Initiated in 2012, STORYSCAPES ASSOCIATION debuted as the first association focused on transmedia storytelling in Romania and has created so far numerous innovative projects, awarded at international festivals, as well as extensive educational and audio-visual research efforts. The association aims to expand the ability to produce transmedia cultural projects that can have a constructive impact in society.
Ioana Mischie is a filmmaker of Romanian origin (screenwriter/director), transmedia and futurist pioneer, multi-awarded for film, VR and innovative concepts. In 2018, she was a Fulbright scholar at USC – School of Cinematic Arts, in Los Angeles and advanced the field of transmedia storytelling, for which she received the Summa cum laude qualification. His artistic projects have been selected at more than 250 festivals around the world (Venice Immersive, Cannes Immersive, Palm Springs ISFF) and at numerous international programs (Berlinale Talents – Script Station, Sundance Workshop – Capalbio, Biennale College Cinema VR), being awarded by The Webby Awards, SXSW Hackathon, GoEast IFF. He made his directorial debut at Channel 4 in the UK with two record-breaking documentary series. He has published articles at MIT Press and NYU Press, democratizing audio-visual research at numerous conferences such as TEDxBoldandBrilliant. He is a co-founder of the Storyscapes association and a university lecturer at UNATC. Imagining the world as a neo-creative playground, she believes that storytellers are “the architects of the future” (Buckminster Fuller).
Source: www.iqads.ro
