PXR2024
Schedule

Join the conference in person in Toronto to enjoy exclusive XR and hybrid experiences, snacks, and socializing with attendees from across Canada! With limited spots available, we recommend securing your ticket soon, whether you’re a pass holder or not, to guarantee your place.

The best part is that at our Toronto hub, we will have Meta Quest 2 and 3 headsets available for all conference goers to use for free!

Join the conference in person in Kingston to enjoy exclusive XR and hybrid experiences, snacks, and socializing with attendees from across Canada! With limited spots available, we recommend securing your ticket soon, whether you’re a pass holder or not, to guarantee your place.

The best part is that at our Kingston hub, we will have Meta Quest 2 and 3 headsets available for all conference goers to use for free! You can also rent a VR headset to take it home during the days of the conference (Nov 8-17), just having to return it until Monday, November 18th.

This event will occur at 5:30pm-7:30pm Pacific Time.

Join the conference in person in Vancouver to enjoy exclusive XR and hybrid experiences, snacks, and socializing with attendees from across Canada! With limited spots available, we recommend securing your ticket soon, whether you’re a pass holder or not, to guarantee your place.

The best part is that at our Vancouver hub, we will have Meta Quest 2 and 3s headsets available for all conference goers to use for free!

Get situated in the world of PXR2024 – learn how to solve puzzles, converse with other attendees, and start your adventure!

Let’s kick off PXR with our Keynote Speech, which will address the ever-shifting landscape of XR and how we can continue to reduce barriers to access.

Espii will explore how emerging XR technologies are transforming immersive content, inviting new audiences into the fold, and expanding the boundaries of creativity and inclusion. Leaning on her roots as a designer and creator in immersive theatre spaces, Espii will highlight how social VR platforms and nontraditional creators are pivotal in demystifying XR live performance.

The Unknown Theater is an expansive virtual universe, and for the first time, it will present its unique venues across three Metaverses as one holistic narrative. Begin your adventure on the lower decks of the Unknown Theater cruise ship, where you can enjoy drinks, Metables, and live music. Then, head upstairs to participate in an improv show in our theater space. Afterward, you’ll be transported to Octopus Island in Banter, where you’ll journey 100 km underground to catch the Multiverse Comedy Show featuring pro comics. Finally, make your way to the Unknown Space Station for the grand party! Experience the multi-metaverse like never before in this ultimate immersive VR experience.

In this session, Zoey from Strawberry Fields will be demonstrating their exciting social VR platform, Aexia, offering a deep dive into the innovative tools Aexia provides for immersive world-building. With a hands-on demonstration, you’ll get a firsthand look at how these tools empower users to create dynamic, interactive spaces designed specifically for roleplaying in VR. Zoey will also share insights into the challenges faced during the development process and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

This presentation is not just about technology but about the possibilities that open up when imagination meets cutting-edge platforms. Whether you’re an aspiring world-builder, a VR enthusiast, or someone curious about storytelling in virtual spaces, this is one session you don’t want to miss!

Time to partyyy! Our Opening Party will take place in VR and here you can enjoy some music and games while you chat with other attendees and PXR staff!

In this session, Nansy explores how scent can deepen immersion in virtual environments, focusing on the creative and technical strategies for incorporating olfaction into digital spaces.

Developing live VR productions on indie budgets can be extraordinarily challenging, and the traditional ‘siloed’ workflow can create obstacles that lead producers and directors to make unoptimal creative decisions. Iterating on virtual environments, avatars, and code systems require a constant, dynamic feedback loop between developers and directors, but that loop can become exhausting due to long delays between iterative steps, misunderstood notes, or poor off-line communication. What if there was a way to collaboratively build VR assets together, in realtime, inside the actual VR environment you are creating? The Resonite social VR platform allows for this, and it can revolutionize your workflow. Join us for a live, hands-on workshop from inside Resonite, where the development team behind the multi-award winning live performance Alien Rescue reveals their approach to tackling ambitious VR productions.

Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ but also ‘The Last Man’, a dystopia about a world that is dying due to climate change and war, and people that are too preoccupied with their own personal growth and happiness to change the tides. The book was inspired on her own life, dealing with losing friends and family and trying to find a new way to live, alone.

Live VR experience ‘Mary Shelley Lives Here’ now shows Mary as ‘The Last Man’ of her own book, living alone on a small island, in harmony with nature. Her visitors (the audience) get to personify the people in her life and re-enact her story with her. A live immersive experience about coming to terms with death, losing your tight group of friends and starting a new life as an individual.

Note: Tickets for this Experience show are limited and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Be sure to purchase early to secure your spot by clicking the link below: Get Tickets!

The Meta Quest has become the go-to VR platform for many due to its convenience and affordability. However, its lack of post-processing capabilities often leaves developers feeling limited, believing they can’t achieve the visual quality they desire. This misconception leads many to underestimate the Quest’s potential, deterring them from even attempting to create visually impressive experiences on the device.

In this presentation, I will share valuable techniques and insights I’ve gathered over the years to help you achieve stunning visuals on the Quest that not only look impressive but also perform well. From creating effects like “artificial bloom” to optimizing performance, I’ll demonstrate how you can elevate your projects and leave audiences asking, “Wow, how did you make this look so good on Quest?”

Join the PXR team in playing your favourite internet game: Geolocator! How good are you at guessing street signs? Game provided by Maki Maki.

Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ but also ‘The Last Man’, a dystopia about a world that is dying due to climate change and war, and people that are too preoccupied with their own personal growth and happiness to change the tides. The book was inspired on her own life, dealing with losing friends and family and trying to find a new way to live, alone.

Live VR experience ‘Mary Shelley Lives Here’ now shows Mary as ‘The Last Man’ of her own book, living alone on a small island, in harmony with nature. Her visitors (the audience) get to personify the people in her life and re-enact her story with her. A live immersive experience about coming to terms with death, losing your tight group of friends and starting a new life as an individual.

Note: Tickets for this Experience show are limited and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Be sure to purchase early to secure your spot by clicking the link below: Get Tickets!

The Unknown Theater is an expansive virtual universe, and for the first time, it will present its unique venues across three Metaverses as one holistic narrative. Begin your adventure on the lower decks of the Unknown Theater cruise ship, where you can enjoy drinks, Metables, and live music. Then, head upstairs to participate in an improv show in our theater space. Afterward, you’ll be transported to Octopus Island in Banter, where you’ll journey 100 km underground to catch the Multiverse Comedy Show featuring pro comics. Finally, make your way to the Unknown Space Station for the grand party! Experience the multi-metaverse like never before in this ultimate immersive VR experience.

Join the conference in person in Toronto to enjoy exclusive XR and hybrid experiences, snacks, and socializing with attendees from across Canada! With limited spots available, we recommend securing your ticket soon, whether you’re a pass holder or not, to guarantee your place.

The best part is that at our Toronto hub, we will have Meta Quest 2 and 3 headsets available for all conference goers to use for free!

This event will occur at 5:30pm-8pm Pacific Time.

Join the conference in person in Vancouver to enjoy exclusive XR and hybrid experiences, snacks, and socializing with attendees from across Canada! With limited spots available, we recommend securing your ticket soon, whether you’re a pass holder or not, to guarantee your place.

The best part is that at our Vancouver hub, we will have Meta Quest 2 and 3s headsets available for all conference goers to use for free!

Our incredible world builder, Myles Steel, has concocted an in-world puzzle for our lucky PXR attendees to solve. Can you escape the lagoon on the pirate ship, or will we all sink under the pressure?

Developed at the intersection of technology product development, interactive theatre, and audio drama, Action Pants’ RELLA’S CAMBRIAN DREAM embodies emergent methods of creative collaboration. With the creative team as the ‘first user’, we innovate theatre performance methodology in tandem with developing a mobile AR platform. The greatest challenge is creating a platform resilient enough to invite a live, unpredictable audience to be in control of scenographics. This relationship between performers and audience technology creates a space for developers and artists to learn from each other as they consider technology’s role in collective experience. We are investigating what type of research-to-industry pipeline will ensure lab-based technologies are developed to withstand the demands of live performance?

Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ but also ‘The Last Man’, a dystopia about a world that is dying due to climate change and war, and people that are too preoccupied with their own personal growth and happiness to change the tides. The book was inspired on her own life, dealing with losing friends and family and trying to find a new way to live, alone.

Live VR experience ‘Mary Shelley Lives Here’ now shows Mary as ‘The Last Man’ of her own book, living alone on a small island, in harmony with nature. Her visitors (the audience) get to personify the people in her life and re-enact her story with her. A live immersive experience about coming to terms with death, losing your tight group of friends and starting a new life as an individual.

Note: Tickets for this Experience show are limited and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Be sure to purchase early to secure your spot by clicking the link below: Get Tickets!

Social VR spaces have long been a place that people can express the truest forms of themselves. While the IRL often prohibits trans folks from safely embodying their full selves, roleplaying and VR spaces provide an unique respite where anyone can experiment, celebrate, and play with gender. Moderated by Jake Runeckles, join Jake, Zoey, and Ashley in this panel discussion on how VR and roleplay has served the trans community, and where these spaces could go in the future.

Join the PXR Team in different VR Wildlife tours. Ducks, Horses, Dogs, oh my! Worlds provided by nprowler, Dr. Brenda Freshmand and Dr. Kim, and Sarah B. Duck.

Join PXR World builders Myles Steel and Cole Paskuski (from Zoltech) in their worlds as they chat about creation, process, and troubleshooting.

We’ll begin with a brief introduction to our Magic Labs, an inclusive creation space where the convergence of media forms meets the divergence of underrepresented narratives, involving a cohort of storytellers from across artistic disciplines with an interest in exploring XR as a stage for their next production.

We’ll also introduce, workshop and solicit feedback for Muse of Fire, a prototype of a participatory VR experience which invites ‘spect-actors’ (per Dr. VR) into the life and legacy of one of our ancestors, Izzet Orujova, who was the first female actor in the history of Azerbaijan and a seminal figure in the history, and historiography, of women’s emancipation in that country and across the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Come see what our wonderful, emerging students have created throughout our XRtists Link-Up program, which consists on a serious of workshops throughout the conference time to help students across Canada create XR pieces.

We currently face some of the biggest challenges humanity has ever encountered, almost all of which remain entirely of our own making. Far from bringing us together, social technologies have made the problem worse, driving us deeper into conflict and anxiety and further away from a common goal. Meanwhile mainstream solutions largely seem concerned with extracting “value” from both cultural production and the anxious churn they create. In the face of such a landscape, which often seems exhausting and insurmountable, what is the point of virtual reality? Why construct fictional worlds when this one is on fire? Do art and theatre have a place in modern life or are they merely content for NFTs and generative AI? Approaching the ten-year anniversary of immersive social VR, we reflect on the power of synchronous human communication, the value of mediated identity and the role that theatre makers have to play in the coming years.

Join us as we say goodbye to PXR2024. Time to partyyyy!