The Projector | Immersive VR experience takes audiences away from glitz and glamour of Cannes and to the moon
- Huang Hsin-chien’s show in collaboration with Laurie Anderson is one of the most anticipated events of film festival
- Taiwanese new-media producer’s work a ray of hope for island nation’s emerging artists
One of the most anticipated events of this year’s Cannes Film Festival is happening away from the glitz and glamour of the Promenade de la Croisette.
“Go Where You Look! Falling Off Snow Mountain”, which comprises three virtual-reality installations – Chalkroom (2017), Aloft (2017) and To the Moon (2018) – by American avant-garde artist and musician Laurie Anderson and Taiwanese new-media producer Huang Hsin-chien, is showing at le Suquet des Artistes, a gallery in Cannes’ old town. It is being presented by the Directors’ Fortnight, an independently-run programme taking place in tandem with the so-called official selection of the festival.
Huang was pivotal in the American artist’s adoption of digital technology in the 1990s, when he was invited to work on her first CD-ROM, Puppet Motel (1995). More than two decades later, it is noteworthy that the 53-year-old Huang shares equal billing with his older – Anderson is 71 – and more famous collaborator.
“With my expertise in mechanical engineering, I was usually in charge of VR programming, the interactive interface and 3D animation, whereas Andersonworked on the music, texts, image production and concepts,” Huang says.
A professor at the National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Design, in Taipei, Huang is a Fulbright scholar who has also spent seven years as an art director in the gaming industry, designed digital projections for pop concerts and, last year, had his work featured on the America’s Got Talent television show.