Art in Residence #∞: EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN.

Toño Cabanelas

4 min readMay 17, 2021

A Virtual Reality documentary in collaboration with the Sinsal Festival.

San Simón Island / “Somewhere in the North Atlantic”… 42°18′26″N 8°37′43″O

1 UNINHABITED ISLAND IN THE ATLANTIC

5 YEARS OF ART IN RESIDENCE

4 TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS FOR 2030

12 INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS

1 VIRTUAL REALITY DOCUMENTARY

Generative art poster printed with Robot / Pen Plotter.

EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN is a Art in Residence experience of the latest AV technological trends (especially with immersive techniques) taking place concentrated in one week on an incredible place of the Spanish coast: the island of San Simon in Redondela, Pontevedra (Galicia).

One of our Explorers using virtual reality in the 2015 edition.

Third week July of the last 5 years, EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN will call together 4 international experts in the latest technologies on teaching a group of about innovators, entrepreneurs, business developers, designers, developers, musicians and artists how to produce collaboratively groundbreaking projects in art, design, music and interaction.

Since 2015 the team of EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN has worked around four different areas around the concept of “Virtual Production”: VR 3D_180_360, Spatial Audio 3D, Mixed Reality y Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning. Four internationally recognized experts have made this challenge a reality: Toño Cabanelas, Antonio Victor García-Serrano, Victor Bermudo y Alexandre Cancelo.

EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN has been an alternative laboratory in technological trends designed to:

Innovate the way of share music whit others.
Rethinking live performance and recording.
Experiment in an open and different way with musicians.
Work with a multi-disciplinary team away from audiovisual conventions, merging with other cultures (such as video games).
Develop these challenges in a different and stimulating scenario such as an island, its nature and its cultural heritage.
Make these goals a reality with some of the best music groups on the national and international scene.

EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN is part of the XR Liveforevr platform (project supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Spain) and the Sinsal Son Estrella Galicia Festival, which is held on the same island and has been an indisputable reference in the annual independent music program and one of the most prestigious festivals in the world for more than 10 years

Anagliph 3D Frame by María Arnal i Marcel Bagés.

THE DOCUMENTARY.

The EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN team developed a Virtual Reality documentary that was filmed in collaboration with the Sinsal Festival, which organizes an incredible music festival every summer on the uninhabited island of San Simón (northwest of the Iberian Peninsula). The aim of this project was to explore the potential of immersive technology for storytelling and to develop a proof-of-concept prototype for Virtual Reality documentaries. It is an innovative new way for music festivals and bands to showcase their art form and share it with audiences around the world. This project combined hardware engineering with media design, film making and computer programming creating an all around multimedia experience. This documentary is a collection of virtual reality experiences by chapters based on editions of the Sinsal Festival. EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN is published in 6 chapters that will increase over time as a “work in progress”. EXPLORADORES EN SAN SIMÓN contains a series of 3d animations mixed with live concerts, also offering a wide range of immersive effects for the user such as Spatial Audio 3D or VFX format recorded in real time. The user will be immersed in a digital environment at different levels of interaction and engagement.

Technical specifications: 6K AV VR with SPATIAL AUDIO 3D for Oculus TV, Youtube VR & Liveforevr TV.
Artistic Specifications: IMMERSIVE VIDEO-ART, NET-ART & LIVE PERFOMANCE.