Virtual reality was one of the undisputed stars of the 2017 SXSW Music Festival, a yearly event which gathers some of the best-emerging musicians, artists, and filmmakers in the world. Technology enthusiasts were a welcome sight in the festival especially since they made the event even more memorable with how they mixed VR with music and film.
The 2017 version of the South by Southwest annual week-long music festival was held from March 10 to 19 at Austin, Tex., considered the "Live Music Capital of the World". Many of the premiere tech companies take this opportunity to introduce some of their products and prototypes, do demos, and participate in contests at the event and at the same time hire musicians to provide the entertainment. A common theme in many pop-up spaces in the SXSW was augmented and virtual reality.
The Buzz Aldrin hologram was a popular one at the SXSW. The Cycling Pathways to Mars is a VR film starring the iconic astronaut which discusses Aldrin's dream of sending human life to Mars. The viewers got to experience riding the cycler and going to the red planet.
Sony's Wow Factory wowed everyone with some of the company's ambitious yet still unavailable foray into the VR. Foremost of Sony's impressive gadgets and one of the most visited demos at the SXSW was the Synesthesia Suit, a virtual reality suit that utilizes 26 actuators that vibrate in accordance with the music sending sensations to different parts of the body. Sony also demoed the Cyber Gym and Muscular Visualizer which is simply a bike ride into space. As one would expect when traveling in space, the ride was quite disorienting. The experience in general, however, was out of this world.
Google's Tilt Brush made an appearance via the Show It 2 Me painting program. The Tilt Brush won the SXSW Interactive award for virtual and augmented reality. Other popular VR destinations at the SXSW were the Mixed Reality Cave, the Positron's Voyager, the SwapBots, and the Infinity Room.
CNET acknowledged the importance of music to virtual reality and vice versa. Chris Milk, founder of the VR-company Within, said that the two together will redefine the music video. Music can vastly improve the quality of VR content while VR creates a depth of emotion that can only be equaled by raw music.
Macworld noted that the trend for the 2017 leg of the popular festival is an alternative reality. The popularity of VR and AR in the SXSW follows the trend set at the CES 2017.
