While on my vacation in Seattle, I went to this VR art exhibit: The Infinite. This project did exceed my expectations. It is a VR exhibit in a very large physical space where you are able to explore the International Space Station. 

After a brief overview, you step into a launch pad room where lights move in tune with an audio recording of an astronaut and her dreams of outer space. Then we move to a room where they pull VR headsets from sci-fi looking tubes on the wall. They configure your headset so that other people in your own group glow gold while all others are some other color. Then they release you into space.

This is actually a very large room and with your VR headset on, you see an outline of the International Space Station. Since the physical space you are in is so large, and the tracking is quite good, you can move around freely and see if you are about to collide with any people in the space (which didn’t happen unless someone was not paying attention, like in real life). There were three levels to the space station and while exploring, you could walk to video spheres and swipe them to play a video. 

The videos were actually recorded in space on the Space Station. They were in 360 and 3D. You could get glimpses of the lives of the astronauts. This was very cool. Also, since you are choosing the video you watch and when it starts, you are the editor of sorts, so there are no strange transitions. 

This portion is timed and you do not have nearly enough time to watch all of the videos on the Space Station. I did find this an annoying capitalist plot to get you to come back and pay the hefty price of $36.50/ person to experience this again multiple times. 

They do end the VR portion with a 360 degree 3D short film filmed entirely in space inside and outside the International Space Station. The headsets guide you to a chair booth where you recline and gaze at the space station and at the Earth. I’m glad they give you a longer video to wrap up the experience.

After the VR portion is complete, you move into a room with an art installation that plays with light and reflections. It looks great and is a good way to leave the experience on your own time. You can spend as much time looking at this installation as you desire.

You exit into a gift shop. That sums up the experience.

I thought it was very clever how they used the space. VR is very much about immersive environments so they recreated a model of the Space Station at about 1/3rd the scale and allowed you to explore this environment. It was smart to ground this experience in a physical space. Then they give you freedom to find your own story with different points in that space. This means that you choose when a video starts and so are an editor of sorts and this removes some of the limitations and weird things that come up when watching 360 videos in VR. 

They actually filmed in space, so you can’t beat that.

This sort of experience worked very well for the educational, documentary style but I also think it could work for narratives, but they would likely need to be part of an existing franchise, such as Harry Potter or Jurassic Park, so that you could draw people in to a physical space (instead of experiencing this alone at home) and justify the price of admission. 

Overall, this was a very creative, fantastic experience but I think it should be priced more are the $20 level so that you might actually want to pay to come back and experience it a different way the second or third time around.

Find out more here:

https://theinfiniteexperience.world/

Technical Specs:

Free Roaming – You walk around in a very large physical space

3D 360 Degree Live Action Video – Filmed in Space on the International Space Station

Self Edit – You navigate to video points and self select the videos you watch, which means that each person gets a different experience. There is not enough time to see all the videos on one viewing, which is how they get you to come back for repeat screenings

Interactive – many choices and things to do that you are in control of

Hybrid – Uses multiple rooms with different sensory experiences. You begin without a VR headset but listen to an immersive audio experience, then progress to using VR, end the VR section watching a short movie, then move on to art installations before exiting