Fourteen B.C. companies to initiate interactive digital media projects through Creative BC and BC Arts Council investment

Vancouver, B.C. (December 19, 2023) – Today, the BC Arts Council and Creative BC are pleased to announce the recipients of their 2023/24 Interactive Fund partnership. This year, the annual program will support 14 B.C. companies with $625,000 to develop original, creative, interactive digital media and software projects that present clear connections between art and technology, and provides opportunities for access, dissemination, and engagement.  

The Interactive Fund provides artists, non-profit organizations, creators and creative companies with an opportunity to innovate with high-quality digital projects and immersive technologies. Project themes this year span from equity-focused storytelling apps and immersive gallery experiences to virtual reality games and applications. The Interactive Fund helps support B.C.’s leadership role in this creative industry by encouraging the creation of high-quality digital experiences.

Culture and commerce unite in this innovative collaboration between the BC Arts Council and Creative BC to stimulate creation of B.C.-owned creative intellectual property. This program embodies Creative BC’s actions for equity and inclusion in program delivery and aligns with the BC Arts Council’s Extending Foundations: Action Plan 2022-2024. 

The following projects are this year’s successful recipients: 

1. Ambedo Studios, Remaining Grace, Vancouver ($50,000)
   Remaining Grace is a quietly haunting ghost story set in an Indigenous, uncolonised, multi-ethnic North America. This experimental non-linear narrative explores the multi-layered lives of a diverse cast of characters as their stories intersect and play out in parallel. As the ghost of Grace, we embark on a mature, raw, and intimate journey through the complex and messy lives of her loved ones, as she wrestles with what she meant to each of them.
    
2. Jedidjah Julia Noomen, Last One Standing ($15,000)
   A phone call for one person to the last remaining survivors of real-life disasters and triumphs. Listen to the story of your chosen ‘last one standing’ or interact with them – you decide. This immersive project aims to connect people to share their individual experiences and build a digital ‘Mailbox of Solace’ for everyone who needs it.
    
3. Sonical.ly, Mix Master, Vancouver ($50,000)
   Mix Master is an engaging hybrid puzzle and strategy mobile music game that addresses one of the most significant challenges music content creators face: mixing and mastering. Mix Master addresses this pain point by offering a fun and interactive way to explore the nuances of sound engineering. By doing so, we empower users to elevate these skills and approach music production with confidence, bringing them closer to realizing their dreams of becoming successful music content creators.
    
4. Raymond Lewis, Automata Streetcar ($50,000)
   Automata Streetcar is an interactive, digital-media art project that uses Nelson, British Columbia’s historic streetcar system as a metaphor to explore ideas about connection, communication, and community. Exhibit visitors will use large-scale, custom-made game-controllers to interact with and explore a digital recreation of Nelson’s main street as it was a century ago when streetcars served the community. The roles of the streetcar driver and conductor, and how they communicate with each other to successfully operate the vehicle through different eras, will serve as the focal point for the interactive experience.
    
5. Silverstring Media Inc., Dusty Dead: Adrift, Vancouver ($50,000)
   Dusty Dead: Adrift is a fresh take on roguelike ship management games combined with the fast, addictive running-jumping-dashing-and-shooting gameplay. Engage in frenetic first-person platforming to cross through a shifting assortment of jewel-toned gauntlets to get from one side of the ship to the other and influence the various control systems as you go. Vibe to a unique and reactive dub soundtrack, and find the ideal flow to keep the Ship functioning enough to withstand catastrophes, evade black hole cultists, navigate an unforgiving universe, and preserve ancient knowledge in your quest to reboot the dying universe. Supporting this innovative genre mashup is a unique blend of survival, deck-building, and 4th-wall breaking meta-narrative elements.
    
6. The Museum of Vancouver, True Tribal App, Vancouver ($50,000)
   The “True Tribal” augmented reality (AR app), is an interactive AR artwork developed for the Museum of Vancouver’s exhibition entitled True Tribal: Contemporary Expressions of Ancestral Tattoo Practices. The application is designed to offer museum visitors an immersive experience that conveys the essence of contemporary Indigenous tattooing. Within the “True Tribal” app, users will have access to contemporary, animated tattoo designs from the eight featured Indigenous tattoo artists showcased in the Museum of Vancouver’s exhibition.
    
7. Sean Karemaker Art Inc., The Dream Recorder, Vancouver ($50,000)
   In this experiential adventure game you’ll play as a lonely house cat left behind during a disaster. As you explore the woods of the Pacific Northwest outside your home you realize you aren’t alone. Befriend strange ghosts to uncover the secrets of the forest and break out of the cycle that traps you all.
    
8. ACW Music, Song Explorer ($25,000)
   Song Explorer is an interactive project of Métis artist Adam Wilson that will turn his upcoming EP release into a playable, immersive experience. Inspired by rhythm video games like Beat Saber and Bit.Trip Runner, listeners become players invited to enjoy Adam’s songs while exploring a game world inspired by his experience creating music in Vancouver, BC.
    
9. Plik Plak Plok Interactive Inc., Old People Island, Vancouver ($35,000)
   Welcome to OLD PEOPLE ISLAND! A place unlike any you’ve ever been, yet filled with an enchanting sense of familiarity. Explore this sun-soaked island with an ever growing throng of elderly companions as you cavort and tumble along a winding trail. Overturn every rock or breeze along the path as you discover the shallows and depths the island has to offer. What’s that glittering light in the distance? Does it have anything to do with the beguiling tune that calls to you? Perhaps you and your friends can find out…
    
10. re:Naissance Opera, Live From The Underworld: Eurydice Fragments, Vancouver ($50,000)
    Interactive Muse is an interactive digital instrument in development and crafted by our unique team of game developers and classically trained dancers, musicians and visual artists. This new instrument is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, Unreal MetaSounds and motion tracking to combine the art of movement and music composition, empowering a new kind of artistic expression. Interactive Muse will be incorporated into the design of the new immersive live performance, “Eurydice Fragments” which premieres in 2024.
     
11. O. Dela Arts, Maamawi: Together Through the Fire VR, Vancouver ($50,000)
    ᒫᒪᐏ (maamawi): Together Through The Fire is a full-length Contemporary Indigenous dance performance and immersive experience exploring the Anishinaabe Seven Fire Prophecies. Using real-time motion-capture techniques, the dancers’ movements are translated into animated avatars within a 3D virtual reality environment. Audiences can engage with this online immersive multiplayer virtual reality environment both live and remotely from around the world.
     
12. Hammer & Tong Picture Industries Ltd., Neon New Year, Vancouver ($50,000)
    Neon New Year is an immersive digital installation that combines projection mapping, motion capture technology, spatialized sound, and game engine video rendering. Beginning in a stunning, 3D recreation of Pender St in 1958, audiences work together to co-create the scene, using simple gesture interactions, to activate color, sound, and story, as it travels forward in time, through Chinatown’s Boom Years, to the historical crescendo of 1973 where their efforts, as the efforts of the community, are rewarded with a celebration: Vancouver’s first Lunar New Year Parade.
     
13. Jon Valdez-Pavez, Grandma Moon, Vancouver ($50,000)
    Embark on an extraordinary adventure with Grandma Moon, a captivating virtual reality experience that takes you away from the bustling pace of city life to a realm of stillness. You will feel, hear, and see the revitalizing energies of nature, the radiant full moon, and participate in Rising Moon Singers’ hand drum circle. Rising Moon Singers is a Vancouver-based Indigenous hand-drum group composed of Indigenous women from multiple Nations who will sing a soul-stirring performance of “Grandma Moon.” This immersive journey reconnects you to the land and the moon, and tunes you into the collective voice of Rising Moon Singers and the love for the land that echoes across Turtle Island.
     
14. IM4 Lab, A Good Future for 7 Generations AR Mural Project, Gibsons ($50,000)
    A Good Future for 7 Generations will promote collaboration and empower Indigenous youth and elders to express their creativity while envisioning a hopeful future, with the youth imagining themselves as elders and the future of elders. Together with master artists, this innovative mural will combine traditional art forms with cutting-edge technology, with a 2D and immersive and interactive AR mural that will engage and inspire viewers. The AR mural is a catalyst for intergenerational conversations and storytelling, creating opportunities for sharing knowledge, experiences, and hopes for the future, while providing participants with training and resources to explore the possibilities of AR technology, enabling them to express their ideas and aspirations artistically

View a list of the recipients by program online here.    

To learn more about the Interactive Fund, visit Creative BC’s website:  creativebc.com/interactive-fund

This program partnership is separate from the announcement made April 19, 2023, in which the Province announced a historic $3 million three-year investment into B.C.’s interactive digital media industry. Creative BC will undertake consultations to design the first program streams for delivery in 2024 with new programs focused on innovation and growth of independent, B.C.-owned interactive digital media companies. Sign up to stay connected. 

Quotes:  

Honourable Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport
“We are proud to support these creators who bring B.C. stories with diverse perspectives to life in the interactive digital world, so that everyone in the province is represented, respected, and valued. It’s innovative projects like these that help make our province a leader in the global interactive digital media industry.”

Prem Gill, CEO, Creative BC
“Creative BC is proud to partner again this year with the BC Arts Council in support of 14 projects that bridge the arts and interactive worlds to tell stories through digital and immersive experiences. It’s important to invest in exploration and experimentation as these new interactive products will continue to elevate British Columbia’s profile within the ever-evolving interactive and digital media landscape.“ 

Dr. Sae Hoon Stan Chung, Chair, BC Arts Council
“The BC Arts Council is thrilled to support groundbreaking projects through our continued partnership with Creative BC. This year’s recipients harnessed interactive technologies to share diverse, engaging stories that resonate across communities and cultures. Their innovative work is a testament to B.C.’s vibrant digital arts community.“ 

Mauro Vescera, CEO Museum of Vancouver, Interactive Fund Recipient
“The True Tribal exhibition creates an opportunity for the Canadian public to gain important new understanding and insights into Indigenous perspectives, worldviews, and visual culture through the lens of contemporary tattoo art. The generous support from Creative BC and BC Arts Council adds a significant and exciting interactive element for this one of kind exhibition.“ 

Media Contact:
Creative BC
Lisa Escudero
media@creativebc.com
+1 604-730-2235
 

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About Creative BC
Creative BC is an independent society created and supported by the Province to sustain and help grow British Columbia’s creative industries: motion picture, interactive and digital media, music and sound recording, and magazine and book publishing. The society delivers a wide range of programs and services with a mandate to expand B.C.’s creative economy. These activities include: administration of the provincial government’s motion picture tax credit programs; delivery of program funding and export marketing support for the sector; and provincial film commission services. Combined, these activities serve to attract inward investment and market B.C. as a partner and destination of choice for domestic and international content creation. The society acts as an industry catalyst and ambassador to help B.C.’s creative sector reach its economic, social, environmental, and creative potential both at home, and globally. Website: www.creativebc.com 

About BC Arts Council
The BC Arts Council (BCAC) was created in 1995 as an agency of the Province of British Columbia under the Arts Council Act. The BCAC nurtures and supports arts and cultural activity in communities across British Columbia. From community arts in rural and urban centres, to individual artists, professional performing arts companies, Indigenous artists and cultural organizations, art galleries, local museums and music festivals – BCAC supports a range of activities while engaging with artists and communities to inform policies and programs. Website: www.BCArtsCouncil.ca 

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